In the fourth quarter of 2009, clone market demand - the main contribution to the worldwide motherboard industry's shipments for the past three consecutive quarters - showed signs of slowing down. The lukewarm demand in the clone market caused the worldwide motherboard industry to decline in the fourth quarter of 2009. Despite of the fact that the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) market saw growth owing to desktop PC brand-name vendors' aggressive shipments, the worldwide motherboard shipment volume still declined 8.5% sequentially to 33.13 million units. Meanwhile, as brand-name chipmakers adjusted their product portfolios, motherboard ASP (Average Selling Price) picked up in the fourth quarter of 2009. The industry's fourth-quarter shipment value slipped 8.2% sequentially to US$1.549 billion.