The fourth quarter is no longer a peak season of the year owing to the rise of demand in the emerging markets such as China as well as the postponement of new products to the first quarter by companies such as Intel. Compared with the third quarter, shipment volume drops in the fourth quarter usually range from 5% to 10%. Looking at the fourth quarter of 2010, as the motherboard manufacturers adjusted the inventory level in the market, branded motherboard vendors also pushed forward the distribution of new products based on Intel's new platform to December, and desktop PC system assemblers showed strong demand for motherboards due to the inventory pull-in by branded vendors, shipment volume merely dipped by 1.1% compared with the previous quarter and reached around 32.66 million units. Overall, the worldwide motherboard shipment volume is estimated at 128.57 million units, representing a year-on-year growth rate of -4.3%.