FWIW:
February 5, 1998 (TAIPEI) -- The 1997 earnings reports of motherboard makers
revealed a clear picture of the dominance of low-priced personal computers in the
market.
The companies that jumped on the wagon of this low-priced trend enjoyed
outstanding growth in 1997, whereas those who bet on the high-end products not
only failed to gain market share, but also reported unsatisfactory earnings.
Asustek Computer Inc., First International Computer Inc. and Shuttle Inc. all
reported outstanding growth in both deliveries and earnings in 1997.
An increase in OEM orders for low-priced motherboards from multinationals
enabled these companies to maintain steady growth.
Asustek produced 6 million motherboards in 1997, representing 8 percent of the
global market. The company plans to increase its shipments to 10 million units this
year, and push its market share to 12 percent.
Meanwhile, excessive optimism about the market response to Intel Corp.'s
Pentium II CPUs took a toll on such firms as Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.,
Elitegroup Computer Systems Co., Ltd. and Mitac International Corp.
Gigabyte Technology earned NT$11 (US$0.33) per share in 1997, owing to the
sharp increase in exchange profits, but sales of its Pentium II-compatible products
were far from ideal. Elitegroup suffered losses in 1997, due to the sharp drop in
the price of 430 TX chip sets.
(Commercial Times, Taiwan) |
