ASUS and Gigabyte Overstocked with Intel 4-series Chipset Inventories

[btarunr]

Weak market demand, a market saturated with low-cost PCs, and intra-brand competition has reportedly led to first-tier motherboard vendors such as ASUS and Gigabyte to suffer overstock of their Intel 4-series chipset motherboard inventories. The Intel 4-series chipset is the fourth generation of desktop chipsets for LGA-775 processors. It includes popular models such as P45, P43, the mainstream G45, G43 and G41, and others that include Q45, B45 and B43. Motherboards made by leading companies have had less than expected market demand. Earlier in September last year, when ASUS announced price-cuts for its 4-series motherboards, reported back then to make them "competitive", sources tell DigiTimes that the company was already facing swelling inventories.

As a result of this, the biggest loser seems to be ASUS, with a swelling inventory of 6~7 million units, valued at around $180 million, followed by Gigabyte holding an inventory worth around $130 million, which are quickly depreciating in value as the market gets closer to the launch of Intel's 5-series chipsets and the Ibex-Peak platform. With Intel planning to stick to its launch-schedule for its newest platform, motherboard vendors can only hope for Intel to reconsider its plans, delay its launch, and allow the inventories to get digested.

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[OnBoard]

That's a whole lot of motherboards I also think there are too many models of the same chipset boards and I haven't even heard about these chipsets "Q45, B45 and B43"

If it was me I'd only make P45 with value mATX, mainstream and performance ATX & G41 with value mATX and mainstream ATX.

 

[btarunr]

I haven't even heard about these chipsets "Q45, B45 and B43"

They're built for the OEM market. Quite often they never make it to retail.

 

[LittleLizard]

holy shit, i never though that the economy was so bad

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

so sell em cheap ... or dont sell them at all .. take ur pick ...

 

[ShadowFold]

Scrap 'em and make some X58/790 boards.

 

[btarunr]

Scrap 'em and make some X58/790 boards.

$180m worth products, when scrapped (as in recycled), won't recover more than a million or two worth raw material.

 

[newtekie1]

Sell them cheap, at cost if you have to. I'd love to see a P5Q-Pro for $50, and it can't really cost ASUS any more than that to make it. Making your money back on something is better than having it sit in the warahouse never to sell.

People just aren't buying computer parts or new computers right now. It is hard to get most people to even think about putting out more than $50 on something that isn't necessary.

 

[OnBoard]

Sell them cheap, at cost if you have to. I'd love to see a P5Q-Pro for $50, and it can't really cost ASUS any more than that to make it. Making your money back on something is better than having it sit in the warahouse never to sell.

Yeah, real cheap would be nice. I wouldn't mind upgrading my motherboard to GA-EP45-DQ6 version if it would cost the same as my current one

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/Image/motherboard_productimage_ga-ep45-dq6_big.jpg

 

[InnocentCriminal]

I'll fuggin' 'ave one! I could do with a cheap P45.

 

[EarlZ]

A lot of people stayed with the P35 since its relatively cheaper and the P45 offers no performance significant performance benefits over it.

 

[Disruptor4]

Hell I'd buy a DQ6 at $100-$150, Australian that is?

 

[Odin Eidolon]

oooh i see (and i hope) a price drop coming?

 

[philbrown23]

this is what happens when baords are overpriced. especially asus ROG boards. that and X58 came out like 2 months after P45 so what can one expect.

 

[rpsgc]

Bah, they'd rather take a loss than selling them *really* cheap.

 

[insider]

Just look at the i7 boards, despite the north bridge memory controller being removed from the board to the CPU (IMC) the board prices are a total ripoff, even over double that of the previous generation boards!

Asus buy their chips in mass bulk cheaper than anyone else, sell them at a higher cost (rather than using this to undercut the competition) than anyone else, its about time they take a big financial hit.

Intel has done well on these two deals, over $300M worth of chips they (Intel) will make sure they become obsolete in months.

"Those retards will come back for more (i5 platform chips) in a few months time..."

 

[Castiel]

Sell them dirt cheap!

 

[KBD]

wow, this is crazy This is what happens when the companies are being shortsighted and Intel releases chipset family after chipset family in a short period of time. There was really no reason for the 4 series chipsets for 775, they offer very little over the 3 series. And these idiot boardmakers made sooo many 4 series boards right before the release of i7 (and i5 coming soon afterwards), i mean how stupid is that? They knew they were going to lose value as soon as i7 hits the shelves but did it anyway. Now they have no choice but to sell them very cheap so they can at least recover some of their money.