One of Top-4 Mobo Makers Will Quit After 3 Years, MSI VP

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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MSI product VP Henry Lu believes that one of the top four motherboard makers will drop out of the market after 3 years due to the limited market expansion, Digitimes reports. If he’s right, say goodbye to either ASUS, Gigabyte, ECS, or MSI.

Notebook shipments recently hit the critical industry milestone of surpassing those of desktop PCs, pointed out Lu. Additionally, shipments of motherboards and graphics cards have been on the decline since the third quarter of 2008 indicating that the market will not see any further expansion, Lu said. The exit of some second-tier motherboard makers mean the market will be able to support the top-four makers over the next three years, but not much beyond that, Lu predicted.
 
id say asus will be around forsure they're boards rock plus they've got eee
msi..dont know about they're boards but they hav the wind
dont hear much about gigabyte and ecs only when they're giving the damn things away
 
I hope nobody will quit; I always hate it when we end up with less choices.

With that said, I'd be the least saddened to see ECS go.
 
I hope none of them go personally. I like competition and innovation, plus choices. I think the economy had an effect partially, but personally I'll never replace my desktop with a laptop period.

Desktops will always have a place imo, until they can make a graphics card that will do what content creation specialists etc need that will fit into a laptop and produce little heat, desktops are here to stay.

Laptops have a purpose, are good for some people, but beyond checking email or typing a document, I'll take my large lcd and desk with full size keyboard and mouse.
 
I hope none go. but if one does let it be ECS.
 
I think Fry's could practically keep ECS going by themselves with how much of that crap they shovel out the door.

I can't really complain though, I built a ton of systems using cheap ECS combos for my family a few years ago when I lived near a fry's and they're still all running. I had to return a few of the boards at purchase time due to DOAs, but they'll run good for normal day to day use if you get a good one.

If I were gonna guess out of those four, gigabyte might have some issues but ECS is probably the most likely.
 
No way ASUS is going anywhere its going to be one of the rest thats going to bite da dust..
 
Once the economy picks up so will enthusiast spending.
Asus and Gigabyte are the best at what they do, top performance and quality. They aren't going anywhere.
ECS is the best at what they do, low cost performance.
MSI can't compete with ECS on low end pricing and they can't compete with Asus and Gigabyte on performance and quality so I guess the CEO has a self fulfilling prophecy.
 
Most likely MSI in my mind second guess would be GigaByte. ASUS not even close. from what Ive read theyve been affected the least. I havent heard anything new going on with MSI or Gigabyte in some time. ECS however is fast becoming a standard for low cost setups. I wont be surprised when they replace BioStar. All they need is a fat contract and its over.
 
I was saddened when Abit pulled out of the motherboard market.
I have had good luck with every Abit board I have ever used.
I have had nothing but problems with MSI and Gigabyte, every time...

Reading the forums, it seems as though Gigabyte has improved greatly.
But the last one I bought was DOA, this and all the setup problems I have had with every Gigabyte board I have ever used means that I will not be buying one for a very long time.
Now I just buy Asus, I don't even look at other brands.

I hope it is ECS that takes the fall.
 
I'm cheap, so I've used both ECS and MSI, and if one had to go, please be MSI.

ECS does make low cost boards, but that's because they don't include many features, so they're great for inexpensive, non-enthusiast systems.

My MSI boards however, came full of fancy OC features but had a total lack of quality and gave me a ton of problems. They're cheap for a bad reason.

I swore off MSI products a few years ago, so maybe they're a little better now, but I doubt it.
 
ECS had some good stuff over the years, but it's easy to see how they could exit this market.
Yeah, I forgot about Abit exiting a while back.
 
I was saddened when Abit pulled out of the motherboard market.
I have had good luck with every Abit board I have ever used.

You ever use a KG7-RAID board? I had one of those and it was the most frustrating experience of my life.
 
If that happens, it will most likely be ECS, they make the crappiest board compared to the ones listed . Just my opinion and yes i hope asus stays :)
 
I had one Abit board. And that will be the only time I ever make that mistake ever again.

With the deals that go on with Fry's for a CPU and board, it's tempting to try and see just how bad the ECS board can really be. But I'll wait until I'm on a second computer build for that.
 
So if ECS bites the dust, where do you expect to find yourself a current gen mobo for 20-30? ECS isn't going anywhere, noone is as cheap as they are, and that's their strong point.
 
I would be least saddened by ECS or MSI, I've never used any of their boards. For my machines I put in all Asus boards (ever since ABIT became abit) and I want GigaByte to stay around because they are the direct competition to Asus and competition is good. Plus both Asus and GigaByte make damn good boards.
 
It won't be ASUS. They are the king.

It won't be ECS. They are a major, major OEM provider.

It probably won't be MSI. They are probably second behind ASUS in brand recognition.

That leaves... Gigabyte.
 
I've always had good luck with most ASUS boards, and I love the new Gigabyte boards, so if ECS or MSI had to go I wouldn't miss them a whole lot. Though I'd rather see all of them remain viable players, competition is good for us enthusisiests and all of them have their place in the market.
 
I hope nobody will quit; I always hate it when we end up with less choices.

With that said, I'd be the least saddened to see ECS go.

ECS is the worst crap I've ever had the displeasure of putting up with. You truly get what you pay for. I would actually open a bottle (of Dr. Pepper, natch) in celebration if they folded.
 
I will mirror what some people ^^^ have said about ECS: they are a major OEM vendor and a big low-cost seller. I sell primarily Biostar or ECS mobos for entry level boxed because they are inexpensive, run fine and work for what I need: inexpensive, decent running board. If any, I'd point my finger towards Gigabyte or MSI.
 
I've always been an ASUS guy, they can't pull out now, where will I go??? Intel boards :eek:
 
I hope ECS stays alive...that would kill the good deals Frys always have for processor bundles...
 
pigwalk said:
So if ECS bites the dust, where do you expect to find yourself a current gen mobo for 20-30? ECS isn't going anywhere, noone is as cheap as they are, and that's their strong point.
Biostar? ASRock? Foxconn? With far better build quality than EliteCrapSystems.

And if ECS does die, the quality of the mobos in eMachines PCs will likely get better, although they'd probably still use those trashy Bestecs.
 
I know that without OEM business it is difficult to survive. So only Gigabyte has not a lot of OEM business. ECS is king in OEM business, both Asus and MSI have 40 - 60% OEM business. This MSI VP says that a big part of the mainboard sales is going to the notebook business. At this moment both Asus and MSI are doing notebook business. Asus is worldwide already a top5 player and growing very fast. MSI is worldwide a top15 player. In some countries in the EU MSI already has a top3 position, so I guess it will not take long before they will reach top10 worldwide. So this leaves Gigabyte and ECS. If we look at turnover Gigabyte is the smalest one so from this perspective (3 times Gigabyte) I would say Gigabyte will drop. Besides mainboard Gigabyte has no other business...
 
Gigabyte makes other stuff too, like cases, PSUs, notebooks and even mobile phones. Some of the stuff they make is not made by their competitors.
 
i hope DFI stays around, even though they weren't mentioned and they are not Tier 1 from what I've read :D :p
 
I'd get rid of MSI. I love ASUS for my gaming rigs, ECS for my cheap builds (never had a problem with any of their boards), and Gigabyte for my workstations/servers. There's just never been an MSI product that I had to have, or a niche that they filled better than one of their competitors. Now having said that, MSI is all over the place these days it seems like. They've got their hands in the OEM honey pot, so they're probably in a lot better position than Gigabyte. However, should Gigabyte go away, I can't ever see me choosing and MSI product over an ASUS one, and they don't compete with ECS on the cheap end, so they're irrelevant to me.
 
ASRock Inc. produces motherboards, in the past mainly for the budget-mainstream sector but more recently also focusing on high-end motherboards[1]. It was started in 2002 in Taiwan as a subsidiary of ASUS.

Not going anywhere. They are this little *weird science* spinoff of ASUS. Some boards are awesome like the DualSata II and some are weak like the Dual Vsta. Basically they make experimental boards. I think they either have or are making a board that takes DDR1, DRR2, or DDR3. They are a niche company but a popular one. I miss my DualSata II T__T
 
am i the only one that has had nothing but problems with every ASUS board i have encountered? lol
 
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