April 1, 2002

Taiwan's four major motherboard makers, including Asustek, Elitegroup, Giga-Byte and Microstar, have lowered their sales target for 2002, industry sources said.

While they had previously predicted sales would hit 60,5 million units this year for an annual growth of about 20% over 2001, they corrected these figures downward to a total of 55 million only, but still up 10,85 from 2001.

There are different predictions about the growth rate of desktop PC sales in the world market for 2002. Most international surveys, such as conducted by IDC (International Data Corporation) and the Market Intelligence Center (MIC) in Taiwan forecast only one-digit growth rates for 2002.

Further figures released are that in 2001 Asustek and Elitegroup each delivered about 15 million motherboards, while Micro-Star and Giga-Byte posted sales of 11 and nine million pieces respectively. Elitegroup estimates its motherboard at 20 million for 2002m making it the world's largest maker in the field. Asustek also expects to deliver between 18 and 20 million this year, while Giga-Byte forecasts 11 million, and Micro-Star 13 million, making aggregate deliveries of Taiwan's tops this year a total of between 60 and 62 million pieces.