Global PC-related product shipments increased dramatically during the past two years with Taiwanese makers’ motherboard shipments also picking up to over 50 million units in 2021; however, their shipments are expected to decline in 2022.
Because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and global inflation, Taiwanese motherboard companies’ combined shipments are expected to slip to 40-42 million units in 2022, returning to the level of 2019, the figures show.
DIGITIMES Research is conservative about end demand for motherboards in the second half of 2022 and expects Asustek to continue contributing over 30% of Taiwan’s overall motherboard shipments in 2022, followed by Micro-Star International (MSI) and Gigabyte Technology.
Facing the weakening global economy, motherboard companies’ strategies for 2022 have shifted to focus on digesting component and finished product inventories. On the other hand, they have launched new product mixes mainly promoting their high-end products and are accelerating the release of new products to attract demand.
Intel and AMD have separately launched their latest CPUs and chipsets supporting PCIe 5.0 and the new product lines may have a chance to boost sales of motherboards.
The motherboard market is currently separated into three major price sectors. Mainstream motherboards are priced between US$200-449, while mid-range to high-end motherboards are priced at above US$450, and flagship ones at around US$899.
Intel’s Z690 chipset is currently dominating the Intel motherboard market with the chipset supporting DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0, and featuring a strong heat dissipation and overclocking ability. The chipsets are broadly adopted in mainstream, high-end, and flagship motherboards.
Meanwhile, AMD’s X570 and B550 chipsets can only support DDR4 memory and PCIe 4.0. Motherboards with the chipsets are targeting primarily the mid-range to entry-level sectors, leaving the high-end and flagship segments completely to Intel.
AMD’s new chipsets are unlikely to become available until the end of 2022 or in the first quarter of 2023. AMD’s next-generation X670E-based motherboards will feature two PCIe 5.0 graphics card slots and one storage slot, and support dual-channel DDR5 memory, and overclocking.
Taiwan motherboard shipments worldwide and shipment share by top vendors, 2018-2022 (k units).
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