Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology managed to remain the world’s largest suppliers of branded motherboards in the first quarter of 2015, a media report claims. Gigabyte even managed tom outsell Asus by a small margin. Unfortunately, neither of large makers of mainboards will likely hit their shipments targets this year.

Gigabyte became the world’s largest motherboard supplier with about 4.7 – 4.8 million units shipped in Q1 2015, reports DigiTimes. Asustek sold around 4.5 million of mainboards during the same period. Other large manufacturers were considerably behind the two leaders. It is reported that shipments of Asrock and MicroStar International (MSI) in the first half of the year will be around 2.8 – 3.2 million for each company.

The report blames limited visibility and poor channel sales for weak shipments of mainboards in the 1H 2015. It is also likely that neither Asus nor Gigabyte will sell 20 million motherboards this year, as planned.

Late in 2014 it was reported that makers of motherboards expect their shipments to decline in 2015. At the same time, neither of the manufacturers planned to start price wars in a bid to sustain shipments.

It is possible that sales of mainboards will improve in the second half of the year after Intel Corp. introduces its next-generation microprocessors code-named “Skylake” that will only be supported by all-new mainboards with LGA1151 socket.

Asustek, Asrock, Gigabyte and MSI did not comment on the news-story.

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KitGuru Says: It is a little bit surprising that Gigabyte Technology managed to become the No. 1 supplier of mainboards in the first quarter. Either Asustek Computer was not aggressive enough, or actual demand for PC platforms was extremely weak.

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