Motherboards based on the first Intel Bearlake chipsets will be priced above US$100, which should help motherboard makers raise their average selling price. Taiwan manufacturers currently have motherboard ASPs in the US$50-60 range.

Richard Ma, executive president of Gigabyte, indicated the motherboard maker will adopt Bearlake chipsets in about 30% of its motherboards in the second quarter and the company plans to raise the percentage to 70% by the fourth quarter.

Although Intel will not officially launch its Bearlake chipsets until next month, first-tier motherboard makers Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology have already begun shipping Bearlake motherboards to their channel partners, and Micro-Star International (MSI) and Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) also plan to begin shipping Bearlake motherboards to their partners before the official launch, noted the sources.

The pre-launch push should help shipments from Taiwan's top-4 motherboard makers drop only 5% sequentially this quarter, compared to a drop of 12% during the same period last year

By: DocMemory
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