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Entry Level Mobo Makers Off to a Tough Start

Paul Lilly — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:29:48 -0600

Entry level motherboard makers are hoping February is nothing more than anomaly, because if it isn't, it's going to be a long year. This especially applies to ECS and ASRock, both of which noted over 20 percent on-month drops in revenue, which they attribute to a combination of fewer working days and labor shortages in China.

ASRock was hit the hardest out of the two, noting a 25 percent on-month drop. On the year, however, ASRock is up 16 percent. ECS, meanwhile, posted consolidated revenues of about $112 million, a drop of 20.34 percent on month, but down 35.51 percent on year.

Compared to the top-tier motherboard makers, only Gigabyte saw declines as sharp as ASRock and ECS, noting a 23.84 percent on-month drop. Asus' revenue fell by 10 percent, while MSI's fell by just 6.48 percent. Out of all the mobo makers, only ECS noted a year-on-year decline, while almost every other vendor saw double-digit growth.

Over 100 ECS Notebook Employees Jump Ship, Half of Them Land at Shuttle

Paul Lilly — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:01:35 -0600

If there's something in the water at ECS, it must not taste very good, at least not in the company's notebook division. But there's probably another reason why more than 100 members of the OEM's notebook staff have resigned from the company since the second quarter of 2009.

One such reason is because Shuttle managed to pluck the ex-general manager of ECS's notebook business, who also headed up Unwill, to operate its New Notebook Ecosystem alliance. It's no coincidence that nearly half of the employees who left ECS landed at Shuttle, most of which were previously in the Uniwill team, DigiTimes reports.

The exodus has ECS scrambling to retain customers as several clients in China and South America are considering taking their business to Shuttle. And in an effort to prevent something like this from happening again, ECS has asked its current employees to agree to non-compete clauses in their employment contracts, though a representative for Taiwan's Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) warns that such clauses may not be enforceable below the management level.

Image Credti: stoenworks.com

MSI Performs Well in November, but has Horrible Year

Paul Lilly — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:12:25 -0600

November ranks as a quirky month for first-tier motherboard makers ECS and MSI, who posted mixed results. ECS said its consolidated revenues were down 3.05 percent sequentially in November, which is in contrast to revenues being up 6.16 percent for MSI.

Unfortunately for MSI, November is not indicative of the past year. MSI's November revenues tumbled 24.25 percent on year with combined revenues from January to November down 20.43 percent on year, which is by far the biggest drop out of first-tier mobo makers.

To put it into perspective, ECS posted the second worst numbers, with November revenues down 4.8 percent on year. Meanwhile, Gigabyte and Asus were both up, posting gains of 18.62 percent and 58.32 percent, respectively.

ECS, who began the year with ambitious goals, will have little to celebrate as the year comes to an end. The company estimates that its total mobo shipments for the year will reach 17.2 million, failing to meet its goal of 20 million units. ECS is also unlikely to achieve its shipment goal of four million notebooks for 2009, and is expected to fall short by about 600,000 units.

Image Credit: Hexus.net

ECS Becomes Latest Company to Offer USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s Cards

Pulkit Chandna — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:16:50 -0600

Wish to experience the blazing speeds of USB 3.0 and/or SATA 6Gbps? Or do you just want something new to brag about to your friends? If yes, then an add-on card is the way to go for you, especially if you wish to live your USB 3.0/SATA 6Gbps dream on a shoestring.

A few days after Asus announced the world's first USB 3.0 /SATA 6.0 PCI-E card, ECS is also said to be ready to launch similar add-on cards. According to reports, it will release two separate PCI-E expansion cards, with one equipped with USB 3.0 and the other armed with SATA 6 Gb/s.

The USB 3.0 card features two ports on the rear panel. The SATA 6 Gb/s card on the other hand features one internal port and a lone eSATA 6 Gb/s connection. There is no word on the price or availability of the cards.

Image Credit: Xfastest

ECS Plans to Sell a Bunch of Motherboards in 2010

Paul Lilly — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:15:35 -0600

After a short stint in the 680i chipset era, ECS hasn't aggressively targeted the motherboard market with its own-branded mobos, and instead has focused more heavily on providing boards for OEM partners. David Chien, VP of ECS' channel business, said that's going to change in 2010 and you can expect to see a lot more ECS-branded boards aimed at both the mid-range and high-end sectors.

ECS-branded motherboard shipments will likely remain flat at 7-8 million units to close out 2009, but next year, Chien said he expects growth of around 20 percent on shipments of anywhere from 8.4 million to 9.6 million units. Most of those will be Intel-based boards, with about 20 percent aimed at the AMD crowd, he said.

You can also expect ECS to promote its use of 15-micron Gold contact technology as it looks to gain some geek cred in the higher-end crowd. According to ECS, the 15-micron gold coating applied to the CPU and memory slot pins helps prevent rusting that, um, occurs from frequently removing the CPU and memory modules. o_0

Image Credit: ECS

ECS Looking to Reload its Notebook Team

Paul Lilly — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:10:11 -0600

Citing un-named industry sources, news and rumor site DigiTimes reports ECS is aggressively looking for notebook engineers to replace its depleted staff of mobile gurus. The company is reportedly looking to pluck talent for several second-tier notebook players, including First International Computer, Cleveo, Foxconn, and Compal.

The notebook market continues to sizzle and isn't showing any signs of slowing down. Unfortunately for ECS, some 80 technical specialists and executives from its notebook division have recently jumped ship, leaving in their wake an R&D gap. The exodus has also put some projects on hold.

Tapping into growing notebook sales would also help ECS rebound from what's so far been a disappointing fiscal year. In the first three quarters, ECS reported consolidated revenues of around $1.71 billion, which represents a drop of 18.32 percent on year.

Intel Lynnfield Shipments May Outpace P55 Motherboard Availability

Paul Lilly — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:29:29 -0500

Some sources are saying that, at least internally, Intel is talking about shipping one million Lynnfield processors for desktops by the end of 2009. Should Intel meet its goal, it would put the pressure on motherboard makers to keep up.

Asus and Gigabyte are each on pace to ship 400,000 P55-based mobos by the end of the year, leaving 200,000 units for other manufacturers to pick up the slack. MSI, ECS, and ASRock are expected to ship around that many mobos, but all it takes is for one manufacturer to miss its goal for there to be more CPUs than there are mobos.

Asus looks to be the most active for the rest of the year. According to company VP Joe Hsieh, Asus' expects to ship between 5.5 to 6 million motherboards in the third quarter, 6 million in the fourth, and 22 million total. Going forward, Asus says P55-based boards will account for 10 percent of all shipments.

Image Credit: en.expreview.com

ECS Revenues Down, Optimistic about Second Half of 2009

Paul Lilly — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:55:53 -0500

Everyone in the motherboard business seems to be having a tough run to end the summer, and that includes Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), who announced consolidated revenues of just under $186 million for August, down 2.8 percent sequentially. That also represents a drop of 10.4 percent on year.

ECS has had a rough time maintaining the kind of motherboard shipment numbers it had grown accustomed to before the economy took a dump. The mobo maker shipped just 1.43 million units in August, which is down 9 percent on month and a significant 20.3 percent on year. Notebooks, on the other hand, climbed to 200,000 units, ECS reports.

Despite the continued struggle to push more motherboards into the marketplace, ECS says it is retaining a positive outlook towards the second half of 2009 and expects revenues to turn back around. Part of the optimism is no doubt related to Intel's recently released Core i5 platform and the resulting demand for P55 chipset products.

Image Credit: ECS via fareastgizmos.com