PM Forum - Q3/2003: Part 2

2. Many companies have begun to diversifying into other markets, such as Small Form Factor PCs and wireless technology. Does your company plan on pursuing...

PM #1: a, b, and c are more related to motherboard makers.

PM #2: We believe the SFF will be next big thing for IT industry. The SFF will provide better integration for both functional abilities and life style. We will introduce our SFF in early September and focus aggressively on this market.

PM #3:

... we’ll pursue this market (SFF) for sure, and wireless is the future with no doubt, but there are already tons of competitors, and the industry standard are still changing, not too good for a late comer, the situation applies to optical disk drive too.
As for consumer electronics, it’s the game for consumer electronic giants such as Sony and Toshiba, M/B manufacturers may have chance in OEM business.

PM #4: Diversity is important for all m/b makers for a better future.

PM #5: We will adopt various IA and XC PC more for market now.

PM #6: Channel research and resource build up right now.

PM #7: It will be important to diversify on the capabilities of one’s product lines as new players enter fresh markets in search of expanding margins. The diversification strategy should be considered as a tie-in to core competencies rather than a revolutionary tangent that may not bring the best return on investment in the long run.

PM #8: It all depends on one company’s core competence.

This reflects what we asked in the CEO Forum – Q3/2003, where 92% of CEOs felt that their company’s future depends on their diversification. According to the responses, it seems that everyone from ABIT to Tyan is looking into the Small Form Factor. However, we should note that at least 31% of the product managers stated that they were pursuing SFF cautiously, which means it is very possible that they will never get to market. Irregardless of that another 31% of product managers reported that they will be pursuing SFF very aggressively. The rest of the product managers (38%) weren’t specific in which manner they would pursue SFF.

Of all the four markets that we inquired about, wireless was the one in which we got the widest spectrum of information. Over half of the product managers (54%) stated that they were planning on pursuing wireless, but only 23% (8% - cautiously and 15% - very aggressively) mentioned the manner in which they would pursue it. The rest of the respondents either answered no or gave no response.

Consumer Electronics is a market segment that many motherboard manufacturers are very new in. This seems to be the main reason behind our responses, and the fact that the largest cluster of responses were in the “yes, but cautiously” segment seemed to reinforce this. Meanwhile, 38% of product managers claimed that consumer electronics wasn’t even on the discussion table at their company. Optical media/storage brought even more hesitation, as the majority of PMs (62%) wrote that they had no plans to pursue this market segment. Only 30% of the respondents answered “yes,” and half of that figure stated they planned on pursuing “very aggressively.” This means that competition will likely be lower here among motherboard manufacturers than compared to the other three segments we inquired about.