Intel Exits the Desktop Motherboard Business

After some 20 years of selling branded desktop motherboards, Intel will begin exiting this portion of its business, Intel spokesman Dan Snyder has told.

The Santa Clara chip giant will begin the retreat from desktop motherboards as soon as its next-generation Haswell CPU ships, and plans to dissolve its desktop motherboard business unit over the next three years.

Intel's move responds to market pressures from two directions. On one side, the world simply doesn't need as many desktop motherboards as it has in the past. Demand is shifting to laptops and tablets, so Intel is responding to changing times. On the other side, companies like Asus, Gigabyte and Asrock are meeting existing demand with a wide variety of motherboard products with innovative features. By turn, the feature sets offered by Intel motherboards often haven't kept pace with the offerings from Asian companies.

Intel says it will shift resources from desktop motherboards to boards for emerging form factors, such as the company’s recently released NUC (Next Unit of Computing), a tiny, 4-by-4-inch, self-contained PC. Intel will also focus on improving ultrabook and all-in-one systems designs. In addition to pursuing emerging form factors, Intel will also ramp up efforts to expand its Form Factor Reference Design (FFRD) work, assisting OEM partners in developing new board designs for desktop PCs.

Source: PC World

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