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Despite the slowdown and a fast desktop market of India, Gigabyte, the motherboard manufacturer is hopeful of achieving the “million motherboards mark” it has set for the year 2009 and so on. To achieve this thing, the vendor is unleashing a series of strategies.

Gigabyte is upbeat about the recent consolidation of market share among top vendors. “Quite interestingly post Q2 2008, we witnessed a drop in market share of some of the smaller players. We believe that Gigabyte along with Intel and Asustek have significantly captured the market share at the expense of smaller players. We expect the trend to continue. As the markets are likely to get tougher, channels are aligning with large players who will sustain through these trying times,” said Rajan Sharma, General Manager – MB BU, Gigabyte, India.

The vendor is exploring the C- and D-class city markets aggressively. “The Gigabyte Premium Partner program has nearly 175 partners who stock and sell our boards. As we move to new territories like Orissa and the North East, we expect the number of partners to cross 200,” he said.

Sharma observed that the non-metro market share has grown 120 percent over the past year. With Gigabyte signing up both Accel Frontline and D-Link as service providers, availability of support has reached over 88 locations.

Gigabyte is also trying to improve its relationship with AMD. “We want to increase our market share on AMD platform, and are currently working closely with AMD India. Nearly 25 percent of our boards are likely to sport AMD processors this year,”added Sharma.

The vendor will explore the niche market segment that the system builders address. “Today we have around 27 models of motherboards, and cover a wide range of platforms from the high end gaming and server boards to basic PCs. Hence we are making individual pitches, whether to the Do it Yourself (DIY) geek market, or the upcoming nettop market,” explained Sharma.