Special report on Taiwan's second-tier board makers

The motherboard-making business, with shipments of more than 100 million units a year, has been one of the most fiercely competitive of all the IT industries. Given its low entry barriers and maturing technology, the market has attracted a slew of entrants over the past few years, which has led to a long slide in prices and a squeeze on margins. As life cycles of board products have shortened in step with those of PC components, competition has grown fiercely intense, thus bringing to question the survival of smaller, second-tier board makers.

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