MOTHERBOARD
This time it’s Asus
T
he motherboard category has been the most hotly contested category in the Channel Champions Survey. In 2008 Intel was chosen as the most preferred channel vendor, while in 2009 Gigabyte won the crown. In the current rankings, Asus emerged as the most preferred vendor in the category even though it needs to be stated that there’s a very marginal difference between the three brands. Asus’ strength lies in its distributor, Rashi Peripherals, which is not only its exclusive distributor but also its only national ASP. Gigabyte consolidated its position in the market and was viewed as a more aggressive player compared to its peers. Intel, for the first time, secured less votes than Asus. Asus got 30 percent of the votes while Intel won 27 percent followed by Gigabyte’s 23 percent. In the
previous two surveys, Intel got much more votes compared to both the mobo majors. Intel was pushed to the third position for two reasons—because of issues surrounding its warranty support, and because many respondents said they are finding it difficult to get customers to pay extra for the Genuine Intel advantage especially since the vendor has stopped promoting the Genuine Intel branding. MSI, Biostar and Mercury polled less than 10 percent of the category votes and therefore failed to make it to the final list.
Asus
The company did well on parameters such as warranty support, channel policies and management, and product availability. Respondents said that Asus has a stronger brand recall and pull among end-customers compared to Gigabyte, which is still a push-
Score Card Criteria
Asus Gigabyte Intel
Product availability
96.2
Price-performance
96.1 94.8 87.8
Channel profitability
83.6
84.7
83.9
Brand-pull and customer marketing
86.1
81.8
89.8
Channel marketing and training
84.6
89.3
80.3
Post-sales support
87.1
85.8
81.7
Channel policy and management
83.6
80.8
78.1
Final Score
95.1
92.3
88.2 87.5 84.8 *Scores out of 100
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Computer Reseller News
15/03/2011 www.crn.in
brand in many regions. On the product front, Asus unleashed a number of value models as well as motherboards targeting gamers. During the year it ran special schemes along with AMD to promote the Athlon X4 and Phenom2 X6 processors. Asus has more than 70 percent of the AMD motherboard market share. Asus is perceived to be a better price-performance brand than Gigabyte. Its warranty support was ranked better than that of its counterparts with many respondents praising the introduction of a pickup and drop service in upcountry locations. In cities where Rashi has a branch, respondents reported an average TAT of 2-3 days for repair and replacement, while in upcountry locations the TAT is 8-10 days. One issue which troubled certain sections of the channel was the increase in the failure rate of one of Asus’ fast-moving AMD motherboards though it was eventually addressed. Where the company lacks is channel marketing and training. Compared to Gigabyte, which floated several exciting schemes for T2 and T3 partners, and conducted several multi-city reseller meets and training forums, Asus had no aggressive marketing and training program. Asus scored much better than its competitors in channel policy and management, the credit for which should go to Rashi. Many partners said that Rashi is very good at keeping its commitments in terms of incentive payouts, product availability and Continued on page 42 ä