Via preparing to hand chipset crown to SiS
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2002 7:09 pm
from http://www.viahardware.com/
According to an article at DigiTimes, Via has been losing a lot of traction in the overall chipset business to top competitor SiS. The article states that Via currently has "marginally" over 20% of the worldwide chipset market share with SiS at 20%. So what went wrong at Via? In our "How Via got on top" article, we showed you how Via had called from the chipset gutter to the top chipset provider in the world in late 2000. However since that time, 2001 and mostly 2002 have been a rough ride for Via. What went wrong is the launch of the Intel Pentium IV processor. Via capitalized early on Intel's struggles with moving beyond the BX chipset. However Intel got their revenge with the launch of the PIV. Via did not want to pay the license fees Intel was demanding for the "right" to sell a PIV chipset. Via went ahead with out this blessing from Intel and the two wound up in court. Meanwhile Tier 1 motherboard manufacturers were leery to adopt the P4X chipset. Even though the original P4X266 chipset offered industry favorite DDR memory support and a good price, top motherboard makers feared the potential legal problems that resulted.
With less then a handful of motherboard manufacturers adopting P4X, Via was in a hurt. Via started their own distribution of rebadged P4X motherboards, titled VPSD, to offload any potential legal problems from their motherboard partners. The success of the VPSD was crippled with SiS's DDR P4 chipset and Intel's 845d chipset announcements. Both of these chipsets had the blessing of Intel and thus the majority of motherboard makers. Via even tried a silly marketing gimmick called Viarama (wth?) as an "approval program" to help ease the minds of the weary minded.
The launch of the PIV further slowed sales of the AMD Athlon processor. With Via traditionally having the majority of the Socket A chipset market, any decline in Athlon sales was a decline for Via chipset sales. The PIV is not the only thing that was bad for Via. Top rival SiS continues to do a lot of things right. While Via was betting the farm on P4X, SiS was happily partnering with top motherboard makers Asus, ECS and MSI to produce Intel Pentium 4 based
motherboards. SiS was also catching Via in Via's once sweet spot, the Socket A chipset market.
The Digitimes article goes on to mention that Via could fall to 15% in the 3rd quarter if AMD continues to lose ground to Intel and possible even below 15% in Q4. Via's boat is sinking, but can they bail out? One bail bucket shows the P4X route. However that area is dominated by Intel and 1066 RDRAM and the new SiS 648 chipset. Not to mention Via's P4X333 was virtually non existent and the announced P4X400 has yet to show up. Another bail bucket shows the AMD route. Via's KT400 is shipping and could be Via's best bet to keeping the course. However AMD and Nvidia have been having a close relationship along with SiS selling Socket A chipsets as well. Though it may be their best hope, AMD is currently betting their own farm on their upcoming Hammer processor. As a result, Athlon has been put on somewhat of a back burner, not good for Via Socket A chipset sales. Lets hope Via's Hammer chipset is impressive. And probably the last bucket Via can hope to bail the water out with and help their fallen sales is the C3 line of processors. Everyone has their own opinions on those, if thats case, lets hope the SFF market really takes off.
According to an article at DigiTimes, Via has been losing a lot of traction in the overall chipset business to top competitor SiS. The article states that Via currently has "marginally" over 20% of the worldwide chipset market share with SiS at 20%. So what went wrong at Via? In our "How Via got on top" article, we showed you how Via had called from the chipset gutter to the top chipset provider in the world in late 2000. However since that time, 2001 and mostly 2002 have been a rough ride for Via. What went wrong is the launch of the Intel Pentium IV processor. Via capitalized early on Intel's struggles with moving beyond the BX chipset. However Intel got their revenge with the launch of the PIV. Via did not want to pay the license fees Intel was demanding for the "right" to sell a PIV chipset. Via went ahead with out this blessing from Intel and the two wound up in court. Meanwhile Tier 1 motherboard manufacturers were leery to adopt the P4X chipset. Even though the original P4X266 chipset offered industry favorite DDR memory support and a good price, top motherboard makers feared the potential legal problems that resulted.
With less then a handful of motherboard manufacturers adopting P4X, Via was in a hurt. Via started their own distribution of rebadged P4X motherboards, titled VPSD, to offload any potential legal problems from their motherboard partners. The success of the VPSD was crippled with SiS's DDR P4 chipset and Intel's 845d chipset announcements. Both of these chipsets had the blessing of Intel and thus the majority of motherboard makers. Via even tried a silly marketing gimmick called Viarama (wth?) as an "approval program" to help ease the minds of the weary minded.
The launch of the PIV further slowed sales of the AMD Athlon processor. With Via traditionally having the majority of the Socket A chipset market, any decline in Athlon sales was a decline for Via chipset sales. The PIV is not the only thing that was bad for Via. Top rival SiS continues to do a lot of things right. While Via was betting the farm on P4X, SiS was happily partnering with top motherboard makers Asus, ECS and MSI to produce Intel Pentium 4 based
motherboards. SiS was also catching Via in Via's once sweet spot, the Socket A chipset market.
The Digitimes article goes on to mention that Via could fall to 15% in the 3rd quarter if AMD continues to lose ground to Intel and possible even below 15% in Q4. Via's boat is sinking, but can they bail out? One bail bucket shows the P4X route. However that area is dominated by Intel and 1066 RDRAM and the new SiS 648 chipset. Not to mention Via's P4X333 was virtually non existent and the announced P4X400 has yet to show up. Another bail bucket shows the AMD route. Via's KT400 is shipping and could be Via's best bet to keeping the course. However AMD and Nvidia have been having a close relationship along with SiS selling Socket A chipsets as well. Though it may be their best hope, AMD is currently betting their own farm on their upcoming Hammer processor. As a result, Athlon has been put on somewhat of a back burner, not good for Via Socket A chipset sales. Lets hope Via's Hammer chipset is impressive. And probably the last bucket Via can hope to bail the water out with and help their fallen sales is the C3 line of processors. Everyone has their own opinions on those, if thats case, lets hope the SFF market really takes off.