華碩電腦 堅若磐石(英漢對照)

■ 彭玉樹、于卓民

Industrial Development
High profitability, low investment barriers and the growth potential of the clone (assembly) market, were the initial stages of the Taiwan motherboard industry, from which emerged the phenomenon of many small factories. Having the advantage of R&D strength, on-time delivery, excellent quality, and low prices, the Taiwan motherboard makers became the main contract manufacturers of globally well-known companies. Taiwan's motherboard industry has rapidly grown from 68% of the worldwide market in 1992 to 90% of the worldwide market in 2003.

After 1997, low priced computers (less than US$1000) became mainstream on the computer market. Motherboard makers needed economies of scale in order to receive OEM orders, at the same time, the clone market shrunk gradually. The motherboard industry has continuously shrunk because of stiff competition from approximately 300 independent manufacturers to only 20 now. Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and ECS are the four largest players and cover more than 50% of the market. As the industry developed, the trend of “big becomes bigger” took hold of the market.

Case Company

AsusTek Computer was founded in 1989. Four engineers from Acer Corporation joined efforts to establish the company. Based on continuous product innovation and excellent quality as its competitive advantage and flexible managerial strategy; AsusTek is a valued motherboard manufacturer and important testing partner for Intel.

The Growing Stages

Looking back over the 15-year history and development of AsusTek, there were 3 distinct stages, the first 5 years, AsusTek insisted not to do OEM (contract manufacturing) and as a principle, all products were sold under AsusTek’s own brands, which it independently developed. Furthermore, no production per single client was to exceed 5% of the total revenue. This was one of the reasons AsusTek was not affected by the “Intel Storm” (Intel was once involved in motherboard manufacturing). At the same time, AsusTek collaborated with market leaders of different regions; it did not use a worldwide branding strategy, and this enabled it to deeply penetrate various markets. In order to control quality, improve technology and perfect “just-in-time” manufacturing, AsusTek did not move investments or production overseas.

The next 5 years, AsusTek established an industrial design team to launch its own brand of notebook computer and actively moved towards product diversification. Through existing marketing channels AsusTek then moved into the notebook computer, server and CD-ROM drive markets. In order to leverage shared brands, they used R&D and manufacturing resources to create economics of scope. AsusTek setup its manufacturing base at Suzhou, China in order to tap into the great potential of the domestic Chinese market.

Entering into the third 5-year phase of AsusTek's history, the company put great emphasis on high technology and high-end products within the computer market. The company however faced several threats, including its growth, which unfortunately reduced its strategic development and ability to adapt quickly to market forces. Firstly, their product line planning followed Intel's “Non hole Strategy”, which launched a secondary brand “Wach”, and adopted a complete cover of the market strategy with high, medium and low prices. AsusTek had hoped through expanded markets, they could foster an environment of economies of scale, thus enhancing competitiveness.

AsusTek also went to China to expand its capacity, and launched several product lines, including; notebook computers, PDA’s, VGA cards, CD-ROM drives, as well as communications devices and 3C products. All their products were under the Asus brand name in hopes of winning a price niche within the very segmented computer market. Also, AsusTek had production extensions in Mexico and the Czech Republic. By setting up manufacturing facilities to carry out system assembly and management activities in the Czech Republic, AsusTek further prepared itself for expansion into European markets.

（Peng, Yu-Shu, Assistant Professor, Graduate In-stitute of International Business, National Dong Hwa University Joseph Yu, Professor, Department of Busi-ness Adminstration, National Chengchi University）

產業沿革

高利潤、低投資障礙，再加上Clone (組裝)市場的成長潛力，台灣主機板產業在萌芽期出現小廠林立的現象。憑藉著研發實力、準確交期、優良品質及低廉價格等優勢，台灣主機板廠商成為全球知名大廠委外的主要對象，全球市場占有率由1992年的68%快速成長至2003年的90%。

1997年後，1,000美元以下的低價電腦成為市場主流，主機板廠商必須具有量產能力方能接到OEM訂單，復加Clone市場逐漸萎縮，主機板產業由早期的二、三百家逐漸淘汰，至今僅剩約20家廠商。華碩、技嘉、微星、精英四大廠商的市場占有率，合計超過50%，產業的發展呈現「大者恆大」的趨勢。

個案公司

華碩電腦在1989年出身宏碁的四位工程師共同創立。憑藉不斷的產品創新和優良品質做為競爭優勢的基礎，並搭配靈活的經營策略，現在的華碩已經是全世界最重要的主機板領導大廠，並且是處理器巨擘英代爾（Intel）的重要測試合作廠商。

成長之路

回顧華碩15年的發展歷史，大致可分為三個階段。第一個五年，華碩堅持不做OEM業務的原則，所有產品皆以華碩研發的產品銷售，且單一客戶絕不超過總營收的5％，是其並未遭受「英代爾風暴」(英代爾一度介入主機板生產)的關鍵因素之一。

同時，華碩與各地領導廠商合作，不打全球知名品牌行銷策略，使其得以深入世界各地市場。為了控制品質、提升技術、以及即時生產，華碩在這階段並未考慮外移投資的計畫。

第二個五年期間，華碩成立工業設計團隊並推出自有品牌NB，積極朝產品多元化發展，透過既有的行銷通路計劃進軍筆記型電腦、伺服器和光碟機等市場，巧妙地槓桿運用品牌、研發和生產等資源共享所創造的範疇經濟效果。華碩並於蘇州設立生產基地瞄準潛力無窮的大陸內需市場。

進入第三個五年，一再強調高檔技術、高價市場的華碩，面臨成長力道不再的威脅，策略發展也出現重大轉折。首先，產品線的規劃仿效英特爾的「無洞策略」，推出「華擎」之次品牌，採取高、中、低價位市場全面涵蓋策略，期望透過擴大市場產生的規模經濟效果，強化競爭力。

華碩亦赴中國大陸擴建產能，並推出NB、PDA、繪圖卡、光碟機、通訊等3C產品，以華碩品牌搶占各價位區隔市場，生產據點也擴展至墨西哥、捷克進行系統組裝等經營活動，為華碩未來在歐洲市場的開拓預做準備。

（作者彭玉樹是國立東華大學國際企業學系助理教授、于卓民是國立政治大學企管系教授）

【2005/04/17 經濟日報】