Wind to Stand Alone?
Digitimes is reporting on a very interesting interview with MSi VP of Products Henry Lu. Much of what he said is pretty standard , but there were some interesting and provocative tidbits tossed in.
Notable amongst his comments were the following:
- MSi shipped 3 million Notebooks and Netbooks this year. 1.5 million branded MSi, the other 1.5 million OEMed to other companies.
- Of the 1.5 million MSi branded PCs, 750,000 were Wind Netbooks.
- MSi launched 25 new products in 2008, is expecting to launch 30 in 2009, with total shipments doubling in 2009.
- The standard Netbook in 2009, according to Lu, will have a 10 inch screen and a 120-160GB HD.
- Despite a disappointing year for MSi in the motherboard/GPU markets, Lu says that MSi is STILL first and foremost a component company focused on Motherboards and graphics cards and will remain so the for the next three years at least with 2009 Motherboard shipments pegged at 16-18 million.
All of that is well and good, but the really intriguing part of Lu’s interview is the point I saved for last…
- The Wind Netbook may be spun off as an independent brand.
If MSi cuts loose the Netbook division of the company, it could have a very interesting effect on the still developing Netbook market. Such a move would make sense for MSi, especially considering how hard Lu stressed that Motherboards were their bread and butter, with complete PCs being just a sideline. After all, MSi sold nearly 6 times more Motherboards in 2008 then they did Notebooks and Netbooks combined. The move would also make Wind the only pure player in the Netbook space, not having to share budget with any other products. Therefore it will be more agile then larger companies with several product categories and be able to react to market demand and innovations more quickly. Perhaps such a step is also just what the Wind brand needs to get out from under the Eee’s shadow and the company will be able to stop mimicking every hare-brained product scheme that comes out of Asustek.
Could MSi’s venture into Netbooks actually be gone with the Wind after all?
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Written by Zealot · Filed Under NetBook
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