ECS looking to evolve: Q&A with ECS executive Samuel Yeh
Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Thursday 5 June 2014]
As a long runner in the motherboard industry, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) has been competing in the motherboard market with innovations and technology and for 2014, ECS plans to aggressively evolve from its old self and has recolored its brand image, looking to give existing and potential clients a new view about the company.
Digitimes recently had a chance to sit down with ECS vice president, Channel Business Unit, Samuel Yeh to discuss the company's current status in the motherboard industry and its future plans.
Q: What are ECS' plans for Computex 2014?
A: At Computex in 2013, ECS focused on showcasing technology innovations such as the Durathon certification system, which guaranteed our motherboard quality, but for 2014, we are doing things differently compared to last year.
We have decorated our booths with blue and orange colors to show our liveliness and prepared several promotional activities for the show that are more fun than last year. Through activities, we hope to attract visitors to see our new products and feel the differences.
As for our product showcase, we are displaying new motherboards for all different kinds of applications, tablets, all-in-one PCs and our in-house developed Liva mini PC featuring the latest technologies from Intel.
With all the preparations, we are looking to evolve from the old ECS showing our innovation and vitality and hope each one of our visitors will see our capability and unique ideas being demonstrated in our innovative products.
Our booth is located at Taiwan World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall and we welcome everybody to visit our booth to enjoy the fun and new products.
Q: How is ECS performing in the motherboard industry? What does the company have in mind to achieve further growth?
A: We are now taking a different approach for our motherboard business. The motherboard industry is already mature with each tier separated clearly, and there is nothing more ECS can do to significantly re-shuffle the existing environment.
However, I see a business opportunity within the market. With CPU processing speeds continuing to rise and die-sizes dropping, a small CPU is already able to handle many tasks and we are using such an advantage to design products with smaller form factors.
For standard form-factor products, we are adding extra functions to increase their added value and enhance their competitiveness in the market. Our all-in-one and micro PC concepts are both transformed from our traditional motherboard designs, and in the future, with Intel's platforms expected to grow even smaller, we may be able to integrate computers into wearable products such as watches or pens.
Demand for traditional motherboards is actually dropping and motherboards with smaller form factors such as ITX-based models, are seeing their way into many markets such as Europe. This is a trend that ECS is focusing on and we believe this is where business opportunities can be found.
Q: What advantages does ECS have that will allow the company to stand out from others in the motherboard industry?
A: ECS is currently a top-three motherboard supplier in the world and our product quality is what has brought us this far. In addition to quality, our pricing is also friendlier than our competitors'.
We are selling consumer products with quality similar to that of first-tier players but at cheaper prices, that is one of our advantages in the market.
Unique innovations are another advantage that ECS has and this is where I have been pushing aggressively over the past few years.
ECS' motherboards, all-in-one PCs and micro PCs for 2014 all feature new innovations and technologies. If we only design products that are the same as those of everybody else, ECS will not be able to go far.
ECS is also shifting more attention on the development of L337 gaming motherboards. We have integrated several in-house developed technologies into our latest Z97-based motherboard and added a new sound chip from world-class ESS Sabre on-board. In addition, we have also raised our motherboards' power conversion rates from 80% previously to 90% to improve overall power consumption efficiency.
Q: What does ECS think about the all-in-one (AIO) PC industry? How is the company doing? What are the company's plans for the market?
A: AIO PC is an industry that Intel has been nurturing for a long time and the market is achieving double-digit percentage growth every year. The trend has attracted many first-tier PC vendors such as Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Dell.
For ECS, we have designed many motherboards for AIO PCs with different specifications to give our clients various choices. Most of our competitors are unable to match our number of motherboard choices, and that is our advantage in the AIO PC market.
ECS is seeing most AIO PC demand come from emerging markets and we are supplying devices mainly to local system integrators.
Q: Can you provide us more detail about the company's Liva micro-PC? What are the intentions for pushing such a device?
A: Liva is a micro PC about the size of a small box. The device uses a micro USB port for power charging, the same as many smartphones on the market, and the device can also be connected with a power bank for power. The device's mobility allows users to carry it around with not much of burden.
We are the first player to come out with this mobile PC concept and we expect strong demand for such devices in the future.
We are also hosting a competition during Computex 2014 to pick the best designed Liva. We have cooperated with several universities and colleges in Taiwan to host a micro PC design competition and we expect the activity to trigger new ideas and designs for our Liva micro PCs.
We started planning a second-generation Liva micro PC recently and are set to have the device feature more new functions and designs such as anti-theft mechanisms. The second generation is now under design, it will be available on the market soon.
Q: What are the company's plans for the long term?
A: For the desktop business, we will continue to improve our product designs, with even smaller sizes, cheaper prices and better specifications.
The motherboard business will remain the main business line and ECS will continue to follow Intel's roadmap, and design products using its latest platforms.
We will also push creativity to design new innovations and integrate unique features into our product lines to increase their added value to customers.
Samuel Yeh, ECS Vice President, Channel Business Unit
Photo: Joe Tsai, Digitimes, June 2014
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