Q: What is the deal with ACON?, rumours suggest that you had made a number of people redundant and that one of those people had been given some form of pay off to leave ABIT and as part of that deal, they had been given the rights to ACON?
Peter : What I can tell you is that ACON and ABIT are the same as always, and I really don’t know where or what you heard regarding people being passed around, its just not true.
Q: So ABIT will continue to support ACON in 2006 fully?
Peter : I can tell you ABIT is in the process of solving its financial issues on a day by day basis and the staff remain committed to continuing the good work to bring ABIT back to its days of former glory and also ACON is part of ABIT, it stems from us, and is scheduled to be run again this year, although we do want to run it a bit later in the year than last time, since we had Computex at almost exactly the same time as the finals last year.
You can bet this year is going to be greater and incorporate more prizes than ever before. As everyone knows, gaming is one of the fastest growing industries and ABIT is proud to play a leading part in manufacturing motherboards to cater for all gamers needs. We have always done so, and will continue to do so.
Q: Digitimes reported on your finances but you don’t seem to have offered a reply to the questions they raised?
Peter : We have been trying to talk to Digitimes, but they seem solely interested in the Financial details, and they seem to forget that we are a company with real people with families and feelings, and every one of us is passionate about making the best damn motherboards we can. The problem with being based in Taiwan in my opinion is the political instability with China and the resulting corruption, which has take place within the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Our company is one of several that have been hit by irregularities and hence why the government wants to investigate. Lesser companies have folded under this strain and pressure, but our core business is strong and we have continued doing what we do best, despite vicious rumour mongering.
Q: A number of people have cited the lack of sales on the Fatal1ty branded products through 2005, so I guess my question is two fold. A) Is this true and B) how has this affected ABIT's view on gaming as a medium that can drive sales?
Peter : um ..Ok, our Fatal1ty products have been selling remarkably well. Whoever told you that our sales figure are down regarding this series is badly mistaken.
Since we had a few hiccups financially, it has been crucial for us to be prudent in the boards we make. Our sales figures are lower than years before, because we made fewer boards, but we have sold almost every one, and in the instance of the Fatal1ty line, things went way beyond our wildest expectations. We have since placed new orders to deal with the extra demand. Make no mistake; Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel has not just stamped his name on any board that we make. He has incorporated his ethos and spirit into the board. We conformed to the colours, and geared the boards especially for gaming, and nothing else. This is something he knows more than a little about, and this carried through into the gaming community. Love him or hate him, he is damn good. After seeing him play, you get caught up and realise there is much more to gaming than just practice.
The hardware you use is paramount to your success. It can help you realise your true potential.
So we have decided to follow this model, and focus our Fatal1ty line of mobo’s directly to the gamer, giving him the best hardware for gaming, to help him improve.
Q: You are obviously pleased with your results and from working with Mr.Wendel, will this mean further new motherboards/products branded with his name in 2006?
Peter : ABIT will carry three sub-brands of mobo, the Max series will be the ultimate flagship, with all the bells and whistles, it will feature everything we can squeeze on a board to make it ubër overclockable and full of features.
The other series will be the Fatal1ty line, which as i mentioned will contain everything geared for gaming. It will be the equivalent of a hotrod, no fancy seats with leather trim, just raw power and lots of looks. (The Max line could be compared to the Mercedes car, with all the trimmings and extras you could ever need)
The last in the series will be called Guru, and we are still developing a distinct identity for it, however it will cater for our mainstream market, who will get the benefits of only some of the features found on our high-end products.
Q: With the restraints placed on the company recently by the Taiwan government, what are ABITS plans for the next couple of months? Presumably they have to comply with the request to allow them to look over the finances once more and this would impact on your new lines and support of esport clans across the globe?
Peter : The large scale financial investigation must continue, as it is the law, but if you consider that ABIT has large amounts of property, some of which have been sold, and that the entire amount owing the bank has been halved, we are in a much better standing now, than we were one month ago, hence our ambition to continue with making great motherboards. Our labelling and branding strategy is simply a small part of the whole business, and as I mentioned before, our passion and endurance are second to none. Bad rumours are simply that. We will make ourselves heard with awesome results that every motherboard manufacturer would wish for.
Q: On the subject of the building sales, are you able to divulge what the strategy behind the sales? (I understand they were head offices and a manufacturing plant?)
Peter : As far as I am aware, it was to bring down costs and streamline our business. We are focussed on tightening the belt, while sticking to our core strength, that of making motherboards for the DIY market amongst others.
Q: With the news about ABIT's finances not being in the best shape, people are worried about buying ABIT products for fear of loss of support should the company not do better in 2006. What assurances can you give to those people and indeed to the millions of people with ABIT products already?
Peter : As I mentioned in the previous question, ABIT has managed to halve its debt in one year. The prudent and uncanny leadership of our President Jason Hsu has achieved this feat with incredible pressure from the media. Since we are stronger now than a year or half a year ago, the real question is what can hold us back now? So rest assured that ABIT will survive and continue to support the millions of customers and give superb support out there, with both good quality products and excellent service. To back up this claim, we recently won the PC Pro award for outstanding service in the motherboard industry. This was an opinion based survey result and we were compared to all the other major motherboard brands.
Q: On that subject, what do you say to those hardware sites that have said in the past that ABIT makes high end products and doesn’t support the mid-range? (And did this lead to the poorer sales in 2005 than expected?)
Peter : Sales figures are holistic and reflect a much tighter industry with many more players than ever before. Our sales figures have been awesome, and per products made, they have exceeded expectations. Hardware sites, who say we cater only to the high-end, are misled, yes we do have awesome high-end products, but our mainstream items are equally good and stable. Its just very few sites compare mainstream products.
Q : Many of the clans, players and teams you support rely on you for sponsorship so they can attend the main events such as CPL World Tour. Are these teams, players etc at any risk of reduced or removed support from ABIT in 2006 as a result of the financial restructuring?
Peter : In the past two years we have given away in direct prizes more than two million US dollars to our loyal gamers and supporters. This will not change. Our current strategy includes all those whom we supported and whom represent us now. We are not about to switch our core market strategies with wholesale changes. Rest assured ABIT is in the gaming industry to stay. If we cut off all our support, then we would be cutting our own throats. Not something we would ever want to do.
Peter du Preez is the UK Marketing Manager for ABIT HQ, Taiwan.
Read more about ABIT : www.ABIT.com.tw
© 2006 ESReality.com (content). Please link to this interview as a source if you wish to post on another site.
Peter : What I can tell you is that ACON and ABIT are the same as always, and I really don’t know where or what you heard regarding people being passed around, its just not true.
Q: So ABIT will continue to support ACON in 2006 fully?
Peter : I can tell you ABIT is in the process of solving its financial issues on a day by day basis and the staff remain committed to continuing the good work to bring ABIT back to its days of former glory and also ACON is part of ABIT, it stems from us, and is scheduled to be run again this year, although we do want to run it a bit later in the year than last time, since we had Computex at almost exactly the same time as the finals last year.
You can bet this year is going to be greater and incorporate more prizes than ever before. As everyone knows, gaming is one of the fastest growing industries and ABIT is proud to play a leading part in manufacturing motherboards to cater for all gamers needs. We have always done so, and will continue to do so.
Q: Digitimes reported on your finances but you don’t seem to have offered a reply to the questions they raised?
Peter : We have been trying to talk to Digitimes, but they seem solely interested in the Financial details, and they seem to forget that we are a company with real people with families and feelings, and every one of us is passionate about making the best damn motherboards we can. The problem with being based in Taiwan in my opinion is the political instability with China and the resulting corruption, which has take place within the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Our company is one of several that have been hit by irregularities and hence why the government wants to investigate. Lesser companies have folded under this strain and pressure, but our core business is strong and we have continued doing what we do best, despite vicious rumour mongering.
Q: A number of people have cited the lack of sales on the Fatal1ty branded products through 2005, so I guess my question is two fold. A) Is this true and B) how has this affected ABIT's view on gaming as a medium that can drive sales?
Peter : um ..Ok, our Fatal1ty products have been selling remarkably well. Whoever told you that our sales figure are down regarding this series is badly mistaken.
Since we had a few hiccups financially, it has been crucial for us to be prudent in the boards we make. Our sales figures are lower than years before, because we made fewer boards, but we have sold almost every one, and in the instance of the Fatal1ty line, things went way beyond our wildest expectations. We have since placed new orders to deal with the extra demand. Make no mistake; Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel has not just stamped his name on any board that we make. He has incorporated his ethos and spirit into the board. We conformed to the colours, and geared the boards especially for gaming, and nothing else. This is something he knows more than a little about, and this carried through into the gaming community. Love him or hate him, he is damn good. After seeing him play, you get caught up and realise there is much more to gaming than just practice.
The hardware you use is paramount to your success. It can help you realise your true potential.
So we have decided to follow this model, and focus our Fatal1ty line of mobo’s directly to the gamer, giving him the best hardware for gaming, to help him improve.
Q: You are obviously pleased with your results and from working with Mr.Wendel, will this mean further new motherboards/products branded with his name in 2006?
Peter : ABIT will carry three sub-brands of mobo, the Max series will be the ultimate flagship, with all the bells and whistles, it will feature everything we can squeeze on a board to make it ubër overclockable and full of features.
The other series will be the Fatal1ty line, which as i mentioned will contain everything geared for gaming. It will be the equivalent of a hotrod, no fancy seats with leather trim, just raw power and lots of looks. (The Max line could be compared to the Mercedes car, with all the trimmings and extras you could ever need)
The last in the series will be called Guru, and we are still developing a distinct identity for it, however it will cater for our mainstream market, who will get the benefits of only some of the features found on our high-end products.
Q: With the restraints placed on the company recently by the Taiwan government, what are ABITS plans for the next couple of months? Presumably they have to comply with the request to allow them to look over the finances once more and this would impact on your new lines and support of esport clans across the globe?
Peter : The large scale financial investigation must continue, as it is the law, but if you consider that ABIT has large amounts of property, some of which have been sold, and that the entire amount owing the bank has been halved, we are in a much better standing now, than we were one month ago, hence our ambition to continue with making great motherboards. Our labelling and branding strategy is simply a small part of the whole business, and as I mentioned before, our passion and endurance are second to none. Bad rumours are simply that. We will make ourselves heard with awesome results that every motherboard manufacturer would wish for.
Q: On the subject of the building sales, are you able to divulge what the strategy behind the sales? (I understand they were head offices and a manufacturing plant?)
Peter : As far as I am aware, it was to bring down costs and streamline our business. We are focussed on tightening the belt, while sticking to our core strength, that of making motherboards for the DIY market amongst others.
Q: With the news about ABIT's finances not being in the best shape, people are worried about buying ABIT products for fear of loss of support should the company not do better in 2006. What assurances can you give to those people and indeed to the millions of people with ABIT products already?
Peter : As I mentioned in the previous question, ABIT has managed to halve its debt in one year. The prudent and uncanny leadership of our President Jason Hsu has achieved this feat with incredible pressure from the media. Since we are stronger now than a year or half a year ago, the real question is what can hold us back now? So rest assured that ABIT will survive and continue to support the millions of customers and give superb support out there, with both good quality products and excellent service. To back up this claim, we recently won the PC Pro award for outstanding service in the motherboard industry. This was an opinion based survey result and we were compared to all the other major motherboard brands.
Q: On that subject, what do you say to those hardware sites that have said in the past that ABIT makes high end products and doesn’t support the mid-range? (And did this lead to the poorer sales in 2005 than expected?)
Peter : Sales figures are holistic and reflect a much tighter industry with many more players than ever before. Our sales figures have been awesome, and per products made, they have exceeded expectations. Hardware sites, who say we cater only to the high-end, are misled, yes we do have awesome high-end products, but our mainstream items are equally good and stable. Its just very few sites compare mainstream products.
Q : Many of the clans, players and teams you support rely on you for sponsorship so they can attend the main events such as CPL World Tour. Are these teams, players etc at any risk of reduced or removed support from ABIT in 2006 as a result of the financial restructuring?
Peter : In the past two years we have given away in direct prizes more than two million US dollars to our loyal gamers and supporters. This will not change. Our current strategy includes all those whom we supported and whom represent us now. We are not about to switch our core market strategies with wholesale changes. Rest assured ABIT is in the gaming industry to stay. If we cut off all our support, then we would be cutting our own throats. Not something we would ever want to do.
Peter du Preez is the UK Marketing Manager for ABIT HQ, Taiwan.
Read more about ABIT : www.ABIT.com.tw
© 2006 ESReality.com (content). Please link to this interview as a source if you wish to post on another site.