There are simply too many M/B Manufacturers in the market nowadays. VIA may have an advantage over the others since they produce the IC circuits and are pretty much the #2 behind Intel. However, devoting more time to produce state_of_the_art motherboards will reduce R&D time for IC circuits. SiS is catching up fast same as ALi, so maybe VIA has to rethink it's options. Either:

1) diversify their business and start making video chips/cards or sound.

2) Continue to dominate in the IC Circuit board area.

Hey, that's just my 2 cents.