Taiwan startup TMS Technologies, dedicated to operating a DataBar-MaaS (Mobility as a Service) platform integrating Taiwan's traffic data, will extend MaaS API (application programming interface) solutions to Southeast Asia in line with the government's efforts to enhance trade and tourism exchanges with regional countries, according to company sources.TMS data manager KP Wang said that the company will first incorporate data concerning traffic events, parking lots and scenic spots in Thailand into its traffic data mart before covering similar information in more Southeast Asian countries.The firm's president Tim Chen also disclosed that TMS' ultimate goal is to become the regional window for international digital mapping and GPS solutions providers, by providing quality traffic data to help them render high-dynamic mapping and navigation services to regional markets.Chen continued that his company will also help businesses engaged in transportation and tourism segments develop more application service scenarios.

The Foxconn Group's 5G+8K business strategy eyeing the synergy of the next-generation network technology and Ultra HD applications is gaining momentum, as an affiliated LCD maker in China is set to start volume production at its 10.5G line next month making large-size TV panels. Others in Taiwan's supply chain are also gearing up 5G: A government-backed lab and 18 companies, including MediaTek, have formed an alliance to develop white-box 5G small cells eyeing the global market. And top IC backend service provider ASE Technology Holding is also enjoying growth for its SiP business, thanks to growing demand related to 5G applications.Sakai SIO 10.5G line to kick off volume production in September: A 10.5 line of Sakai SIO International Guangzhou, a subsidiary of Japan-based Sakai Display Products (SDP), has rolled out its first 65-inch LCD panel, paving the way for the plant to kick off volume production at the end of September 2019, according to company sources.Taiwan industrial alliance eyeing white-box small cell market: The Taiwan government-backed Information and Telecommunications Research Laboratories (ITRL) is working with a number of local companies to develop 5G small-cell base stations, with an aim to sell devices directly to telecom operations in the global market in 2020.ASE gaining ground in SiP on heterogeneous integration demand: Taiwan's top IC backend specialist ASE Technology Holding has seen its SiP (system in package) business expand substantially so far this year amid growing demand for heterogeneous chips integration to support increasingly complicated 5G, AI and IoT applications, according to company CFO Joseph Tung.

After falling 8.7% on quarter and 11.9% on year to 32.66 million units in the second quarter of 2019, global tablet PC shipments are expected to surge 19.3% sequentially in the third quarter, thanks to the peak-season effect, the launch of new iPads, and Huawei gradually resuming normal tablet shipments, according to Digitimes Research.The second-quarter shipment contraction was attributed to the absence of new iPad models as sales stimulus, the US trade ban undermining Huawei's shipments, and weak demand for white-box tablets.In terms of second-quarter shipments by brand vendors, Apple firmly ranked first, Samsung and Amazon regained second and third places, respectively, and Huawei retreated to fourth. Lenovo returned to fifth place after ramping up shipments in the quarter.In the third quarter, Lenovo will advance to third place replacing Amazon, which may drop to fourth place as a result of weak shipment momentum following its mid-July Prime Day promotions. Huawei is expected to fall further to the fifth despite gradual shipment pickup.As to sizes, 10.x-inch tablets will continue to dominate the market. Apple is set to release 10.2-inch new iPads in late third quarter. Overall, tablets sized over 10 inches will surge to over 70% of global shipments in the fourth quarter.In-cell touch display will gradually replace GFF (glass-film-film) touch screen among non-Apple tablet products, with the former's shipment ratio to surge to 36% in the fourth quarter.As a chip supplier for Amazon, MediaTek returned to the 2nd spot in terms of tablet processor shipments in the second quarter thanks to Amazon's shipment ramp-up. But the Taiwanese chipmaker is expected to fall to third place in the third quarter on weakened shipments at Amazon, with Qualcomm to rebound to the second spot.

Commercialization of 5G services is expected to accelerate in 2020, with TSMC planning to expand its 2019 capex to meet robust growth in 5G chip demand. And 5G smartphone shipments next year may be much higher than many market observers expect. TSMC will not be the only one in Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain to benefit from the 5G boom, as major chip vendors' Taiwanese suppliers in the silicon-based or compound semiconductor foundry and packaging sectors are revving up their capacity utilization and expansion. Meanwhile, Taiwan-based notebook ODMs saw impressive shipment growths in the second quarter of 2019 as clients built up inventory in response to the US-China trade tensions.Global 5G phone shipments may reach 150-200 million units in 2020: Global shipments of 5G-enabled smartphones might come higher than market expectations, with some market watchers believing that such shipments are likely to reach 150-200 million units or an over 10% share of global handset shipments in 2020.Chipmakers, supply chain firms revving up for 5G opportunities: With HiSilicon, Broadcom and other fabless chip vendors gearing up to tap growing demand for 5G infrastructure chipsets, their Taiwanese silicon-based or compound semiconductor foundry and packaging partners are fully revving up their capacity utilization and expansion, according to industry sources.Global notebook shipments to drop in 3Q19, 4Q19, says Digitimes Research: Worldwide notebook shipments rose over 20% sequentially in the second quarter of 2019, but volumes in both the third and fourth quarters are expected to experience sequential declines, according to Digitimes Research's latest notebook tracker.

Worldwide notebook shipments rose over 20% sequentially in the second quarter of 2019, but volumes in both the third and fourth quarters are expected to experience sequential declines, according to Digitimes Research's latest notebook tracker.The growth in the second quarter was primarily due to brand vendors building up extra inventory as a precaution against the possibility of the US imposing a 25% tariff on notebook imports.However, because of the high volume of the second quarter and the fact that Intel's new 14nm capacity will not become significantly available until September at the earliest, brand vendors' orders are expected to drop sequentially in the third quarter.For the fourth quarter, the worldwide shipments will slip further sequentially as a result of a number of factors: China's weak economy; PC replacement demand from the enterprise sector reaching an end; and a lack of innovations despite Intel having resolved its CPU shortages.With brand vendors stocking extra inventory in late May in response to the US-China trade tensions and Chromebooks' shipment expansion in the North America education market and their entry to the India market, worldwide notebook shipments performed much stronger than expected, growing by over 5% on year, Digitimes Research's figures show.The globally biggest vendor Hewlett-Packard (HP) is expected to see its shipments grow every quarter in 2019 to peak in the fourth quarter. Although Lenovo's large-scale procurement orders from India that had begun shipments in March have already reached an end, the company will continue enjoying on-year shipment growth in the second half of 2019.Dell's shipments will slip sequentially in both the third and fourth quarters as the replacement trend in the enterprise sector is approaching the end. Apple updated its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro in July, but the new 16-inch MacBook Pro that is set to be released in October is unlikely to stimulate significant demand due to its high pricing.Compal Electronics, which achieved a quarterly notebook shipment record in the second quarter, is expected to see volumes drop every quarter in the second half of the year due to the completion of some procurement orders and clients' order redistribution.Inventec, which also achieved a shipment record in the second quarter, will continue enjoying rising orders from HP and Acer in the second half and is expected to be the only Taiwan maker to see sequential growths in both third- and fourth-quarter shipments.

The US and China have restarted trade talks, but the cloud hanging over Chinese vendor Huawei remains. The latest news coming out of the supply chain is that Huawei has cut components orders for true wireless stereo (TWS) devices. But other IC designers, namely those supplying server chips, are upbeat about the second half of 2019. Digitimes Research estimates that global server shipments will grow almost 13% in the third quarter.Huawei slashes short-term IC orders for TWS devices: Huawei reportedly has reduced its short-term component orders for true wireless stereo (TWS) headsets amid the protracted US-China trade disputes, affecting sales of some Taiwan-based IC suppliers that provide related ICs to Huawei for production of TWS headsets and battery charging boxes, according to industry sources.Taiwan IC design houses expect pick-up in orders for servers: Taiwan-based IC design houses expect to enjoy a seasonal pick-up in orders for servers and data centers in the second half of 2019.Global server shipments to increase 12.8% in 3Q19, says Digitimes Research: Global server shipments are expected to increase 12.8% sequentially in the third quarter of 2019 with a flat on-year performance, but shipments for all of the year are likely to drop on year due to a sharp shipment decline in the first half, according to figures from Digitimes Research's latest server tracker.

Global server shipments are expected to increase 12.8% sequentially in the third quarter of 2019 with a flat on-year performance, but shipments for all of the year are likely to drop on year due to a sharp shipment decline in the first half, according to figures from Digitimes Research's latest server tracker.Worldwide server shipments rose 9% sequentially in the second quarter of 2019, but slipped 12.5% on year, Digitimes Research's number show.From 2017 to the first half of 2018, most server brands saw rising inventory levels as end demand was weaker than expected, resulting in the vendors spending the second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019 digesting their excess inventory.After leapfrogging Amazon in the first quarter of 2019, Facebook became the second-largest client of Taiwan's server sector in the second quarter, surpassing Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), with Quanta Computer and Wiwynn both enjoying rising orders from Facebook, particularly Quanta.Quanta, Inventec and Wiwynn all saw sequential shipment growths in the second quarter of 2019 with Quanta having the biggest increase due to Google's order ramp-up, but Quanta's orders from Google still experienced an on-year drop in the quarter.Inventec's orders from major clients all picked up sequentially in the second quarter of 2019, but its orders from Dell and HPE both shrank on year. Wiwynn's orders from the two major clients also increased sequentially, but compared to those of the same quarter a year ago, one went up, but the other went down.China-based server brand Inspur began in-house server motherboard production at plants in Suzhou, China in June 2019 and its outsourcing to Taiwan makers are expected to drop and affect Taiwan's share of the worldwide server shipments.

Taiwan-based BE Accelerator, with business focus on digital medical care, application of AI to medical care and development of medical devices, aims to become a gateway to Asian markets for local and foreign startups engaged in medical technology, according to company executive director Arthur Chen.BE Accelerator's digital medical care business covers remote medical care, precision medicine, next-generation genome sequencing and smart hospitals, medical application of AI, such as interpretation of medical images, assisted diagnosis, health management and R&D of pharmaceuticals. It is also developing surgical equipment and instruments, advanced biological materials, monitoring and therapeutic systems, and drug delivery platforms.Taiwan is suitable for developing digital medical care as because of its global leadership in developing and producing ICT products and its medical technology, Chen explained.BE Accelerator's strategic partners are Stanford University's Byers Center for Biodesign, a developer of innovative process for designing medical devices; US-based zero-equity accelerator MassChallenge; Taipei Medical University; Show Chwan Health Care System, which has has set up IRCAD Taiwan, an Asian training institute for minimal invasive surgery, via partnership with France-based IRCAD; Taiwan Startup Stadium (TSS) consulting firm; and BioIPSeeds, a platform for biomedical R&D results collected in Taiwan and abroad.BE Accelerator has cooperated with many hospitals in Taiwan including Show Chwan Hospitals, Mackay Memorial Hospital and Changhua Christian Hospital as well as Tohoku University Hospital in Japan, Chen noted.TermSheet Bootcamp, a program jointly operated by BE Accelerator and TSS, let accelerated start-ups know what terms are crucial for angel or venture capital investment, such as whether operating right will be diluted in the future and how to sell innovative technologies and share profits, Chen indicated.BE Accelerator executive director Arthur ChenPhoto: Company

Apple is said to be looking to boost its in-house IC design capability in a bid to stay competitive and its moves are expected to benefit TSMC. At the same time, the company is also set to release a new 16-inch MacBook Pro with an ultra-thin bezel design. Meanwhile, despite being banned by the US government, Huawei remains aggressive in development of 5G applications.Apple revving up in-house IC design capability; TSMC to benefit most: Apple has clinched a deal to acquire Intel's smartphone baseband (modem) chip business unit, and the US vendor is also expected to roll out MacBook models featuring its own ARM-based processors in the near future. And TSMC is expected to benefit the most, among Apple's supply chain partners, from the tech giant's efforts in strengthening its in-house chip design capability, according to industry sources.Apple set to release new MacBook Pro with narrow bezel in September: Apple is set to release in September 2019 new MacBook Pro featuring ultra-narrow bezel to accommodate a 16-inch screen, expanded from the original 15-inch one. And Taiwan's ODM Quanta Computer is expected to be the sole contract producer for the new model, according to supply chain sources.Huawei gearing up 5G deployments via 3-pronged approach: Despite suffering hiccups in obtaining advanced 5G base stations chips from US suppliers, Huawei is still aggressively taking a three-pronged approach in carrying out its 5G deployments, namely 5G base stations, 5G smartphones and 5G CPE (customer premise equipment) series devices, according to industry sources.

Taiwan's makers shipped 7.16 million LCD TVs in the second quarter of 2019 increasing 14.4% from the previous quarter, as US-based clients required advanced shipments to avoid their products likely being subject to higher tariffs to be imposed by the US government, according to Digitimes Research.Due to a higher base built up by the sequential gain in the second quarter, Taiwan's TV shipments are likely to grow at a single-digit rate in the third quarter before seeing a seasonal uptick in the fourth quarter, Digitimes Research says.The short-term shipments also helped ramp up the ratio of US-bound shipments to 38.6% of combined TV shipments by Taiwan's makers in the second quarter compared to 25.4% a year earlier. The ratio was up due also to Vizio's release of more orders to Taiwan's makers.During the same period, those TVs shipped to the Asian and European markets accounted for 30.5% and 23.6%, respectively, of total TV shipments.With respect to TV sizes, the shipment share of over 60-inch models dropped to 11.7% in the second quarter as small-size models accounted for a majority of the short-term shipments to the US where importers can import large-size TVs from Mexico free of tariff charges.Models in sizes ranging from 50- to 59-inch accounted for 32.1%. Overall, over 50-inch models are expected to account for over 50% of total shipments in the fourth quarter, Digitimes Research estimates.The combined ratio of the top-two makers, TPV Technology and Foxconn Electronics, has dropped to 60% in the second quarter. Amtran Technology was third with shipments rebounding to over one million units in the quarter. But fourth-ranked Innolux could outrace Amtran in unit shipments in the fourth quarter as the company has been gearing up its TV assembling business.