Smartphones will remain the largest market for application processors (AP) through 2020, accounting for over 80% of all APs shipped annually during the period, according to Digitimes Research.In terms of growth, IoT applications will be the main driver of AP shipments through 2020 while shipments for smartphones and tablets will grow at a slower pace, said Digitimes Research.About 1.78 billion APs were shipped in 2016, rising 7.2% on year. Shipments will increase 8.4% to 1.93 billion units in 2017, with the annual growth rate set to slow down to 5.9% in 2020, Digitimes Research indicated.Smartphones accounted for 84.3% of all APs shipped in 2016, followed by tablets with 14.2% and others with 1.5%. The shipment ratio for smartphones will climb to 84.4% in 2017, but begin to drop in 2018 and reach 82.9% in 2020. Meanwhile, non-smartphone and -tablet applications will account for 6.5% of all APs shipped in 2020, Digitimes Research said.Qualcomm and MediaTek will remain the largest AP provider through 2020, Digitimes Research noted. Qualcomm's share of the global AP market will rise to 25.4% in 2017 and reach 26.8% in 2020 from 24% in 2016, but MediaTek's market share will begin to fall in 2018 and reach 20.5% in 2020.As for production technology, 28nm remained the mainstream process for the production of APs in 2016 accounting for 69% of all APs shipped during the year. The node will be replaced by 14/16nm and 7nm, which will account for a combined 48% of all APs shipped, in 2020, according to Digitimes Research.

Mainly because Tesla has successfully boosted battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and several countries have adopted policies in favor of BEVs, global competition is increasingly intense, according to Digitimes Research.According to Japan-based Fourin, there were 550,000 BEVs and PHEVs (pluggable hybrid electric vehicles) sold globally in 2015, hiking 70% on year, Digitimes Research indicated.Several countries have adopted policies promoting BEVs, such as controlling carbon dioxide emissions, subsidizing BEV purchases and establishing power-charging infrastructure. Consequently, international automobile makers have strengthened development of BEVs.Requirements on government subsidies for BEV purchases have become increasingly stricter in several countries, and this is expected to eliminate unhealthy and disordered market competition. Noteworthy is that Germany began to cooperate with automobile makers to offer EUR1 billion (US$1.061 billion) to subsidize purchases of 400,000 BEVs and HEVs.

Of the various devices developed by ICT makers to increase car safety, ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) are expected to become the mainstream driver-safety system, with global production value for ADAS and devices/components estimated to increase to US$12.54 billion in 2020, according to Digitimes Research.ADAS are being increasingly adopted in new cars, Digitimes Research indicated. ADAS components include micro-controller units, sensors, cameras, and 76-77GHz millimeter-wave radars.ADAS architectures are being developed on FPGA logic devices which allow car makers to offer algorithm updates and new firmware, lowering overall maintenance costs.

Following the liberalization of Japan's low-voltage electricity market beginning April 1, 2016, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank, the three largest Japan-based mobile telecom carriers, have become retailers of electricity for households and small businesses in a bid to promote sales of value-added services using their ICT capabilities, according to Digitimes Research.Newcomers in the open low-voltage electricity market fall in two categories: natural gas and oil suppliers motivated to become integrated energy suppliers and non-energy providers looking for adding value business opportunities, Digitimes Research indicated.Mobile telecom carriers have opportunities to provide smart meters and HEMS (home energy management systems) which are able to not only save power but also collect consumption data for Big Data analysis which can be referenced for providing elderly care and other services.

Shipments of smartphone-use application processors in China are expected to decline 15.9% sequentially to 145 million units in the first quarter of 2017, according to Digitimes Research. Shipments on an annual basis will grow about 7.6% from the 134.8 million units shipped in first-quarter 2016.MediaTek, among the top-three smartphone AP vendors, will suffer the largest sequential drop in first-quarter shipments, said Digitimes Research. The Taiwan-based firm's smartphone AP shipments in China will fall 18.6% sequentially to 57 million units in the first quarter of 2017, due to a lack of solutions to support LTE Cat. 7 technology as well as seasonal factors.Spreadtrum is expected to see its smartphone shipments in China decline 15.6% on quarter to 27 million units in the first quarter of 2017, Digitimes Research indicated. Shipments of Spreadtrum's 16nm 4G SoC series, dubbed SC9860, targeted at the mid-range segment failed to make a positive contribution to the company's shipments during the quarter.Qualcomm's smartphone AP shipments in China will register a smaller 12% sequential decrease in the first quarter, thanks to its more-competitive offerings, Digitimes Research noted. Qualcomm is forecast to ship 44 million units in the first quarter of 2017, up a substantial 41.9% on year. Qualcomm has enjoyed strong sales of its high-end S800-series solutions, while obtaining orders with its S600 series for mid-range devices from Xiaomi and Oppo.In addition, Qualcomm will manage to grow its share of China's smartphone AP market above 30% in the first quarter of 2017, while MediaTek's market share will drop below 40%, Digitimes Research observed. MediaTek saw its share of the China smartphone AP market fall to 40.6% in the fourth quarter of 2016 from 46% in the first two quarters of the year.

Wintel notebooks shipped by the global top-five vendors: HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Asustek Computer, in January 2017 decreased 35% on month but increased 10% on year, while shipments by the three largest Taiwan-based ODMs: Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics and Wistron, also slipped 30% on month but grew 20% on year, according to Digitimes Research.The on-month drop was due to off-season effects and fewer working days over the 2017 Lunar New Year holidays in late January, Digitimes Research indicated.Lenovo surpassed HP as the largest vendor in January mainly due to strong sales in China. Acer and Asustek saw January shipments fall 20% and 14% respectively on month.Meanwhile, ODM Quanta Computer saw a much smaller on-month drop in January shipments than Compal Electronics and Wistron.

Exhibitors focused LED and optoelectronics devices at Lighting Japan 2017 in Tokyo during January 18-20 on automotive applications, according to Digitimes Research.UK-based BAE Systems showcased an object-recognition deep-learning system for use in self-driving, developed through cooperation with Nvidia, Digitimes Research indicated. Infrared thermal image sensors used in the system can recognize objects in dark environments.STMicroelectronics exhibited an image sensor for use in ADAS (advanced driver assistance system) supporting HDR (high dynamic range) images.ON Semiconductor exhibited NCV78763, an in-house-developed driver IC for use in LED and laser light sources, which has been adopted by Audi for laser headlights of its R8. The headlight is able to project at long-range at high running speeds.Taiwan-based Everlight Electronics focused on devices used in in-car LED lighting and displays, while Japan-based Konica Minolta showcased OLED automotive lighting products and indicated that OLED lighting will be used in 8% of high-end automobiles in 2020.

Taiwan-based TFT-LCD panel makers together shipped 312.94 million small- to medium-size units in the fourth quarter of 2016, increasing 1.0% on quarter and 10.2% on year.88.7% of the shipments were a-Si TFT-LCD panels and 11.3% LTPS units, Digitimes Research indicated.In terms of application, handsets accounted for 78.5% of shipments, tablets 5.5%, automotive displays 5.4%, digital cameras 2.9% and PNDs 2.1%.HannStar Display was the largest maker accounting for 37.4% of the shipments, followed by Chunghwa Picture Tubes with 31.4% and Innolux 19.8%.Shipments in the first quarter of 2017 will decrease to 250.77 million panels and those in the whole year will grow 0.8% on year to 1.172 million units.

Various types of robots were exhibited at RoboDEX 2017 in Tokyo, Japan, during January 18-20, including collaborative, humanoid, assistant and receptionist robots, according to Digitimes Research.Japan-based Fanuc, in view of growing demand for IoT-integrated robots, has developed FIELD System, an open platform for such robots with AI (artificial intelligence) functions, failure early warning and detection, remote control and industrial Big Data analysis, Digitimes Research indicated.Denmark-based Universal Robots showcased R5, a collaborative robot capable of Chinese calligraphy, while Hitachi exhibited movable collaborative robots to be launched in the third quarter of 2017 at JPY17 million (US$151,200).Japan-based Kokoro showcased humanoid robots which have been used in hotel lobbies to receive visitors and will be used in Narita International Airport later in February 2017. NEC exhibited PaPeRo i, a robotic dog used to receive visitors at commercial facilities.Toshiba showcased ExPAS, a wearable assistant robot able to reduce burden on users' knees by 15kg. ExPAS is mainly for use by logistics workers and old people.

The number of FTTx subscribers increased to 228 million and 3G/4G mobile broadband Internet-access subscribers grew to 941 million in China as of the end of 2016, accounting for 76.8% of all fixed-line broadband Internet-access subscribers, and 71.2% of all mobile communications respectively, Digitimes Research cited statistics by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) as indicating.MIIT aims at 300 million FTTx subscribers and 400 million fixed-line broadband Internet-access subscribers by 2020 and is likely to attain the goal earlier, Digitimes Research indicated.The significant growth in the number of FTTx subscribers is because the China government began to implement the Broadband China Plan in August 2013, and China Mobile became the third licensee of fixed-line broadband Internet-access services at the end of that year. China Mobile has been rapidly setting up FTTx infrastructure and saw its market share for fixed-line broadband rise to 28.1% in 2016.Despite progress in overall penetration of fixed-line broadband in China, the gap in the penetration rate in urban and rural areas has widened. The average penetration rate in urban areas increased from 35.9% in 2008 to 67.2% in 2016 while rural ones rose from 11.6% to 31.7%, raising the gap from 24.3pp to 35.5pp.