Shipments of white-box tablets are expected to reach 39 million units in the second half of 2016, a 30% increase compared to those shipped in the first half of the year, buoyed by an easing in component supplies and pricing, as well as an expected pick-up in demand from the US and Europe, according to Digitimes Research.However, shipments of white-box tablets in the second half of 2016 will still represent a decrease of 6.3% from a year earlier period, the smallest range of on-year decline for the period since 2014. This is likely to signal an end to the retrenchment in shipment and an easing of price competition due to a concentration of the white-box tablet makers, allowing the industry to swing back to a healthy development track, Digitimes Research asserted.The shortages in the supply of panels will be eased at the end of the third quarter thanks to increased supplies, and price hikes for memory products will also become milder in the second half of the year due to capacity ramps by memory device makers.Demand for Wi-Fi-only tablets from the mature markets in the US and Europe will increase significantly in the second half due to peak-season effects, while demand from the Southeast Asia region will remain steady. Orders from South America are expected to rebound slightly due to short-term economic factors stirred by 2016 Rio Olympics.In terms of product sizes, the share of 7-inch tablets will rebound to 54% in the fourth quarter of 2016 due to seasonal demand. However, the shares held by 8- and 10-inch models will also increase proportionally.As for tablet application processors (APs), the share of MediaTek's APs is expected to drop to 45% in the second half of 2016 due to keen competition from Spreadtrum Communications and increased seasonal demand for Wi-Fi-only tablets. Intel will see its share climb to over 16% in the second half amid its efforts to clear out inventories of SoFIA chips, Digitimes Research said.

Worldwide notebook shipments are expected to drop 7.3% on year to below 150 million units in 2016 as Windows 10's new anniversary update is not attractive enough to prompt a lot users to purchase new PCs and Intel's Kaby Lake-based processors only had a small upgrade from the previous-generation models and were delayed in shipments plus emerging markets are seeing weakening demand.In the second half of the year, US-based vendors will perform better than the rest of the first-tier brand vendors. Hewlett-Packard (HP) will become more aggressive on price competition in the second half with complete product lines and will surpass Lenovo to become the largest in the third quarter by a small shipment gap, according to Digitimes Research's latest notebook report.Dell, which mainly focuses on the enterprise sector, will see growing shipments in both the third and fourth quarters, but the growth scale will not be as strong as those of competitors that mainly target the consumer sector.Apple had an unsatisfactory shipment performance in the first half of the year, but its notebook shipments in the second half will grow over 40% from the first with upgrades in mid-range and high-end MacBook products.Lenovo, which has been suffering from channel inventory pileups, will not be able to see its shipments rise strongly until the fourth quarter. As for Taiwan-based vendors, Acer will have a better performance in the second half due to its weak first-half shipments.As for ODMs, Quanta Computer's shipments will account for almost 40% of Taiwan's overall shipments in the second half of the year. Compal will see its shipment proportion drop sequentially in the second half of the year, as its orders from Dell are weakening plus Lenovo has been increasing its in-house production rate and relatively reducing its orders to Compal.Wistron will see increasing orders from HP and new orders from Xiaomi.

Smartphone Shipments in the China market totaled 149 million units in the second quarter of 2016, representing an increase of 2.7% on quarter and 14.3% on year, according to data compiled by Digitimes Research.Sales of high-end models from Apple and Samsung Electronics continued to suffer declines in the second quarter as local smartphone vendors focused on promoting entry-level and mid-range 4G models capitalizing on subsidies offered by the top-three telecom operators, Digitimes Research noted.Huawei led all vendors to take the number one title in vendor rankings in China in the second quarter with a 14% share, followed by Oppo with 12.7%, Vivo 11.2%, Xiaomi Technology 10.4%. Apple took the fifth position with its market share falling into a single-digit range.The double-digit shipment growth rates enjoyed by China-based smartphone vendors in the first two quarters of 2016 were higher than the growth rates of smartphones shipped to consumers from retail channel operators, resulting in an increasing pile-up of inventories at channels.Overall smartphone shipments in China are likely to drop slightly on year in the fourth quarter of 2016, affected by inventory corrections in the retail channel, Digitimes Research forecast.

Taiwan-based panel makers will together ship 61.57 million large-size (9-inch and above) panels during the third quarter of 2016, growing 5.5% on quarter and 5% on year, and accounting for 35.1% of the global total, according to Digitimes Research.30.8% of shipments will be panels used in TVs, 32.9% notebooks, 21.8% monitors, 11.9% 9-inch and above tablets and 2.6% other devices, Digitimes Research indicated.Innolux will ship 11.63 million TV panels, 9.84 million notebook panels, 5.93 million monitor panels and 1.69 million tablet panels. AU Optronics will ship 7.35 million TV panels, 10.4 million notebook panels, 7.234 million monitor panels and 2.61 tablet panels. Chunghwa Picture Tubes will ship 2.51 million tablet panels and HannStar Display will ship 120,000 monitor panels.

China-based vendors shipped 145.9 million smartphones globally in total during the second quarter of 2016, rising 13% on quarter and 22.9% on year and accounting for 44.1% of the global total, according to Digitimes Research.58.6 million smartphones were shipped in overseas markets, increasing 20.7% on quarter and 17.7% on year, Digitimes Research indicated.Huawei Technologies was the largest vendor accounting for 18.8% of shipments, followed by Oppo 11.5%, Vivo 9%, Xiaomi Technology 9%, TCL 5.3%, ZTE 5.3%, Lenovo 4.7%, GiONEE 4.5%, Meizu 2.5% and Coolpad 2.1%.Huawei accounted for 21.8% of overseas shipments, TCL 11.3%, ZTE 10.1%, Lenovo 8.2%, Oppo 6.0%, Xiaomi 3.8%, GiONEE 3.2% and Vivo 2.4%. In particular, overseas shipments took up 84.8% of TCL's total shipments, and the proportions were 75.7% for ZTE, 70.1% for Lenovo and 46.6% for Huawei.

White-box tablet shipments were down 15.3% from sequentially to reach only 13.8 million units in the second quarter because the quarter was a slow season for North America and Europe, while demand from emerging markets also remained weak due to economic downturns. In addition, component shortages and rising component quotes have caused some white-box ODMs to be unable to fulfill some orders and were forced to delay orders to the second half of the year.Orders for entry-level Wi-Fi-only tablets from mature markets such as Europe and North America were declining during the second quarter, while demand for tablets with phone functionality also decreased in emerging markets due to exchange rate fluctuations and weak economies, according to Digitimes Research's latest report on tablets.As for component supply, panels had the most serious shortages, while rising memory prices also impacted white-box players' gross margins, making white-box players less aggressive about shipping tablets. The component shortage issues will not be eased until the third quarter.In terms of product sizes, some white-box players turned their focuses from the 7-inch tablet market to the 8-inch one due to the fierce price competition in the 7-inch market. Tablets with 10-inch and above displays saw their shipment share rise to 28% in the second quarter mainly because demand for 2-in-1 devices has been rising.As for tablet APs, MediaTek's solutions faced strong competition from Spreadtrum's inexpensive 3G APs in the tablet with phone functionality sector. Intel already stopped developing mobile device-specific AP solutions, but increasing demand for Windows 2-in-1s will help offset the drop and maintain the shipment share of white-box players' Intel-based tablets.

Sony will reduce its equipment investment for CMOS image sensors to JPY70 billion (US$691.53 million) in fiscal 2016, while maintaining its sensor production capacity at 70,000 12-inch equivalent wafers a month during the fiscal year, according to Digitimes Research.Sony will also gear up efforts to increase penetration rates of its CMOS image sensors in the automobile, robot and medicare segments as its CMOS image sensor revenues are expected to stay flat at JPY960 billion-JPY1 trillion (US$9.48-9.87 billion) in fiscal 2016 as compared to a year earlier, Digitimes Research noted.The CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for applications of CMOS image sensors in the automobile, security controls and medicare is expect to reach over 27%, respectively, during the 2014-2020 period compared to a 4% for the handset sector, the largest outlet for Sony's image sensors currently. Additionally, Sony's share in the automobile CMOS image sensor market is also relatively low currently.Sony has enhanced its image sensing technology through acquisitions, including the adding of ToF (time-of-flight) and medical sensing technologies. The ToF sensing technology will enable Sony to develop related applications for the automobile, robot, security control, gesture recognition and reactive gaming industries.While the global medical sensor market is expected to reach only US$300 million in 2020, an estimated CAGR of 31% during the 2014-2020 period will make the sector viable for Sony. Sony Olympus Medical Solutions, a medical business joint venture between Olympus and Sony, have rolled out its 4K UHD surgical endoscopy systems for the medical industry. Sony aims to take up a 30% share of the global surgical endoscopy-use image sensor market by 2020.

Taiwan-based makers shipped 8.448 million LCD TVs in the second quarter of 2016, increasing 14.9% on quarter and 6.1% on year, according to Digitimes Research.71.9% of the shipments were on ODM/OEM basis and 28.1% OBM (own-brand manufacturing), Digitimes Research indicated. Ultra HD models took up 16.6% of the shipments.In terms of screen size, below 32-inch models accounted for 8.8% of shipments, 32-inch 24.5%, 39-inch 2.9%, 40/43-inch 29.5%, 46- to 49-inch 9.6%, 50- and above 24.7%.Among markets, North America accounted for 39.0% of the shipments, Asia 34.1%, Europe 20.9% and others 6.0%.TPV Technology was the largest maker shipping 4.5 million LCD TVs, followed by Foxconn Electronics with 1.95 million units, Amtran Technology with 900,000 units, Compal Electronics with 490,000 units and Wistron with 330,000 units.

Based on GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) statistics, there were 4,416 models of LTE-enabled mobile terminal devices cumulatively launched around the world as of the end of February, an addition of 1,770 models from a year earlier. 1,311 or 74.1% of the additions were smartphones, according to Digitimes Research.Smartphones accounted for 61.2% of the cumulatively launched 4,416 models, routers 18.5% and USB Dongles 4.7%, Digitimes Research indicated.Of the 1,311 smartphones launched in March 2015-February 2016, only 89 or 6.8% supported VoLTE (voice over LTE), reflecting a low proportion of LTE mobile telecom carriers for providing VoLTE services. As of the end of February 2016, 126 LTE telecom carriers had announced VoLTE services and 55 of them had begun VoLTE operations, taking up 11.1% of all mobile telecom carriers around the world.As 4G network coverage and the proportion of mobile communication subscribers using 4G has reached a certain high level, VoLTE is expected to take off during 2016-2017.

SoftBank's launch of Android-based Pepper service robots will encourage Android software developers to develop applications for Pepper, which in return will help ramp up Pepper's market size and its ecosystem, according to a Digitimes Research report on the latest market trends in Japan's digital home market for the second quarter of 2016.Meanwhile, Panasonic's announcement to close its LCD panel plant in Himeji, Japan will also have a significant impact on Japan's digital home market, said Digitimes Research. Panasonic will outsource flat panels used for its LCD TV production after the closure of Himeji plant, while focusing on development of high-end TV models,Panasonic aims to sustain its profit growth through the outsourcing policy and the focus on high-end models after it managed to generate operating profits in its LCD TV business for the first time in eight years in fiscal 2015 (April 2015-March 2016).For the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games 2020, Panasonic will focus on marketing large-size, high-definition models, including CZ950-series OLED 4K TVs for markets in Europe and DX900/850 series 4K Ultra HD Premium TVs for the local market.Sony, which has exited from the robot market for 10 years, is expected to reenter following its announced equity investment in US-based startup, Cogitai. Sony is expected to launch new business models by integrating AI technologies and its hardware products and services, Digitimes Research asserted.