Viewing that 82.5% of large hospitals with 400 or more beds in Japan have adopted electronic medical records, leading vendors of digital medical systems including NEC, Fujitsu and Hitachi have focused promotions on small- to medium-size hospitals, and consequently, Japan's electronic medical records market will increase to a total value of JPY259.4 billion (US$2.49 billion) in 2018, increasing 20.0% from 2015, according to Digitimes Research.In anticipation of a large elderly population in 2025, the government in Japan has been boosting digitization of nationwide and regional medical/health care networks by connecting hospitals, clinics and health care centers to the Web to share information and increase efficiency, Digitimes Research indicated.Market demand for electronic medical records hinges on the number of connected hospitals and clinics. According to Kyushu Medical Insurance Claim Research Institute, electronic medical record penetration is 50.1% for medium-size hospitals with 100-399 beds, 25.2% for small-size hospitals with 20-99 beds and 30.1% for clinics.In addition to NEC, Fujitsu and Hitachi, innovation companies including Clinical-platform, IMSS and Kirin have offered cloud-based electronic medical record solutions which have fewer functions and thus are lower cost, targeting small-size hospitals and clinics.

Among LED packaging service providers around the world, Japan-based Nichia ranked first in LED revenues for the first half of 2016 with JPY126.58 billion (US$1.248 billion), followed by Taiwan-based Everlight Electronics with US$449.6 million, Germany-based Osram Opto Semiconductors with US$442.9 million, South Korea-based Seoul Semiconductor with US$423.1 million and LG Innotek with US$320.3 million, US-based Cree with US$309.3 million and China-based MLS with US$259.5 million, according to Digitimes Research.However, Nichia's first-half 2016 LED revenues slipped 15% on year mainly due to decreased shipments of LED backlighting for LCD monitors and drops in LED lighting pricing arising from competition from China-based makers, Digitimes Research indicated.In particular, China-based Hongli Zhihui and Shenzhen Refound Jufei Optoelectronics saw first-half 2016 LED revenues grow 41% and 35% respectively on year mainly due to large expansion of production capacity.

Taiwan-based ODMs, OEMs and OBMs (own-brand manufacturers) will ship 37.65 million LCD TVs in 2017, increasing 6.4% on year and taking up 17.2% of global total, according to Digitimes Research.The growth will be mainly due to increased orders from US-based vendor Vizio and China-based LeEco (renamed from LeTV) and Xiaomi Technology, Digitimes Research indicated.Among Taiwan-based makers, TPV Technology will rank first with shipments of 19.93 million LCD TVs, followed by Foxconn Electronics with 9.53 million units, Amtran Technology with 3.98 million units, Compal Electronics with 1.70 million units and Wistron with 1.13 million units.

Global shipments of large-size (9-inch and above) TFT-LCD panels will slightly increase from 673.37 million units in 2016 to 684.60 million units in 2021, equivalent to an annual CAGR of 0.3%, according to Digitimes Research.In terms of application, global shipments will rise from 259.57 million units in 2016 to 265.21 million units in 2021, a CAGR of 0.4%, for LCD TV panels; from 164.49 million units to 155.43 million units, CAGR negative 1.1%, for notebook-use panels; from 142.52 million units to 125.82 million units, CAGR negative 2.5% for LCD monitor- and AIO (all-in-one) PC-use panels; and from 87.47 million units to 110.53 million units, CAGR 4.8%, for panels used in 9-inch and above tablets, Digitimes Research indicated.In particular, Taiwan-based makers will ship 244.31 million large-size TFT-LCD panels in 2017, increasing 4.3% on year.China-based TFT-LCD panel makers' combined production capacity will exceed Taiwan-based makers' in 2017 and South Korea-based ones' in 2018.

Global smartphone shipments are expected to grow 7.2% on year to 1.42 billion in 2016 and another 7% to 1.52 billion units in 2017, according to the latest estimate by Digitimes Research.Apple will be the sole non-Asia brand among the top-20 smartphone brands in 2017, while all the remaining 19 vendors will come from Asia, including 11 from China. Samsung Electronics will continue to lead as the number one vendor, and Apple will rank second and manage to narrow its annual shipment gap with Samsung to within a range of 80 million units.China-based Huawei, Oppo and Vivo will take the number three to five positions in 2017, while India-based vendors will account for three seats in the top-20 rankings, with Micromax and Intex taking the 12th and 13th positions, respectively.None of the top-10 vendors will see its shipment grow over 20% on year in 2017, and only China's Oppo, Vivo and Gionee will enjoy the highest growth of over 15% in the year, Digitimes Research said.Apple is expected to see its shipments grow 12% in 2017, buoyed by the release of the next generation iPhone devices in the second half of the year.Affected by the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung's shipments will stay flat or even retreat in the second half of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017, and the vendor might see its shipments grow by a mere 2.2% in 2017 as its shipments are unlikely to stabilize until the second quarter of the year.Huawei and ZTE will strive to ramp up their overseas shipments to reach a double-digit growth in 2017, while LG Electronics and Xiaomi Technology will only grow by single digits, Digitimes Research commended.With future growth momentum for smartphones coming mainly from replacement demand in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, South America and Africa, Digitimes Research estimates that global smartphone shipments are expected to increase at a moderate rate of 100 million units a year in the next five years, with total annual shipments to reach 1.93 billion units in 2021.

With a series of battery fires reported with Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 and its latest announcement telling customers to turn off the smartphones immediately to prevent further incidents, Digitimes Research senior analyst Luke Lin expects the move to seriously impact Samsung's overall smartphone production for the second half of 2016 and allow Apple, the number-two smartphone vendor worldwide since 2011, to regain the number-one crown in the fourth quarter.Samsung had projected to manufacture 12-13 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones for the second half. However, after the first incident reported on September 1, Samsung began to adjust its projected manufacturing volume and cut the number by around half in late-September.Samsung originally expected its battery replacement program to maintain Galaxy Note 7 demand in the fourth quarter, and therefore shifted most of the projected manufacturing volume to the fourth quarter. However, with replacement devices still seeing the same problem, Samsung has made a decision to cease production of the smartphone.Since Samsung is unlikely to be able to re-design and re-release a new flagship smartphone to replace the Galaxy Note 7 before the end of 2016, Lin believes that Samsung's overall smartphone production for the fourth quarter will drop from 75-80 million units estimated after Samsung cut its Note 7 manufacturing volume by half, to only 70-75 million units.This will bring Samsung's smartphone orders very close to those of Apple, which is also expected to place orders for 70-75 million smartphones in the fourth quarter; giving Apple an opportunity to surpass Samsung in shipments and become the largest smartphone brand vendor worldwide. The last time Apple was the largest smartphone vendor was in the fourth quarter of 2010.Lin noted that Samsung will remain the largest smartphone vendor worldwide for the full year with shipments reaching up to around 300 million units, higher than Apple's estimated 210 million units.

As Samsung Display, LG Display and Japan Display have shut down mostly 5G to 6G TFT-LCD lines to gradually expand AMOLED production capacity since the beginning of 2015, global shipments of small- to medium-size LCD panels will continue decreasing from 2.647 billion panels in 2017 to 2.189 billion units in 2021, equivalent to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -4.6% in the period, according to Digitimes Research.Global shipments of handset-use TFT-LCD panels will continue shrinking from 2.095 billion units in 2017 to 1.630 billion units in 2021 at a CAGR of -6.1%, Digitimes Research indicated.In contrast, global shipments of all handset-use display panels will increase from 2.55 billion units in 2017 to 2.76 billion units in 2021 at a CAGR of 2.0%, with the proportion for AMOLED panels to rise from 17.7% in 2017 to 40.9% in 2021.Since China-based vendors' presence in the global smartphone market has been rising, China-based LCD panel makers' combined shipments of smartphone-use panels are on the rise and likely to surpass Taiwan-based fellow makers' in 2016 or 2017.

The global IC foundry industry output value will grow at a CAGR of 5.2% from 2016 to 2021, according to Digitimes Research. The output value of the IC foundry industry worldwide is forecast to reach US$66.57 billion in 2021, up from US$50.7 billion in 2016, said Digitimes Research. Smartphones will continue to provide growth momentum for the global IC foundry industry over the next five years. Meanwhile, automotive electronics, High-performance computing (HPC), Internet of Things (IoT), and applications related to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) will enter their growth stages, driving industry growth during the five-year period, Digitimes Research indicated. The world's top-four pure-play foundries – TSMC, Globalfoundries, UMC and SMIC – will see their production capacity reach a combined 53,954,000 8-inch equivalent wafers in 2021, representing a CAGR of 5.8% from 2016 to 2021, Digitimes Research said. TSMC is set to move its 10nm FinFET process to volume production later in the second half of 2016. The node will start generating revenues at TSMC in the first quarter of 2017. TSMC is also expected to start making 7nm FinFET chips in early 2018, and 7nm chips using EUV lithography in 2019, Digitimes Research noted.

Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) on June 17, 2016 approved the use of electronic rear-view mirrors, mainly consisting of cameras and displays, in place of traditional models in automobiles, making Japan the first country to adopt the technology around the world, according to Digitimes Research.MLIT requires that the viewing field and resolution of rear- and side-view video recorded by electronic rear-view mirrors be at least the same as seen from traditional models and electronic rear-view mirrors be fit close to where traditional models are, Digitimes Research indicated.In comparison with traditional rear-view mirrors, electronic ones have much wider viewing field with no or little interruption in line of sight but are much more expensive and may introduce a delay in video display or suddenly break down.As Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor have adopted electronic rear-view mirrors, cars with such devices will be available in Japan in 2-3 years.

As mobile communication markets are approaching saturation, cellular IoT is expected to bring new business opportunities and revenue growth for mobile telecom carriers. But development of cellular IoT may not be optimistic, mainly because ARPU for cellular IoT services will be much lower than for mobile communications. Nearly 50% of global cellular M2M (machine to machine) connected devices are concentrated in the US and China, according to Digitimes Research.In most cases, ARPU for cellular M2M IoT services is less than 5% the ARPU from smartphone subscriptions, Digitimes Research indicated.According to GSM Association, there will be 980 million M2M connected devices around the world in 2020, and more than 50% will be based on low-power wide area networks.There was a lack of cellular IoT standards until 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) completed specification of NB-IoT and LTE-MTC (machine-type communications) low-power IoT standards in June 2016, resulting in a lag in development of cellular IoT.