LCD panel shipments for digital signage will reach 4.4 million units globally in 2017, increasing 8.6% on year, and the shipments will keep growing to 5.8 million units in 2020, according to Digitimes Research.While SMD (surface mount device) RGB LED technology has improved resolution of LED display panels used in digital signage, LCD panels are still superior in resolution, Digitimes Research indicated.A large LCD public display still has to be formed by several screens, but slim bezel designs and improved imaging technology will enable LCD to remain mainstream in the market.Development of digital signage is moving toward integration with IoT (Internet of Things), cloud computing and Big Data analytics to collect and analyze data for commercial use.

8K-resolution display technology is being developed for medical application in Japan, with typical cases being use in endoscopic surgery by National Cancer Center Hospital and in remote medical diagnosis developed by NTT Data which is a global IT innovator, according to Digitimes Research.While 8K is a resolution level beyond human eyes' discriminating capability, the technology carries importance for medical application, Digitimes Research indicated. Although 8K LCD TVs are still too expensive to become popular in the Japan market, high cost for 8K-resolution display technology is acceptable for medical application and thus the public and private sectors in Japan have been boosting such application.So far in Japan, 8K-resolution display technology has been used in medical monitoring, endoscopy, educational display of surgical operations and remote medical diagnosis. In particular, the technology is mostly used to develop endoscopic systems. In addition, 8K-resolution images can be combined with AI (artificial intelligence) analysis for further application to medical care.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have been developed in a direction of featuring autonomous driving solutions that can take control to enhance road safety, instead of simply acting as a warning system to assist drivers.With ADAS growing to become a new promotion point for car vendors and many countries having started to enact related policies, ADAS may become the newest must-have car safety feature after anti-lock braking systems (ABS) and airbags, according to Digitimes Research's new report on car technology.

China has strong demand for robots, but locally produced robots took up only 26.7% of its demand in 2015. Too meet the demand, China firms have geared up development of robots with government incentives in recent years and the use of robots has extended from manufacturing to other sectors. But the development of China's robot industry faces two risks: over investment in low-end robots with low added values, and consequently oversupply, according to Digitimes Research.The "Made in China 2025" initiative revealed by the government in May 2015 include robot industry in strategic industrial development, Digitimes Research indicated. Then, China's Ministry of Information Technology and Industry in July 2016 unveiled a plan for developing the robot industry which specifies 10 main types of robots and five key components as targets of development.Since Japan- and Europe-based makers have dominated the development and supply of key components, many China-based robot makers focus on secondary development of robotic systems, customized components and after-sale services.Siasun Robot & Automation, Effort Intelligent Equipment and GSK CNC Equipment are major China-based robot makers. Siasun has extended development and production to service robots used in home care, education and entertainment, while Shanghai PartnerX Robotics and Ubtech Robotics specialize in service robots.

The Japan government relaxed regulations on unlocking SIM of handsets in early 2017 and consequently MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) business has been in booming development in the Japan mobile communication market, with several MVNOs expanding retail networks and offering more services to attract subscribers, according to Digitimes Research.The new regulations shorten the time taken to unlock SIM cards, which is helpful for portability of mobile phone numbers and facilitates mobile communication subscribers to shift from mobile telecom carriers to MVNOs, Digitimes Research indicated.According to Japan-based MM Research Institute, there were 55.62 million MVNO subscribers in Japan in September 2016, increasing 52.7% on year. Availability of inexpensive SIM cards (not locked with handsets) for sale or rent also pushes growth in MVNO subscription. According to Japan-based Seed Planning, there were 8.4 million users of such SIM cards in 2016 and the number will increase to 10.8 million in 2017, with Rakuten Mobile being the largest provider of such SIM cards.More than 90% of MVNOs use NTT DoCoMo's mobile communication networks on lease mainly because rental rates are lower than those offered by SoftBank and KDDI au. While MVNOs compete with mobile telecom carriers, the latter have rental revenues from leased infrastructure increasing along with growth in MVNO user base.

Artificial intelligence (AI) based on deep neural network (DNN) architecture has been widely used in image recognition and has large potential in autonomous driving, according to Digitimes Research.At the Consumer Electronics Show 2017 in early January, Nvidia unveiled Xavier, a SoC equipped with 8-core ARM processor and GPU based on Nvidia's next-generation graphics architecture Volta, specifically for use in automotive machine learning systems, Digitimes Research indicated. Israel-based Mobileye NV and STMicroelectronics have been jointly developing EyeQ5, an image-recognizing SoC for use in self-driving.Other image-recognizing chip solutions are based on IP core or FPGAs. For example, Cadence Design System, Synopsis and CEVA have offered IP core-based products.Due to complicated road conditions, self-driving entails various sensors to detect different conditions. DNN-based AI can precisely detect and classify conditions surrounding moving vehicles and combine various sensor data.

At Mobile World Congress 2017, three tends of wireless networking/communication development were revealed: Commercial operation of pre-5G networks will begin ahead of the original schedule; mobile telecom carriers are driven to change their roles to cope with fast IoT growth; 5G networks will be extensive through daily life, according to Digitimes Research.Pre-5G prototype devices were showcased at MWC 2016, and end-to-end solutions based on pre-5G technology were exhibited at MWC 2017, meaning that pre-5G technology is out of the laboratory, Digitimes Research indicated.Pre-5G communication technologies, including millimeter wave, MIMO/MU-MIMO, beam tracking, are expected to enter small-scale commercial operations in 2018.In addition to developing network slicing architecture, mobile telecom carriers have begun to develop LPWAN (low-power wide area network) services on unlicensed frequency bands for IoT.

Samsung Display and LG Display, for front-end manufacturing process of flexible OLED panels, still have to rely on imported organic materials used in vapor deposition, but the reliance is decreasing through Samsung Group's and LG Group's mergers with and stake investment in foreign enterprises to obtain relevant patents for self-production of such materials by Samsung SDI and LG Chem respectively, according to Digitimes Research.Front-end manufacturing process mainly consists of a TFT back plane and vapor deposition of organic materials, Digitimes Research indicated. For making TFT back planes, Samsung Display and LG Display procure PI (polyimide) varnish from Japan-based Ube Industries and metal target materials, thinner, etching solution and lift-off solution mainly from South Korea-based ENF Technology, Dongjin Semicom and Dongwoo Fine-Chem.For vapor deposition of organic materials, Japan-based Idemitsu Kosan, US-based Universal Display Corp. (UDC) and Dow Chemical and Germany-based Merck are the main suppliers. However, Samsung Group has merged with Germany-based Novaled GmbH to obtain patented technologies of key OLED materials and has invested in Sun Fine Chem, a subsidiary of Japan-based Hodogaya Chemical, for technological cooperation.For the back-end manufacturing process of flexible OLED panels, Samsung Display and LG Display procure high-temperature thin film from 3M and cover glass from Corning, with most of other materials supplied by South Korea-based makers.

Along with the fast development of self-driving technology, there will be increased demand for driver sensing systems used to monitor drivers for determining whether they are able to take over driving when self-driving breaks down, with the global market value for such sensing systems used in level 2 (partial self-driving combined with autonomous functions) and above self-driving to rise to US$2.34 billion in 2025, 3.2 times that in 2015, according to Digitimes Research.Driver sensing systems mainly consist of image monitoring, biometric and alcohol detecting devices, with image monitoring devices being the most important because it is easy and quick to detect abnormal conditions about drivers from images, Digitimes Research indicated.Image monitoring devices mainly consist of infrared (IR) LED sensors and camera modules. For example, Osram Opto Semiconductors adopts IR LED chips, with wavelength of 940nm for IR LED sensors, which can monitor details of drivers' facial expression even in the dark.Since drivers' behavior and conditions face a large variation, driver sensing systems are expected to be integrated with artificial intelligence and deep learning to enhance precision of judgment.

The worldwide top-5 notebook brand vendors saw their combined shipments in February grow 20% on month and 22% on year, while the top-3 ODMs' shipments also experienced 10% on-month and 30% on-year growths in the month as demand was better than expected. In addition, the Lunar New Year holidays in 2017 fell mainly in January, which created limited impact on February's working hours.After suffering from a 50% on-month decline in January, Hewlett-Packard's (HP) shipments enjoyed a strong rebound in February with a shipment lead of over 500,000 units compared to the second-largest Lenovo. Dell did not achieve an on-month shipment growth as strong as in February in 2016, but its shipments in February 2017 still grew by a single-digit percentage from the previous month, according to Digitimes Research's figures.Acer's shipments performed better than expected in February thanks to increased Chromebook shipments, and the company also became the fourth-largest vendor worldwide in the month, surpassing Asustek.As for ODMs, Compal Electronics became the largest notebook maker and Inventec the fourth largest in February thanks to a strong increase in orders from HP.