Taiwan-based makers together shipped 312.94 million small- to medium-size (below 9-inch) TFT-LCD panels in the fourth quarter of 2016, increasing 1.0% on quarter and 10.2% on year, according to Digitimes Research.In terms of application, handsets accounted for 78.5% of the shipments, tablets for 5.5%, automotive displays for 5.4%, digital cameras for 2.9%, PNDs (portable/personal navigation devices) for 2.1%.Digitimes Research indicated that a-Si TFT-LCD panels accounted for 88.7% of the shipments and LTPS (low-temperature poly-Si) TFT-LCD units for 11.3%, HannStar Display was the largest maker taking up 37.4% of the shipments, followed by Chunghwa Picture Tubes with 31.4% and Innolux with 19.8%.Shipments in the first quarter of 2017 are forecast at 250.77 million units.

Taiwan-based makers shipped a total of 61.37 million large-size (9-inch and above) TFT-LCD panels during the fourth quarter of 2016, decreasing 1.5% on quarter but increasing 2% on year, according to Digitimes Research.TV panels accounted for 30% of shipments, notebook-use units for 31.6%, LCD monitor-use units 21.1% and tablet-use units 14.3%, Digitimes Research indicated.Innolux shipped 11.18 million TV panels, 10.25 million notebook-use units, 5.99 million monitor-use units and 2.49 million tablet-use units, while AU Optronics shipped 7.21 million TV panels, 9.17 million notebook-use units, 6.97 million monitor-use units and 3.37 million tablet-use units. In addition, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and HannStar Display shipped 2.51 million and 380,000 tablet-use panels.Shipments in 2016 stood at 231 million panels, slipping 2.3% on year. There will be 57.07 million panels shipped in the first quarter of 2017.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have been strengthening development of digital signage technology, with the former applying transparent and mirror display technology and developing Ultra HD LCD and LED displays for digital signage and the latter applying curved-surface AMOLED technology to enhance PID (public information display) design, according to Digitimes Research.In terms of software used in digital signage, Samsung has developed Smart Signage Platform based on its Tizen operating system, while LG pre-installs webOS in its digital signage to enable connection with smartphones, tablets and notebooks, Digitimes Research indicated.Samsung has offered 33- to 55-inch digital signage for commercial use and won adoption from Italy-based cruise operator MSC Cruises.In addition, SK Telecom has offered Smart Signage, a cloud computing-based platform for remote management of interactive digital signage displays.

It may be difficult for China-based AMOLED panel makers to obtain orders from Apple and other international smartphone vendors at least in the next five years das they are technologically inferior to Samsung Display, but their products are likely to be adopted by local smartphone vendors whose global market share is rising, according to Digitimes Research.China-based makers have been developing AMOLED technology and are setting up production lines, with total production capacity expected to exceed 50% of the corresponding total for Samsung Display and LG Display in 2020, Digitimes Research indicated.China AMOLED makers face two major barriers: hiking resolution and harnessing plastic substrate technology. Samsung Display is significantly superior to China-based makers in these two areas.For the two key technologies, China-based EverDispaly Optronics (Shanghai) in 2017 is expected to attain the level that Samsung Display reached in 2014. EverDisplay is lagging three years behind, while other China-based makers are further behind by 1-2 more years.In manufacturing AMOLED panels, yield rates for evaporating light-emitting materials are a bottleneck and the yield rates decrease as resolution increases. Among China-based makers, only EverDisplay and Truly Opto-Electronics are capable of producing Full HD AMOLED panels currently, and Kunshan Govisionox Optoelectronics, BOE Technology and Tianma Micro-electronics may be able to do that between the end of 2017 and mid-2018.Samsung Display began production of flexible AMOLED panels using PI (polyimide) material in the second half of 2014. China-based makers have unveiled such panels but cannot start volume production until 2018.

3G/4G mobile broadband Internet-access subscribers accounted for 46% of all mobile communication subscribers in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) market in 2015 and the penetration is expected to rise to 60% in 2017, with 10% of mobile broadband Internet-access subscribers to be 4G (LTE) ones, according to Digitimes Research.The increase in penetration is mainly because growth in the number of mobile communication subscribers has slowed down, and pre-paid cards take up a large proportion of mobile communication subscribers prompting mobile telecom carriers to offer inexpensive pre-paid cards to provide easy and cheap Internet-access services, Digitimes Research indicated.In 2016, 113 million smartphones were sold in seven ASEAN countries (excluding Cambodia, Laos and Brunei), accounting for 8% of global total sales. 59% of the 113 million smartphones were of 3G models and 39% were 4G ones. Samsung Electronics, China-based Oppo, Thailand-based True, Taiwan-based Asustek Computer and India-based Lava were leading smartphone vendors in the ASEAN market in 2016.

In the Japan market, mobile operator KDDI set up a smart drone platform to store photographs and video in a database in the fourth quarter of 2016, while MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) Rakuten Mobile launched Mavic Pro, a drone developed by China-based DJI, for bundled sale in the quarter, according to Digitimes Research.KDDI's smart drone platform consists of drones produced by Japan-based Prodrone, 3D maps supplied by Japan-based digital map provider Zenrin for navigation, an operational management system for remote control, supporting cloud computing-based services.Mavic Pro supports 4K video recording and can be controlled by smartphones with wireless communication distance up to 4km and maximum flight time of 27 minutes. Rakuten Mobile offers Mavic Pro for sale bundled with smartphones and SIM cards, with varying discounts in price depending on smartphone models.Mobile telecom carriers NTT DoCoMo also promoted drone services in October 2016 and Softbank tested use of drones as base stations in December, Digitimes Research indicated.

December 2016 average retail pricing for 7W LED light bulbs (equivalent to 40W incandescent ones) in the China market decreased 5.4% from October to CNY26.30 (US$3.80), while 9W models (equivalent to 60W incandescents) increased 0.3% to CNY30.40, according to Digitimes Research.Average retail prices for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED bulbs in Japan in December stood at JPY1,390 (US$12) and JPY1,902 respectively, growing 1.6% from October and slipping 0.5%, Digitimes Research indicated.December average retail prices for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED bulbs in other markets were: KRW7,957 (US$6.40, up 0.8% from October) and KRW12,238 (down 2.7%) in South Korea; US$15.90 (down 7.6%) and US$20.50 (down 2.4%) in the US; EUR7 (US$7.30, up 4.5%) and EUR9.40 (up 19.0%) in Europe.Philips 40W-equivalent LED light bulbs and Osram 60W-equivalent models for sale in South Korea had the highest average lumen-price ratios of 133.3lm/US$ and 262.1lm/US$ respectively in December. In terms of luminous efficiency, Toshiba 40W-equivalent LED light bulbs and 60W-equivalent models available in Japan had the highest average level of 84.2lm/W and that of 107.8lm/W respectively in December.

US-based SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) International on May 31, 2016 published SAE TIR (technical information report) J2954 document, a milestone to commercialize wireless power charging of PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) and EVs.SAE TIR J2954, formally called Wireless Power Transfer for Light-duty Plug-in/Electric Vehicles and Alignment Methodology, establishes an industry-wide specification guideline that defines acceptable criteria for interoperability, electromagnetic compatibility, minimum performance, safety and testing for wireless charging of plug-in electric vehicles.In comparison with conventional power charging of plug-in electric vehicles, wireless power charging does not entail establishment of dedicated charging piles or stations and instead, can be done at parking places equipped with simple facilities including charging boxes connected to power grids and vehicle/ground assembly coil sets, Digitimes Research Indicated.SAE TIR J2954 specifies a common frequency of operation at 85KHz band (81.39KHz-90KHz) for interoperability of wireless power transfer. In addition, there are four classes of wireless power transfer levels: 3.7KW, 7.7KW, 11KW and 22KW.In addition to SAE TIR J2954, IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) has specified IEC TC69 and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) has TC22/SC37 for wireless power charging. However, SAE TIR J2954 has won support from 11 international automobile makers including General Motors, Ford, Daimler, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda, four electric bus makers including Volvo and BYD as well as 14 automotive part and component makers.

Global production value for high-brightness LED chips in 2017 will reach US$13.179 billion, growing 2.8% on year, according to Digitimes Research.There will be 303.754 billion high-brightness LED chips shipped globally in 2017, increasing 23.9% on year, but the corresponding average selling price will decrease 17%, Digitimes Research indicated.Of the shipments, 200.396 billion units or 66.0% will be used in LED lighting, rising 39.2% on year; 33.187 billion units (10.9%) in mobile devices (mainly smartphones), up 0.9%; 17.154 billion units (5.6%) in LED display boards, up 7.6%; 14.290 billion units (4.7%) in backlighting of LCD TVs, up 2.6%; 14.124 billion units (4.6%) in automotive displays, up 15.3%; and 15.756 billion units (5.2%) in backlighting of tablet, notebook and LCD monitor screens, down 8.9%.The large growth in high-brightness LED chips used in lighting will be because global LED penetration of all lighting products will rise to 36.7% in 2017.

With demand for all-in-one PCs from the consumer sector continuing dropping, Digitimes Research estimates shipments decreased 4.8% on year to reach around 12 million units in 2016, and the volume in 2017 is expected to stay flat.All-in-one PC shipments in 2016 had a smaller on-year decline than that of overall worldwide desktop shipments and therefore, the product's share of the worldwide desktop shipments reached 10.4% in the year, the highest ever, Digitimes Research's figures showed.Lenovo remained the largest all-in-one PC vendor and its shipment difference with the second-place Hewlett-Packard (HP) expanded in 2016 since HP and third-place Apple both saw over 10% on-year shipment declines.The top-3 players together contributed 72.3% of the worldwide shipments in 2016 and the top-4 players 84.3%.For ODMs, with second-place TPV-Inventa leaving the all-in-one PC sector, the rankings have been reshuffled. Most of TPV-Inventa's orders were taken over by Compal Electronics and Asia Vital Components (AVC).