First-tier China-based touch panel makers, in view of decreased orders for projected capacitive touch solutions (out-cell) used in smartphones due to increasing adoption of in-cell and on-cell touch solutions, have extended production to full bonding of TFT-LCD display panels and touch modules, cover glass, fingerprint recognition modules, iris recognition modules, industrial and automotive displays, according to Digitimes Research.For example, Shenzhen O-film Touch has developed air touch and force sensing technologies, Jiangxi Holitech Technology has stepped into production of electronic labels, Chung Hua EELY Enterprise has developed touch panels made of a metal mesh layer and a silver nanowire layer for combination with flexible AMOLED panels, Digitimes Research indicated. Cover glass maker Lens Technology has developed algorithm for fingerprint and iris recognition and won adoption for smartphones from Samsung Electronics, Microsoft and Fujitsu.In contrast with touch panel makers, touch IC design houses, such as US-based Synaptics, Taiwan-based FocalTech Systems and Himax Technologies and China-based Goodix, have gained footholds in the market segment of in-cell touch solutions. Taiwan-based Parade Technologies has developed integrated display driver IC and touch IC solutions and promoted such solutions among China-based LTPS TFT-LCD panel makers.

AT&T has launched DirectTV Now, the third virtual pay-TV platform in the US market, at a minimum monthly charge rate of US$35, lower than competitors', for more than 100 live channels.AT&T in 2015 acquired satellite live TV DirectTV and then launched DirectTV services, and DirectTV Now is an OTT (over the top) edition of DirectTV.In addition to relatively low charge rates, AT&T offers zero-rating for DirectTV Now subscribers, that is, no charge for Internet traffic of streaming video. While AT&T is expected to be unable to profit or even bear operating losses from operating DirectTV Now, AT&T can attract additional mobile Internet-access subscribers from operation of the virtual pay-TV, Digitimes Research believes. However, US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in November 2016 was concerned about that zero-rating results in unfair competition against other OTT and mobile Internet services providers. In mid-December, AT&T disagreed with FCC's opinion.Sling TV, a virtual pay-TV platform operated by Dish Network's subsidiary, has been in competition with DiretTV Now through launching App at Comcast X1, a set-top box (STB) for Comcast Xfinity TV, to enable Comcast Xfinity TV subscribers to subscribe for Sling TV 425 channels in 21 non-English languages. In addition, Sling TV has offered AirTV, a hybrid STB for watching Sling TV channels as well as ABC and NBC terrestrial TV channels and local terrestrial TV channels.

MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) services have seen fast growing demand in Japan mainly due to the government asking mobile telecom carriers to unlock SIM cards and stop offering zero-price smartphones bundled with 2-year contracts in a bid to enliven the market. However, MVNOs are likely to be under pressure from mergers due to price-cut competition, according to Digitimes Research.All MVNOs in Japan had 47.17 million subscribers in total as of the end of March 2016 (the end of fiscal year 2015), including 5.394 million users of low-cost SIM cards sold or leased mostly independent of smartphones, Digitimes Research cited Japan-based MM Research Institute as indicating.MVNOs' rates have average monthly fees standing at JPY2,072 (US$17.5), approximately one-third the monthly rates offered by the three major telecom carriers: NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank. The lowest monthly rate SIM cards cost only JPY300.The Japan government plans to allow MVNOs to introduce HLR (home location register) and HSS (home subscriber server) to enable them to manage SIM databases and provide in-house-developed services. However, the rolling out these features will cost JPY3-4 billion, which small MVNOs cannot afford, and therefore will not stay competitive.

pureLiFi, a developer of Li-Fi a wireless communication technology based on visible light communication, has improved data transfer rates from 5Mbps originally to 10Mbps and further to 40Mbps, making Li-Fi a technological complement to Wi-Fi, according to Digitimes Research.In comparison with Wi-Fi, Li-Fi has disadvantages of higher cost, immature technology, short transmission distances (about three meters only) and inability to penetrate walls, and therefore can only complement Wi-Fi, Digitimes Research indicated.pureLiFi, spun off from the University of Edinburgh in the UK in 2012, unveiled its first-generation technology Li-ist in 2014, second-generation Li-Flame in 2015, and third-generation LiFi-X in 2016. LiFi-X APs (access points) support PoE (power over Ethernet), PLC (power line communication) and LED lighting products.While there are no significant commercial uses for Li-Fi and no large hardware ODMs or OEMs have adopted it, Li-Fi became the IEEE 802.15.7 standard in 2014 and is expected to see nice market usage in underwater communications as well as inside hospitals and passenger airplanes which are sensitive to interference from radio signals.

There were 112.3 million smartphones shipped in the China market during the third quarter of 2016, increasing 5.2% on quarter and 5.8% on year and accounting for 30.9% of the global total. International vendors shipped 17.1 million units, accounting for 15.2% of the shipments and decreasing 2.8% on quarter and 36.7% on year, according to Digitimes Research.The growth in shipments was mainly because China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom continued to subsidize purchases of smartphones, mostly inexpensive models, to encourage the shift of 2G and 3G subscribers to 4G, Digitimes Research indicated. As of the end of the third quarter, China Mobile had 480.7 million 4G subscribers, China Telecom 107.5 million and China Unicom 88.9 million.Among China-based vendors, Oppo had the largest market share at 19.9% of shipments, followed by Vivo with 15.9%, Huawei Technologies 12.1%, Xiaomi Technology 6.3%, GiONEE 5.5%, LeEco 3.8%, Meizu 3.7%, ZTE 2.1%, Coolpad 1.9%, Lenovo 1.6% and Hisense 1.2%. Apple, Samsung Electronics and HTC were the three largest international vendors with market shares of 9.3%, 5.1% and 0.4% respectively.In the fourth quarter of 2016, 118.4 million smartphones will ship in the China market, including 22.5 million units by non-China-based international vendors.

The worldwide top-5 notebook brand vendors' combined shipments grew 8% on month in November, while the top-3 ODMs' notebook shipments increased 10% thanks to rising sales from North America during Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. Demand for Apple's new MacBook products has also been rising and contributed to the top-3 ODMs' combined shipments.Among the top-5 brand vendors, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Asustek Computer had better performances than the others in November. HP's shipments in the month grew strongly, reaching the second highest level so far in 2016. The growth also further extended the US-based vendor's shipment gap with the second-largest Lenovo to around one million units, according to Digitimes Research's latest notebook monthly shipment update report under Taiwan Mobile Device Tracker.Asustek enjoyed strong shipments in its mainstream and key notebooks in November, giving it a rebound from the downturn in October to achieve 40% on-month growth. The company's November shipments have been the highest in 2016 so far.As for the top-3 ODMs, Quanta achieved the best performance with an on-month shipment growth of over 30% since the company is the sole supplier of Apple's MacBook Pro products in 2016. Its orders from HP and Asustek also increased from a month ago.Quanta also returned as the largest ODM in November, surpassing last month's leader Compal Electronics.Top-4 to -5 ODMs Inventec and Pegatron Technology also saw their shipments grow more than 15% on month in November due to increased orders placed by HP and Asustek.

Global demand for gaming hardware, software and services is projected at a CAGR of 6.6% from US$99.6 billion in 2016 to US$118.6 billion in 2019 and because gaming notebooks, desktops, monitors and even keyboards and mice are offering visual effects, makers of LED devices are expected to benefit from the growing demand, according to Digitimes Research.In addition to gaming, global market value for e-sports in 2016 is estimated at US$891 million, for which, Asia, North America and Europe together account for over 90%, Digitimes Research indicated.LEDs are used to backlight gaming notebooks, smartphones and monitors as well as gaming keyboards, mice and headsets.In addition to gaming, demand for LED chips used sensing is increasing along with fast growing demand for VR, as 20-40 LED chips, including infrared models, are used in a single VR system.

Subsidies provided by China's top-3 telecom carriers led by China Mobile to encourage 2G and 3G service users to switch to 4G services continued to push China's mid-range and inexpensive 4G smartphone sales and shipments in the third quarter.China-based vendors Oppo, BBK (Vivo) and Huawei saw strong sales for their high-end, mid-range and inexpensive smartphones in the third quarter. China-based vendors were aggressive about pushing their shipments to overseas markets for year-end holiday demand in the third quarter and this helped China's smartphone shipments to non-China regions to rise, according to Digitimes Research's latest report about China's smartphone industry.China-based smartphone vendors together shipped 168 million smartphones worldwide in the third quarter, up 10.6% sequentially and 18.6% on year. Of the shipments, the volume to overseas markets increased 15.5% sequentially and 16.2% on year to reach 72.7 million units.The top-5 China-based smartphone vendors were Huawei, Oppo, BBK, Xiaomi and TCL in the third quarter, together contributing more than 55% of the overall shipment volume. The top-3 vendors Huawei, Oppo and BBK all had double-digit percentage market shares in the third quarter and a combined market share of over 45%.As for the fourth quarter of 2016, shipments to overseas markets are expected to rise significantly from a quarter ago, while domestic demand will only have limited growth. Overall volume in the quarter will surpass 184 million units.

CEVA is a global leader that provides the semiconductor industry with digital signal processing (DSP) silicon intellectual property (SIP). The firm has been developing DSP technology since 1991. DSP is capable of real-time data processing and can satisfy and support applications that require real-time response without any delays. Some of DSP's mainstream applications are ultra-high-speed voice processing, background noise elimination, data compression, and signal quality and efficiency enhancements that require mathematical algorithms. CEVA's DSP cores can help smart devices offer clearer sounds, sharper images and faster data processing, and various smart devices such as smartphones and wearable devices adopt DSP technology.CEVA is listed on NASDAQ and more than 7.5 billion chips carrying CEVA technology have been widely used in telecommunication, network, multimedia and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. During the CEVA Technology Symposium 2016, Mr. Moshe Sheier, director of strategic marketing at CEVA, gave an interview where he talked about the trends and future developments of DSP applications.CEVA targeting the rapid growth of cellular IoT devicesThe semiconductor industry has seen a lot of major mergers in recent years to cope with market and technology process changes. For example, Softbank acquired ARM for an astonishing figure and it has been one of the most significant acquisitions in the semiconductor industry in 2016. Now many firms have made significant moves and investments in IoT, racing to establish a foothold in what is seen as the most promising emerging sector in the IT industry. With the smartphone and tablet markets close to saturation, the next big thing will be IoT applications.Many IoT devices have relied on smartphones that support short-distance communication protocols, such as Bluetooth and Zigbee, which has limited the growth of IoT's popularity. And industrial IoT applications face different kind of problems when used outdoors or in the wilderness, such as a lack of electric sockets or WiFi access points. With the coming of Industry 4.0, IoT devices have entered a new era where low power consumption, low cost and long-distance connection are vital. The connectivity problems crippling outdoor IoT devices are one of the crucial problems that need to be solved.International telecommunication associations and organizations like 3GPP have sped up the standardization of NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT), allowing firms in the industry to step up efforts to develop various NB-IoT nodes for different market segments. Because of this, Sheier sees a new generation of IoT devices moving towards being independent of smartphones by relying on more sensors, edge processing and low power wide area technologies. As telecom firms are looking to use LTE frequencies to construct NB-IoT systems and adopt LTE-compatible infrastructures, many major chip vendors have devoted large amounts of resources to developments for cellular IoT networks. Now the industry is eagerly anticipating IoT devices with multiple sensors and long-distance wide area connectivity.According to market research done by Ericsson, the number of long-distance cellular IoT devices will likely grow from 400 million units in 2016 to 2.1 billion by 2022 with a 30% cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR). The market research also predicts that by 2018, the total number of IoT devices will exceed the number of mobile phones. In terms of semiconductor chips, smartphones account for 1-2 billion devices per year but chip demand from IoT devices may soar to 30-50 billion cumulative units, driving powerful growth in the semiconductor market. Sheier is very optimistic about the future of cellular IoT.Computer vision and image recognition DSP applications lead machine learning boomComputer vision and image recognition technologies used in self-driving vehicles and drones are an important development for DSP applications. In addition to improving the quality of the images, CEVA has invested a great amount of resources to develop vision applications, and with always-on, always-sensing, and always-connected technologies, combined with Big Data processing and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for machine learning, CEVA's DSP has successfully expanded its reach from monitoring and security systems to emerging applications such as smart city and smart medical ones. The technology has also been welcomed by mainstream brand vendors.CEVA works with strategic partners on developing edge AI technologies and uses neural network to develop machine learning applications. This year, CEVA has introduced the second generation of CEVA Deep Neural Network (CDNN2) software framework to further simplify the machine learning process for low power embedded systems.Combining lower power consumption and machine learning technologies, CEVA's strategic partner, emza Visual Sense, showcased an IoT visual sensor with power consumption of only 2mW at this year's symposium. With support by always-on technology, a DSP and special software algorithm, it allows IoT devices to perform automatic image recognition. The visual sensor can be operated over a long period of time using batteries and is a highly flexible solution.This type of battery-powered AI visual sensors that can be used for long periods of time is quite suitable for long-term and elderly care. Although such devices may not offer high-resolution images or replace monitoring systems equipped with high-end cameras, they offer smart medical and smart city solutions featuring machine learning and real-time response.Software integration is the keyThe development of Big Data analytics and AI has been stimulating the development of different IoT systems. Sheier cited examples from the pharmaceutical and biomedical sectors. During the transportation of pharmaceutical products, temperature control is crucial. The data collected through various sensors of the IoT systems and processed using different software algorithms can predict the impact on the pharmaceutical products caused by different transportation vehicles and the length of transportation time. Based on the information, remedial measures can be adopted to make sure the products arrive in time for the patients. This example shows the important role that software with precise algorithms play.With the increasing popularity of machine learning and Big Data analytics, a lot of software now comes with value-added services. To accommodate this trend, CEVA has been focusing on enhancing the development environment and interface for software, in particular, the machine learning technology based on the deep neural network. Addressing embedded systems' limitations in memory and computing abilities, CEVA has developed offline operation environment by setting the development of machine learning in exterior systems and using training framework and library such as Caffe and TensorFlow to transfer the result of machine learning onto the CEVA embedded processors.Using CEVA Network Generator, this type of software development for machine learning systems can shift the complicated neural network structure and weight, and turn it into a customized neural network enabling real-time response for embedded systems that are undermined by power loss and lack of memory. It is meant for IoT applications that require fast response time, have low tolerance of delay, and do not wish to rely on cloud network. With CEVA's new CDNN2 structure and the highly flexible and customizable assessment and deployment kit (ADK), the integration with more sensors and smart devices can become easier.Based on many years of development and successful experiences in the IP industry, CEVA has won strong recognition for its innovative skills on quality and technology from Taiwan-based firms. The easy access to DSP and connectivity IP allow Taiwan-based IC design houses and OEM/ODM firms to target different market segments and avoid price competition by developing differentiating products for emerging applications such as cellular IoT. This is an opportunity to ride the IoT wave and achieve a win-win situation.CEVA Director of Strategic Marketing, Moshe Sheier

Combined smartphone shipments by Taiwan-based brand handset vendors and ODMs will reach 13.82 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, up 11.8% sequentially but down 23% on year, according to data compiled by Digitimes Research.ODMs Compal Electronics, the Foxconn Group, Arima Communications and Wistron will see their shipments decline sequentially in the fourth quarter, offsetting shipment growths to be recorded by brand vendors, including HTC, Asustek Computer and Acer, Digitimes Research noted.ODMs are shipping less smartphones in the fourth quarter as Sony Mobile Communications has been reducing its orders to Compal and Arima since the third quarter of 2016, while orders from BlackBerry to Wistron are also decreasing. Meanwhile, orders from LG Electronics to Arima are expected to stay flat in the fourth quarter as compared to the previous quarter.Asustek is expected to ramp up its smartphone shipments to 4.7 million units in the fourth quarter thanks to an easing in the supply of display panels, while HTC will push up its shipments to 3.6 million units during the same period due to deferred shipments of a portion of Google's Pixel devices to the quarter, Digitimes Research noted.