The global digital gaming market is expected to reach US$99.6 billion in 2016 and further increase to US$118.6 billion in 2019, representing a CAGR of 6.6% during the four-year period, according to Digitimes Research.Related PC products, including hardware devices, software products, media/live broadcasting services, will account for 25% of annual sales of the gaming market, said Digitimes Research.Since gaming PC products usually focus on visual effects, the ratio of LED components being incorporated into gaming PC devices, including gaming notebooks, desktops, motherboards, thermal modules, mice, keyboards and SSDs, is getting higher and higher.Increasing sales of gaming notebooks and the recently released VR devices, including the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR (PS VR), has further pushed up demand for IR LED, RGB LED, sensor LED and other LED products, Digitimes Research noted.

There will be 51.29 million tablets shipped globally in the fourth quarter of 2016, increasing 7.3% on quarter but decreasing 21.5% on year. Shipments will consist of 10.9 million iPads, up 17.2% sequentially, 24.4 million units launched by international vendors other than Apple, up 18.3%, and 16.0 million white-box units, down 10.6%, according to Digitimes Research.7-inch models will account for 31.4% of shipments, 7.9-inch 14.3%, 8.0- to 8.9-inch 11.6%, 9.0- to 9.9-inch 20.3%, 10.0- to 10.9-inch 16.4%, and 11-inch and above 6.1%, Digitimes Research indicated.In terms of application processors used in tablets, Apple will account for 30.9% of all tablets except white-box units, MediaTek 23.8%, Qualcomm 11.8%, Samsung Electronics 8.9% and Intel 8.5%.Among vendors, Apple will be the largest accounting for 21.3% of shipments, followed by Samsung with 15.0%, Amazon 6.2%, Lenovo 6.1%, Huawei Technologies 5.9%, Asustek Computer 2.8%, TCL 2.7%, Microsoft 2.6%, LG Electronics 1.6% and Acer 1.2%.Taiwan-based ODMs and OEMs will ship 15.1 million tablets in the quarter, with Foxconn Electronics to account for 66.8% of shipments, Pegatron 11%, Compal Electronics 10.9%, Quanta Computer 6.8%, Inventec 2.5%, Arima Communications 1.6% and Wistron 0.5%.

A recently published Digitimes Research Special Report notes that combined revenues from Taiwan-based makers' server motherboards, servers, storage and network equipment are expected to grow to NT$558.5 billion (US$17.45 billion) in 2016 and the amount will have a chance to reach NT$600 billion in 2017 as Intel's new Purley-based products will begin shipping in the second quarter of 2017, while demand for datacenter servers will continue to rise.The report, titled "Taiwan server shipment forecast and industry analysis," indicates that 2017 worldwide server shipments are expected to grow 8% on year to reach nearly 12 million units (based on related motherboard shipments) and the volume is expected to reach 12.5 million units in 2017, up 4-5% on year. Since vendors' Purley-based server product shipments are expected to continue rising in both 2018 and 2019, worldwide server shipments will grow another 8% in 2018.For Taiwan-based server suppliers, rising demand from cloud computing industry will boost their shipments by 7.4% on year in 2016. The top-2 vendors in Taiwan Inventec and Wistron (including Wiwynn) will see their combined market share rising from 42.1% in 2015 to 44.7% in 2016 and reach 47.2% in 2017.More information about the report can be found here.

Samsung Display has dominated the global supply of AMOLED panels used in smartphones, but China-based AMOLED makers will begin to challenge Samsung's dominant market status in 2019 as they increase output and China-based smartphone vendors are expected to increase adoption of locally-made panels, according to Digitimes Research.Among China-based smartphone vendors, Coolpad, Xiaomi Technology and ZTE adopted AMOLED panels produced by China-based EverDisplay Optronics (Shanghai), Tianma Micro-electronics and Govisionox Optoelectronics in 2016, Digitimes Research indicated.China-based makers will together ship 2.4 million AMOLED panels in 2016 and shipments will increase to 2.6 million units in 2017, 3.5 million units in 2018 and 4.8 million units in 2019.BOE Technology and Tianma Micro-electronics have been setting up AMOLED production lines, and OLED makers Visionox, EverDispaly and Royole will set up or expand capacity for AMOLED panels. In addition, China-based touch panel maker Truly Opto-Electronics has acquired production equipment from Samsung Display to produce AMOLED panels.

Taiwan-based ODMs and OBMs will together ship 20.158 million LCD monitors in the fourth quarter of 2016, decreasing 2.5% on quarter and 5.3% on year and accounting for 65.2% of the global total, according to Digitimes Research.In terms of screen size, 15- to 17-inch LCD monitors will account for 3.8% of shipments, 18- to 19.5-inch units for 20.0%, 20- to 21.x-inch units for 25.8%, 22- to 26-inch units for 37.4% and 27-inch and above units for 13.0%, Digitimes Research indicated.TPV Technology will rank first accounting for 53.2% of shipments, followed by Qisda with 22.8%, Foxconn Electronics with 15.8% and Wistron with 7.9%.Taiwan-based makers' combined LCD monitor shipments in 2016 will reach 80.836 million units, slipping 0.6% on year and taking up 64.9% of the global total.

The five largest notebook vendors together shipped 10.19 million Windows units equipped with Intel processors in October, decreasing 22% on month, while the three largest Taiwan-based ODMs had combined shipments in the month slipping 12%, according to Digitimes Research.HP ranked first in terms of October notebook shipments, followed by Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Asustek Computer, Digitimes Research indicated. Dell was the only vendor to see sequential growth in shipments. The five vendors' combined shipments in November are expected to grow 15-20% on month.Compal Electronics shipped the most notebooks in October among Taiwan-based ODMs, followed by Quanta Computer and Wistron. Their combined shipments in November will increase over 20% on month.

Looking at today's wide range of technological topics, the Internet of Things (IoT) comes out as the hottest topic among all and is projected to become the rising star in the coming decade. However, in the midst of numerous IoT advocates, many of the proposed initiatives are far too stretched to be feasible. The key underlying issue of this is due to high technological expectations overshadowing practical needs.The IoT megatrend has created a strong momentum for the industry and led numerous businesses to share their own IoT experiences and stories, in the hopes of winning customers with products with outstanding specifications and features. However, in spite of the compelling stories and groundbreaking technologies, taking another look at IoT from a long-term point of view shows that there are still unresolved problems. In other words, a missing piece indeed exists between IoT technology and industry requirements.For the majority of users who have yet to feel the value of IoT, Alex Perng, General Manager of NEXCOM's IoT Business Unit, identifies that the cause of this is due to the old way of thinking that most vendors still adopt. Many have told IoT stories with the intent to increase sales, while not knowing that IoT application is not solely based on a single product, but an amalgamation of sensors, industrial protocol integration, wireless connectivity, cloud computing, data analytics, data visualization and more. All these serve as the basic foundation for developing new service models and applications that can solve user needs and bring true IoT value. Simply making a single outstanding product specification, after all, only demonstrates technological value, not application value.What to Do Next After Connecting IoT is What CountsFurthermore, as the majority of people are intrigued by what IoT can deliver, there are some of those who have higher than usual expectations and proposed a blueprint with a vision far too big to be fully realized in time. Smart city is one example of this. Whereas some other examples focus on a segment of an application, such as in factories where sensors, PLC and network devices are used to collect data that were previously difficult to retrieve, like air quality, temperature and humidity levels. However, with no back-end systems providing data acquisition and analytics, the correlation between the data and respective process parameters could not be identified.Perng expresses that building IoT is not difficult, but users desire answers to questions such as what benefits can be realized and what problems can be solved by connecting to IoT. Answering these questions is where the true value lies. Therefore, to demonstrate the wondrous effect of IoT and bring value to users, solution providers first need to tackle the most daunting problems that users face and analyze critically on how to use network connectivity to connect different end devices for data acquisition. Next, the data must be integrated into the cloud for big data analytics to formulate corresponding management mechanism and solution models.NEXCOM acknowledges that the gateways and PC-based controllers it specializes in reside in the middle layer of the IoT network, which is insufficient to serve as a basis for an overarching solution. Recognizing this, NEXCOM has readjusted its focus to IoT application development, developing a range of open platforms and tools with an emphasis on simplicity and ease of deployment for vertical industries.NEXCOM hopes that businesses across different fields can use these open resources to introduce new types of sensors, embedded systems, network protocols, data acquisition platforms, network visualization tools and cloud services. With NEXCOM gateways and NEXCOM IoT Studio software (network configuration tool) at the center connecting the upper and lower layers, system integrators (SI) from traditional vertical sectors can leverage the open platform environment to integrate new IoT technologies into their existing value chain and create more innovative services and applications that solve customers' problems and create greater value.Speeding IoT Implementations in Verticals with Open PlatformUnder this circumstance, for SIs that previously specialized in end device connectivity in the scope of operational technology (OT), a considerable amount of project time and effort was required individually for each different project scenario of helping manufacturing customers improve operational efficiency. Now, through open source codes from software, system integration from the bottom OT layer to the top layer systems such as MES, ERP and IT can be achieved. In addition, thanks to the interoperability of open source technology, projects in the past that once required custom development can now be flexibly used as solutions for different case scenarios, improving the depth of services.Take a factory control system as an example, solution providers can take advantage of the open platform and quickly acquire the right components needed for deployment, then use industrial IoT gateways to establish network connectivity for traditional PLCs and PC-based controllers. Field data such as cyclone particle density, temperature, humidity and pressure levels can be transmitted to back-end servers over Wi-Fi in real-time. Software analytics tools can then be used to process the data to identify the correlation between environmental parameters and production error rates. This real-time control system model enables customers to adjust parameters and achieve optimal production rates easily without additional training or in-depth knowledge, showing the true value of IoT.IoT needs to integrate sensors, hardware, industrial communication, wireless connectivity, engineering services and cloud to meet application needs.

Worldwide notebook shipments are estimated to reach 41.65 million units in the fourth quarter, up 6.4% sequentially as demand from the year-end holidays is expected to pick up strongly, while Apple's fourth-generation MacBook Pro products have entered mass production, helping related upstream supply return to a stable balance. Although Chromebooks and China-based brand vendors are expected to perform weakly in the quarter, their negative influences will only have a minor impact. The quarter will also see the industry enjoy its first on-year growth after eight consecutive quarters of decline.Hewlett-Packard (HP) will remain the largest notebook vendor in the fourth quarter, while its shipment gap with Lenovo will continue to widen as the China-based vendor is seriously impacted by high channel inventory and business reorganization, according to Digitimes Research's latest notebook report.Dell has shifted some of its resources to push the consumer notebook sector for the fourth quarter. This will allow the company to achieve growth in the quarter despite the enterprise sector's weakening demand. Apple's new notebook products have seen some negative feedback in design and price, but their major hardware upgrades and new Touch Bar design are still expected to attract many users to replace their old Apple systems. With the shipment growth, Apple is expected to return as the fourth largest vendor worldwide in the fourth quarter.Combined shipments of US-based top-tier vendors - HP, Dell and Apple - will also account for over 50% of worldwide shipments. Asustek Computer will become the fifth largest and its gap with the sixth largest Acer will widen as Acer has turned conservative about its shipments, looking to maintain its high gross margins.As for Taiwan-based ODMs, Quanta Computer will enjoy strong orders from Apple for the fourth quarter, but falling orders from its other clients had limited its growth. Compal Electronics will achieve a growth at a level similar to that of the overall shipments. Pegatron Technology, largest manufacturing partner of Asustek, will perform the best among the ODMs in the fourth quarter.

Samsung Electronics launched seven 32- to 55-inch smart digital signage solutions with thicknesses of 29.9mm and bezel sizes of 6.9mm in the second half of 2016, equipped with in-house-developed Samsung Smart Signage Platform and Tizen operating system, according to Digitimes Research.While conventional digital signage basically displays information and advertising content only, smart digital signage is interactive with users and enables remote system management via touch and sensing functions as well as wireless Internet connection, Digitimes Research indicated.Samsung Display, Samsung Electronics' affiliate, has developed 110-inch Ultra HD waterproof and dustproof display panels for digital signage.Although Windows is currently the dominant operating system for digital signage due to advantages of compatibility with Windows-based IT devices and complete software development kit, Samsung Electronics has extended Linux-based Tizen from smartphones to digital signage.

The global volume of LED chips used in TV backlighting in 2017 will increase slightly on year, with Ultra HD, HDR and quantum dot models expected to increase usage, while direct-type backlights, OLED and adoption of flip-chip LED backlighting to decrease usage, according to Digitimes Research.The increase will mostly come from Ultra HD TVs, because such models will take up 36.5% of all LCD TVs to be shipped in the year, rising 11.6pp on year, and an Ultra HD TV uses 30-50% more LED chips than a Full HD one, Digitimes Research indicated.HDR and quantum dot TVs will contribute slightly to the increase as their shares of the 2017 shipments will be less than 5% each although a HDR TV or quantum dot TV uses many LED chips.Direct-type LED-backlit TVs will see major reductions in the use of LED chips in 2017, and they will take up 64% of all LED-backlit TVs (the remaining 36% will be edge-type). And adoption of flip-chip LED devices will decrease the use of chips in TV backlighting.However, OLED TVs' impact on the LED backlighting sector will be minimal, for the shipment proportion for such TVs will be only 0.72%.