Panasonic has been developing smart towns in Japan using in-house-developed technologies and products. Panasonic sees the development of smart towns as a new long-term business, according to Digitimes Research.

Seven China-based panel makers have been expanding existing or setting up new AMOLED production capacities, with total annual capacity estimated to increase from 272,000 square meters in 2016 to 1.584 million square meters in 2018, 4.464 million square meters in 2019, and 7.864 million square meters in 2020 at a 2016-2020 CAGR of 131.9%, according to Digitimes Research.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.