China makers' shipments of touch panels for smartphone, tablet and notebook applications dropped 17.4%, 31.7% and 33.5% respectively in the first quarter of 2015, according to Digitimes Research.White-box tablet demand in China slowed down during the first quarter while notebook touch panel orders shifted back to Taiwan makers. Smartphone touch panel shipments were relatively low as the makers increased shipments to Samsung Electronics.Heading into the second quarter the applications expect to see 19.5%, 12.7% and 20% on-quarter growth respectively. Tablet applications will see the lowest growth due to lagging demand for white-box products.In terms of makers, Truly Optoelectronics has seen a decline in OGS shipments as OPPO and Vivo have shifted touch panel orders to JDI for in-cell technology. EELY on the other hand is expecting increased orders heading into the second quarter as it shifts more toward handset applications and receives increased orders from Samsung. Holitech Technology meanwhile will also see its handset touch panel shipments increase throughout the year starting from the second quarter as it furthers cooperation with major handset vendors in China, said Digitimes Research.

Tablet application processor (AP) shipments to China are estimated to grow 18.6% sequentially in the second quarter of 2015 to reach about 29 million units as demand from the end market starts to recover. Top-3 suppliers in China's tablet AP market, MediaTek, Rockchip and Intel, together will contribute 59.1% of total tablet AP shipments in the second quarter, down 0.8pp from a quarter ago. Intel will be the third-largest supplier for the second consecutive quarter.As China's tablet ecosystem is approaching maturity and the market is seeing fierce competition, demand for tablets is unlikely to see much growth. Compared to the second quarter of 2014, tablet AP shipments to China were down 6.4% and has been dropping since the first quarter of 2015, Digitimes Research's figures showed.After a sharp shipment decline in the first quarter of 2015, MediaTek will be able to achieve shipment growth in the second quarter thanks to clients' recovering demand. MediaTek's shipment share in China's tablet AP market will also slip from 24.3% in the first quarter to 23.9% in the second.Rockchip and Intel will both enjoy sequential shipment growths in the second quarter of 2015 as clients have increased orders.

Panel makers in Asia have continued to strengthen their financial performances in 2015 as panel pricing has remained similar to that in 2014 while overall production costs have dropped, leading to increased profits for most makers, according to Digitimes Research.AU Optronics (AUO) has an operating profit margin of 11.2% in the first quarter of 2015, its highest over the last 19 quarters to hold the number one spot over Innolux, LG Display and Samsung Display.Additionally, China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) reached a 14.5% net profit margin in the first quarter of 2015, surpassing its 9% mark for 2014 while BOE reported 43% on-year growth in revenues, said Digitimes Research.

Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Asustek Computer, the five largest notebook vendors, saw combined shipments in April decrease 32% on month, while Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics and Wistron, the world's three largest notebook ODMs, saw combined shipments in April slip 16% on month, according to Digitimes Research's latest monthly notebook shipment report.In addition to March's high shipment comparison, the vendors' pessimistic attitude about notebook demand in the second quarter was also a main factor for the drop.Lenovo, HP and Acer saw their shipments fall over 50%, over 40% and close to 30% on month, respectively in April, but compared to April a year ago, HP still enjoyed growth, Digitimes Research's figures showed.Dell had the best performance among the top-five vendors in the month with a slight increase in shipments from March and 20% on year thanks to new notebook products.Compal and Wistron both had about 20% on-month shipment declines in April, while Quanta only suffered about 10% due to increased orders from Apple.Microsoft's plans of expanding Office's support to other platforms and having other platforms' apps support Windows are expected to benefit Windows-based smartphones and 2-in-1 devices significantly. As for PCs, Windows 10, which is scheduled to be released in the third quarter, is having some impact on PC shipments in the second quarter.

Taiwan makers' shipments of LCD TVs reached 7.48 million in the first quarter of 2015, down over 30% on quarter and the lowest since the first quarter of 2010, according to Digitimes Research.The makers' shipment proportion to North America decreased from 52.1% in the fourth quarter of 2014 to 43% in the first quarter as orders in the area declined and because Foxconn Electronics saw a surge of orders to Mexico-based customers, causing its proportion of North America-based customers to drop.TPV, Foxconn and Wistron were the top makers during the first quarter, with Foxconn and TPV both surpassing the one million mark, and Wistron saw relatively lower shipments as it relied on US-based customers. Compal and Amtran meanwhile held 6.7% and 4.3% overall shipment shares.Shipments are expected to pick up in the second quarter, rising over 20% in quarter to around nine million units, as orders from Mexico-based customers are expected to grow. China-based customers Xiaomi and LeTV will also increase orders to Taiwan makers while Compal will receive increased orders from Korea-based makers, Digitimes Research said.

Global tablet shipments are expected to stay flat from a quarter ago and reach 49.31 million units in the second quarter of 2015, but compared to the same quarter a year ago, the volume will drop close to 10%. Apple's iPad shipments are expected to decline to 9.8 million units, down 30% on year, according to Digitimes Research's latest report about global tablets.Because of the Lunar New Year holidays, which caused fewer working days in the first quarter, white-box players had weak shipment performance in the quarter, but are expected to gradually recover starting April. In addition, with Wintel China Technology Ecosystem's (CTE) 2-in-1 solution starting to gain demand, white-box players' combined shipments are expected to reach around 20 million units in the second quarter, performing best among the three major groups: Apple, non-Apple vendors, and white-box players.Non-Apple vendors' shipments are expected to reach around 19 million units in the second quarter, about the same level as the first quarter because Samsung Electronics has shifted its mass shipment schedule from the first quarter to the second. The move will also help Samsung to shrink its gap with Apple.Lenovo's MediaTek-based inexpensive tablet has also started mass shipments in the second quarter. Asustek Computer is expected to see shipments decline in the quarter because of reduced subsidies from Intel and issues with the CPU giant's SoFIA 3G-R.Taiwan ODMs' tablet shipments will drop below 15 million units in the second quarter because of the shipment decline of iPads, and Taiwan brand vendors' weak performance, causing their combined share in worldwide shipments to drop, according to Digitimes Research.

Japan's online video market is expected to grow significantly starting the second half of 2015 when Netflix begins to offer its services, NTT DoCoMo launches its dTV Terminal program and the local top-five cable TV operators start offering free online video services, according to Digitimes Research.Wireless TV operators Nippon, Asahi, Tokyo, Fuji and TBS have been offering quality TV programs free of charge, making it difficult for cable TV operators to promote online paid video services.The portion of consumers in Japan who have not subscribed to paid TV for over a year reached 60% in 2014 compared to 1% in the US, according data compiled by Deliotte. Additionally, the number of subscribers who stream video accounts for only 4% of total paid video service subscribers in Japan.However, streaming video is gaining momentum in Japan, with most wireless TV operators to begin to offering online video services free of charge for the first seven days starting October.NTT DoCoMo currently has a total of 4.6 million subscribers to its online video service, dVideo. The vendor has recently changed the name of its online video service from dVideo to dTV and also supplied subscribers with OTT (over-the-top) STB devices for easy access to the program, Digitimes Research noted.

Networking chipset vendors including Broadcom, Cavium and Applied Micro Circuit (AMCC) have taken the initiative to replace PowerPC and MIPS architectures with ARM's for developments of server processor solutions for new networking communication equipment, including SDN (software-defined networking) and NFV (network functions virtualization) devices, according to Digitimes Research.Since ARM-based architecture sports a number of features including power-saving, highly integration and scalability for multi-core operations which are in line with the development trends for cloud computing, networking chipset vendors are also likely to develop ARM-based chips for micro servers.Meanwhile, the popularity of the OpenPOWER architecture launched by IBM in 2013, which is similar to Sun Microsystems's OpenSPARC, is expected to ebb further despite the support from Google, Digitimes Research asserted.

The production value of Taiwan's IC design industry is forecast to rise 14.3% sequentially to NT$140.07 billion (US$4.58 billion) in the second quarter of 2015, buoyed mainly by a seasonal pick-up in shipments for smartphones, according to Digitimes Research.Taiwan's IC design industry, led by MediaTek and the local major LCD driver IC specialists, posted production value of NT$122.5 billion in the first quarter of 2015. Affected by seasonal factors and fewer working days in February as a result of the Lunar New Year holiday, the production value for the first quarter was 11.4% lower than the prior quarter's level, said Digitimes Research.In the first quarter, MediaTek suffered a revenue decrease of 14.3% sequentially while Novatek Microelectronics and Himax Technologies both saw their revenues decline more than 16%, Digitimes Research observed.Combined revenues of Taiwan's top-10 IC design houses experienced a 12.2% sequential drop, due to weaker smartphone demand in China, inventory adjustments at Korea-based panel vendors, as well as falling DRAM prices, Digitimes Research noted.

Shipments of smartphones in China totaled 83.6 million units in the first quarter of 2015, decreasing 20 million units or 17.5% sequentially from the previous month, according to Digitimes Research.Sales of high-end models from local brands in the first quarter were affected by continued brisk sales of iPhone 6 devices, while some brand vendors and local white-box makers failed to roll out more competitive entry-level and mid-range products during the period, Digitimes Research commented.Thanks to booming sales of iPhone 6 devices, international brands accounted for over 30% of total smartphone sales in China in the first quarter, with Apple taking a 16.6% share. Xiaomi Technology took the second position with an 11.5% share and Samsung Electronics followed with a 10.8% share.For the second quarter, smartphone shipments are expected to stage a rebound of 15-20% sequentially and reach around 100 million units, buoyed by the launch of new models by local brands as well as new flagship models from international brands.However, due to the maturing market in China, Xiaomi Is likely to be the sole local vendor able to ramp up its shipments to over 10 million units in the second quarter, Digitimes Research estimated.