Samsung Display and LG Display, in order to put pressure on competitors, has focused on AMOLED panels and will continue expansion of AMOLED production capacities, with combined AMOLED capacity to increase at a CAGR of 33.1% during 2015-2019, according to Digitimes Research.The two companies' combined annual capacity for AMOLED panels will increase from 6.093 million square meters in 2015 to 19.1 million square meters in 2019, Digitimes Research indicated. If broken down by generation, combined annual AMOLED capacity at 8G and above factories will increase from 1.815 million square meters in 2015 to 7.079 million square meters in 2019, and at 4.5-6G factories from 4.278 million square meters to 12.021 million square meters.Demand for smartphone-use AMOLED panels from Samsung Electronics and Apple alone in 2019 will exceed 420 million units. In addition to smartphones, AMOLED panels will be used in tablets, automotive displays and TVs.

While the launch of Apple Pay services in the China market on February 18, 2016 has stimulated use of NFC-based mobile payment services, NFC services will find it difficult to replace third-party e-payments, such as Baidu Wallet, Alipay, TenPay and YeePay, mainly because NFC-enabled POS devices are not deployed widely enough and only high-end and some mid-range smartphone models support NFC, according to Digitimes Research.The total transaction value of NFC- and 2D barcode-based mobile payment services in the China market in 2015 reached CNY108.2 trillion (US$17.22 trillion), hiking 379% on year, Digitimes Research indicated. However, providers of third-party e-payment services offered subsidies to maintain their user bases and market shares.For NFC-based mobile payment services, banks tend to play a role of increased importance, and in contrast mobile telecom carriers are losing influence in the market. In addition, growing use of NFC-based mobile payment services is expected to result in a reshuffle of market shares among smartphone vendors.

China's tablet-use application processor (AP) shipments are expected to decrease 2.9% in 2016 as a result of poor tablet sales, according to Digitimes Research.China's tablet AP shipments will increase 6% sequentially to 20.4 million units in the second quarter of 2016, thanks to a pick-up in demand. Meanwhile, inventory adjustments in the tablet supply chain have come to an end with device vendors starting to rebuild their inventory, said Digitimes Research.On an annual basis, however, China's tablet AP shipments for second-quarter 2016 will represent a 2.9% decrease. Nevertheless, the on-year drop is less significant compared to the more than 10% decreases in previous quarters, Digitimes Research indicated.Spreadtrum Communications is expected to outperform other tablet AP firms in terms of shipment growth during the second quarter of 2016, Digitimes Research noted. Spreadtrum will enjoy shipment growth of 36.4% sequentially in the second quarter, buoyed by rising orders for entry-level tablets.

While IoT (Internet of Things) is booming, development is faced with problems in frequency band, value-added service and information security, respectively related to use of licensed and unlicensed bands, limited availability of real value-added services on demand, difficulty in obtaining personal and enterprise information for Big Data analysis, according to Digitimes Research.Some IoT applications are operated on licensed frequency band units via existing wireless communication networks, while others are mostly operated on unlicensed ISM (industrial. scientific and medical) bands below 1GHz, such as LoRaWAN, Sigfox and Weightless, Digitimes Research indicated. However, ISM bands vary in frequency among countries and total bandwidth may not be sufficient to meet demand.Due to lack of profitable operational models, many IoT application operators focus on maintaining existing user bases, expanding infrastructure and obtaining patents but are not willing to invest in providing value-added services that meet market demand.The real value of IoT application derives from analysis of Big Data. However, it is difficult to obtain personal information due to consideration of privacy and enterprise information due to worries about security.

Digitimes Research estimates that worldwide top-5 notebook brand vendors and top-3 ODMs both enjoyed 31% on-month shipment growth in May because of preparations for new notebook models and growing demand for Chromebooks.Hewlett-Packard (HP) was the largest vendor in May in terms of shipments. Lenovo ranked second due to its weak performance in emerging markets; however, the China-based vendor's shipments were only 500,000 units short of HP's. Dell dropped from number one in April to number three in May, but its shipments in the month were the highest monthly performance of the year so far. Asustek Computer and Acer both enjoyed better performances in May than in April, Digitimes Research's figures showed.With HP's increased shipments and Dell's stable orders, the top-3 notebook ODMs together achieved on-month growth of 31% in May and the volume was flat from May a year ago. This is the first time the top-3 ODMs were able to escape from an on-year decline in seven months.With orders from HP and Lenovo increasing around 600,000 units from April, the second-largest ODM Compal Electronics achieved an on-month shipment growth of 33% in May, performing the best among the top-3 ODMs. Quanta Computer also achieved an on-month shipment growth of 31% because of orders for Chromebooks from several brand vendors.

Global shipments for smartphone-use touch panels will reach 369.49 million units in second-quarter 2016, increasing 11% sequentially and 6.2% on year. Touch panel shipments for notebooks and 11-inch and above tablets will reach 6.339 million units, gowing 2.5% sequentially and 78.1% on year, according to Digitimes Research.For tablets under 11-inch, touch panel shipments will reach 44.480 million globally in the second quarter, decreasing 3.5% sequentially and 11.2% on year, Digitimes Research indicated.Taiwan-based makers will ship 17.056 million touch panels for smartphones, 6.283 million units for below 11-inch tablets and 2.836 million units for notebooks and 11-inch and above tablets in the quarter.Of the smartphone-use touch panels shipped by Taiwan makers, 37.8% will be film-based capacitive models, 36% on-cell ones, 21.1% OGS (one glass solution) and 5.1% GG (glass/glass). Film-based capacitive models will account for 46.7% of the touch panels for below 11-inch tablets, GG 42%, on-cell 9.1% and OGS 2.2%.

China-based makers will ship an estimated 180.322 million touch panels in the second quarter of 2016, increasing 16.6% on quarter and 9.8% on year, according to Digitimes Research.The shipments will consist of 157.732 million touch panels used in handsets, up 20.5% on quarter and 12.4% on year, 20.911 million units used in below 11-inch tablets, down 7.0% on quarter and 7.2% on year, and 1.679 million units used in 11-inch and above tablets and notebooks, Digitimes Research indicated.Of handset-use touch panels, film-based capacitive models will account for 73.4%, glass-based capacitive ones for 24.2% and resistive ones for 2.4%.For touch panels used in below 11-inch tablets, 68.4% will be glass-based capacitive models, 31.0% film-based capacitive ones and 0.6% resistive models.

The South Korea government-sponsored Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute estimates the production value for digital signage in South Korea in 2016 at KRW2.55 trillion (US$2.14 billion) and forecasts that the value will increase to KRW3.97 trillion in 2020, according to Digitimes Research.The corresponding production value for displays used in digital signage will grow from KRW1.70 trillion in 2016 to KRW2.44 trillion in 2020, Digitimes Research indicated. However, the ratio of production value for displays to that for digital signage will drop from 66.7% to 61.5% due to increasing use of connected interactive (via touch or sensing functions) digital signage.Digital signage in South Korea comprises of four types: unconnected non-interactive models for static information or advertising content displays; unconnected interactive models which enable users to choose content; connected non-interactive ones which display information but do not allow users to choose content; and connected interactive models which enable collection and analysis of information about users and can maximize advertising.

Narrow-Band IoT (Internet of Things) and LoRaWAN (long range wide area network) are seeing increased application for wireless long-distance communications at low power consumption, and thereby are likely to become two significantly important LPWAN (low-power wide-area network) standards, according to Digitimes Research.CAT-1 in LTE R8 by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) in 2009 and CAT-0 in LTE R12 in 2014 are regarded as transitional standards for IoT because specifications in power consumption and bandwidth do not meet requirements, Digitimes Research indicated. 3GPP in September 2015 proposed LTE R13 of which CAT-M focuses on NB-IoT.LoRA Alliance in June 2015 released LoRaWAN 1.0 in competition with NB-IoT. As of the end of March 2016, LoRaWANs had been commercially deployed in 13 countries and LoRaWAN trialled in more than 60 other countries.In comparison, NB-IoT has competitive advantages of an already mature ecosystem for cellular networks, support from telecom equipment vendors including Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei Technologies and ZTE, large telecom carriers including AT&T, China Mobile and China Unicom, as well as chip solution providers such as Qualcomm. NB-IoT also uses licensed spectrum to provide secure and stable services. LoRaWAN has the advantage of being an open platform to facilitate various enterprises entering the IoT application market.

In the Japan market, chat robots, such as Pepper launched by SoftBank, are increasingly targeted for use by people suffering dementia, and Japan-based Fuji-Keizai predicted that demand for care-oriented chat robots in the Japan market will reach JPY1.7 billion (US$15.5 million) in 2021, 3.4 times the level in 2014, according to Digitimes Research.Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in January 2016 predicted that 20% of people aged over 65 will be dementia patients in 2025, Digitimes Research indicated. Studies in Japan have found that chat can stimulate the brain and thereby avoid or delay the onset of dementia.Ninnin Pepper, a software application specifically for taking care of old people with dementia, won the best award in the Pepper App Challenge 2015.Palro launched by Fuji Soft in 2010 and Unasukikabocyan launched by Pip in 2011 are other chat robots widely adopted by elderly care centers in Japan.