Panel makers are expressing growing optimism for the vehicle display segment due to increased demand for smart and connected cars, according to Digitimes Research.

The Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) under the South Korea Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning has reached one micron level electronic linewidth used in roll-to-roll printing, which will help push Korean makers' in-cell touch panel developments used in large-size and flexible panel applications, according to Digitimes Research.

Starting out as an OEM subcontracting jobs to laborers working at home 40 years ago, Conquer has now become the leader in fuse components. In the 1970s and 1980s when home appliances were being manufactured for exports, the production of traditional fuses generated considerable revenue for Conquer. Now half of the notebook PCs around the world use Conquer fuses.

More chipset vendors have become more serious about the development of the commercial drone market and have come out with related IC parts targeting the emerging market, according to Digitimes Research.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in March 2015 ended specification of Release 12 (R12) standards which enabled seamless switching between FDD and TD under LTE Advanced, strengthened communication performance of LTE Small Cells and provided preliminary definitions and standards for IoT communications, according to Digitimes Research.

South Korea is expected to adopt AMOLED display technology, PI (polyimide) plastic substrates, organic TFT driving technology and roll-to-roll process to develop large-size flexible displays in 2016, according to Digitimes Research.

Utilization rates at Taiwan's top-three IC foundries will fall further to 85.8% in the fourth quarter of 2015 - the lowest level in 13 quarters, according to Digitimes Research.

South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has been developing guest-host LCD and polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC), two new transparent display technologies based on doping red, green, blue and black dyestuff, and expects to finish development in February 2016, according to Digitimes Research.

There were 331.9 million smartphones shipped globally in the third quarter of 2015, increasing 10.5% on quarter and 7.7% on year, according to Digitimes Research.

While Google has revealed more details of technology and cooperation partners for its IoT operating system Brillo, a lack of system hardware partners and specific direction for product applications may impede the promotion of the OS, according to Digitimes Research.