Worldwide tablet shipments reached only 50.64 million units in the third quarter, up 9% from the second quarter, but still down sharply by 18% on year, despite the fact that Europe and US retailers were aggressively preparing for the year-end holiday shopping season and demand from Russia and Eastern Europe started recovering.

Korea panel makers aim to hold a 50% share in total display sales generated in 2017 through production of AMOLED, flexible, transparent and glasses-free 3D displays, according to Digitimes Research.

Taiwan makers' shipments of large-size (9-inch and above) TFT LCD panel shipments reached 58.63 million in the third quarter of 2015, up 1.2% on quarter. The makers benefited from stable TV panel orders in addition to rush orders for PC panels near the end of the quarter, according to Digitimes Research.

Solid-state autofocus solutions developed by US-based LensVector have been applied in entry-level smartphones since October 2015 and, although at very small volumes currently, have considerable potential market due to advantages in durability, power consumption, thickness and production costs compared with current mainstream VCM (voice coil motor) solutions, according to Digitimes Research.

Wafer foundry houses in China have stepped up efforts to develop Fully Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator (FD-SOI), or also called Ultra-Thin Body (UTB), processes for wafer production, compared to the Fin Field-Effect Transistor (FinFET) processes being adopted by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Intel, according to Digitimes Research.

Taiwan makers' shipments of LCD TVs reached 9.26 million in the third quarter of 2015, up 16.6% on quarter, according to Digitimes Research.The makers benefited from TV developments from Toshiba and Xiaomi, and also saw orders increase from various customers to meet peak demand.

Shanghai Huahong Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (HHGrace) is currently the second largest foundry house in China in terms of booth revenues and production capacity, and Digitimes Research believes the company is an important indicator of China's development of technology and strategies for 8-inch fabs.

Mobile payments outside financial institutions in China expanded to CNY8.24 trillion (US$1.299 trillion) in 2014 from the CNY1.19 trillion a year earlier, with third-party e-payment service providers accounting for 90.9% of mobile transactions, according to Digitimes Research.

Taiwan makers' shipments of LCD monitors during the third quarter of 2015 dropped 9.3% on year to 20.11 million, which also represented a 1.7% quarterly decline, according to Digitimes Research.

Global notebook shipments (not including detachable 2-in-1 products), are expected to drop 17.5% on year and 5.3% sequentially in the fourth quarter as most notebook vendors already completed their inventory preparation for the year-end holiday sales in the third quarter and are still conservative about overall demand in the fourth quarter, according to the latest Digitimes Research quarterly...