The bit growth of mobile DRAM is expected to expand 37.5% on year in the second half of 2014, buoyed by a 30% annual growth in smartphone shipments as well as rising demand for mobile DRAM chips from the tablet sector, according to Digitimes Research.Bit growth of mobile DRAM in the smartphone sector is bound to increase along with the 4G LTE era and the increase in smartphone hardware specifications such as the growing adoption of Full HD displays.Vendors including Samsung Electronics, LG and Sony Mobile Communications have launched smartphones with 3GB RAM memory capacity.With global smartphone shipments are expected to expand 17% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2014, overall mobile DRAM bit growth in the smartphone sector is expected to reach 44.8% in the second half of the year, Digitimes Research estimated.Meanwhile, demand for mobile DRAM chips from the tablet sector will also increase significantly in the second half of 2014, with bit growth rates in the branded and white-box tablet sectors increasing 29% and 23.3%, respectively, from a year earlier.

IFA 2014 in Berlin, Germany during September 5-10 showed that Android tablet vendors are not looking to offer entry-level models for price-cut competition and instead offered models equipped with 3D depth-of-field cameras, water-, dust- and shock-proof features, high-resolution touch panels, and LTE etc. to increase added value. 8-inch has replaced 7-inch to become the mainstream screen size for new models to be launched in the second half of 2014.Small-size Windows-based models showcased at IFA 2014 saw prices fall US$100 from those in early 2014 and are currently at a level similar to that of Android-based entry-level models thanks to Microsoft's license-free policy for small-size tablets and assistance from Intel's China Technology Ecosystem (CTE) project to help lower costs, Digitimes Research said.Following the launch of Asustek Computer's Intel fifth-generation Core processor-based fanless Windows detachable tablet at Computex 2014, many first-tier PC vendors unveiled US$1,000 detachable tablets at IFA 2014. To defend its position, Asustek also unveiled its mid-range TF300TA at the show.

China panel makers are starting to show signs of shifting production capacity on 8.5G lines from large-size applications to small- to medium-size ones in order improve operating margins and to avoid excess supply of large-size panels produced from the lines, according to Digitimes Research. CEC Panda LCD Technology has taken such measures on its Nanjing-based facilities where it has allocated 30% of its production to TV panels and 70% to high-end smartphone panels, tablet panels and even high-end notebook panels. Additionally, Tianma Optoelectronics has improved its operating margin to 5.4% in the second half due to shifting similar capacity to small- to medium-size applications and has also switched focus away from feature phone panel production to smartphone panel production. Digitimes Research added that it also sees similar moves in production shifts from Infovision Optoelectronics in 2014.

Digitimes Research expects global tablet shipments to reach 68.51 million units in the third quarter, up 23.8% sequentially and 9.1% on year, and non-Apple tablet vendors' shipments, which suffered from weaker-than-expected performance during the second quarter, are expected to see a recovery in the quarter.Apple's tablet shipments are expected to benefit from inventory preparations for the second-generation iPad Air in the third quarter, while white-box players' shipments are expected to maintain at a similar level compared to the previous year.In the fourth quarter, although the tablet market will benefit from Android L, a significant upgrade to the Android platform, demand for large-size inexpensive Windows-based models, and stable growth of tablet with phone-functions in emerging markets, the market is still unlikely to avoid reaching saturation. Digitimes Research expects the global tablet market to achieve an on-year growth of only 0.5% in the fourth quarter.Although iPads are expected to enjoy a shipment recovery in the third quarter, volumes in the fourth quarter will decline over 10% compared to the same period a year ago because Apple is lacking a new 7.85-inch iPad product, demand from mature markets is dropping, and new iPhones will replace some iPad demand.Samsung Electronics' third-quarter shipments will rebound slightly and the company is expected to expand its 3G service bundling plans and offer price cuts in the fourth quarter to boost sales.Lenovo and Asustek Computer will both push inexpensive tablets with phone-functions and entry-level Windows 2-in-1 devices in the second half. Vendors that have their own platforms such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google are expected to see their shipments continue to decline.Taiwan-based tablet vendors' combined share in the global market will stop sliding in the second half.As for Taiwan-based makers, Foxconn is expected to enjoy strong shipment growth in the second half because of orders for the second-generation iPad Air and Xiaomi's tablets. Compal Electronics will also surpass Quanta with orders from Amazon in the fourth quarter.

Market share of smartphone vendors in China is likely to fluctuate significantly soon due to the development of 4G market and the roll-outs of the latest flagship models, highlighted by the shipment performance of new phones under the cooperation between Apple and telecom operators beginning in late third quarter 2014, according to Digitimes Research.Samsung Electronics will take the blunt first following the introduction of the new iPhone devices, expecting to see the market share it leads against Apple narrow to 10% as the prices of its flagship models still remain high and yet its brand popularity and product uniqueness are inferior to those of iPhone.Shipments of 4G smartphones in China will continue to gain momentum in the second half of 2014, resulting from aggressive marketing by telecom operators and growing market demand. However, Xiaomi Technology will lose market share to other brands due to its late start in the development of 4G models and lose its top-vendor title to Huawei in the fourth quarter of the year.Shipments of smartphones by Taiwan-based ODMs in the second half of 2014 will be weaker than expected as they have failed to land orders from Amazon and Facebook, while Microsoft Mobile has also slashed its orders for Lumia Windows Phones, Digitimes Research estimated.

Although the IT market has already started preparing for back-to-school demand, the global top-five notebook vendors' combined shipments and top-three ODMs' combined shipments only achieved 5-10% on-month growths in August, lower than those of the same month a year ago.However, their combined shipments in September and October are expected to achieve strong growths because vendors are still optimistic about year-end holiday demand. Microsoft's Windows 8.1 with Bing solution for inexpensive notebooks will also be an important growth driver.Among the top-five notebook brands, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer both achieved over 25% on-month growth in August. As for on-year performance, Acer achieved four consecutive months of growth, while Asustek Computer has been seeing its shipments stay at about the same level as a year ago.The top-three ODMs' on-month shipment growths were between 4-8% in August.In addition to US$249 notebooks, HP, Acer and Asustek also released US$199 notebooks using Windows 8.1 with Bing, looking to snatch demand with low prices.Digitimes Research expects inexpensive notebook shipments to reach 5-6 million units in the second half, about the same level as Chromebook's 6-7 million units. With the addition of Intel's Classmate PCs, inexpensive notebook, which have characteristics and market positions very similar to netbooks, are expected to ship a total of 15 million units in 2014, accounting for 8-9% of global notebook shipments.

With demand over smartphone specifications continuing to rise and most smartphone vendors have been demanding touch panel makers supply semi-completed panels with LCD and touchscreen modules already fully laminated, large China-based touch panel makers have all been aggressively increasing their full-laminated panel and TFT LCD module capacities. However, this business model sacrifices makers' gross margins.Because of the business model, Digitimes Research has found that China's largest touch panel maker Shenzhen O-Film Tech suffered an on-year gross margin drop of 5.91pp in the first half of 2014.Some China-based TFT LCD module makers such as Truly Opto-Electronics, Goworld and Success Electronics have in-house touch module capacities; while O-Film was the largest touch module maker in China before it started establishing TFT LCD module capacity in the second half of 2013 to maintain its competitiveness.In the third quarter of 2014, O-Film's monthly handset touch panel shipments were 12-15 million units, and about 6-7 million units or 50% of overall shipments were full-lamination processed. As for O-Film's in-house TFT LCD module capacity, the current volume is about two million units each month and the volume is expected to rise to four million by the end of 2014, accounting for half of its fully-laminated panel capacity.O-Film's gross margins in 2013 maintained above 16% each quarter, but the percentage dropped to 12.08% in the first half of 2014, down 5.91pp on year and 4.31pp compared to the second half of 2013 because of increases in its fully-laminated product shipment proportion, and LCD panel purchasing from outside makers. However, to maintain its leadership in China's touch panel industry, such a sacrifice is a must.Because of weak profitability, O-Film is expected to decelerate its pace on expanding its TFT LCD module capacity and shift expenditures to new product lines such as camera modules and fingerprint detection modules, to improve gross margins.

Intel shipped only about 1.5 million tablet application processors (APs) in the first half of 2014, but Digitimes Research expects its shipments to reach seven million units in the second half thanks to China brand vendors' and white-box players' full support.Meanwhile, Intel will reduce its marketing expenses for the segment because it will no longer need to heavily subsidize component suppliers whose production costs have lowered.Intel will soon release its inexpensive solutions for smartphones and tablets with phone features and the solutions should strengthen Intel's product lineup in the market, Digitimes Research analyzed.After successfully entering into the supply chains of first-tier brand vendors and China white-box players, Intel has been aggressively seeking alternative sources of component supply in China to lower its solutions' costs. The CPU giant has also been putting effort into app development as well as app ecosystem improvement.As the first chipmaker to release Android 64-bit solutions, Intel, despite the fact that its architecture is natively incompatible with ARM's platform, has been trying aggressively to fit into the industry through the new 64-bit architecture and has gained support from many app developers.Intel's new platforms for phone-supporting tablets and smartphones, which will be released soon in the second half of 2014, include SoFIA and Merrifield-based chips. In addition to integration or pairing with an independent baseband, the APs' computing performance and costs have also seen much improvement. The APs are also very competitive against other-soon-to-be-released ARM-based 64-bit products.Entering the 64-bit generation, Intel's investments in the market and development support are expected to start paying off gradually. In addition to hardware platform's increasing penetration rate, Intel's app store's x86-optimized apps are also becoming more common and with Intel's advantages in the manufacturing process, apps' user experience gap between x86 and ARM will gradually disappear.End device developers will only need to consider differentiation, costs and length of the development cycle and Intel's clients will also have no need to worry about chip costs. As its product's characteristics and ecosystem become more competitive, Intel will gradually return to its usual strategy and abandon its current subsidy strategy.

China makers' shipments of touch panels used in handsets, tablets and notebooks grew 32.6%, 0.3% and 32.2%, respectively, on quarter in the second quarter of 2014, according to Digitimes Research.Tablet touch panel shipments decreased as Samsung lowered its orders and shifted to purchasing from Korea-based makers while demand increased for 4G handsets in China, which spurred a wave of growth for handset touch panels.Looking ahead to the second half of 2014, 4G demand will continue to spur handset touch panel shipments, with Lenovo and Huawei Device expected to put in large orders. In terms of tablets, Intel will further push white-box units in the China market, driving new growth in the tablet touch panel segment.Touch panel maker Laibao meanwhile has increased yields at its notebook touch panel facilities in Chongqing, China, and will supply China-based second- and third-tier vendors with various touch technologies.In the third quarter of 2014, Digitimes Research estimates China makers' shipments of touch panels used in handsets, tablets and notebooks will climb 8.4%, 20.6% and 28.8% respectively on quarter followed by increased shipment growth for handset and tablet touch panels at 8.7% and 10.1% respectively in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The long rumored Apple Watch (previously widely reported on as the iWatch) has been announced, but while the company believes it has created a pioneering user interface for the emerging smartwatch segment, the design of the watch with its much lauded Digital Crown assumes that the watch is worn on the users left arm, leaving the 10% of the world's left-handed population who traditionally wear watches on their right, or anyone with a physically need that precludes them from wearing the Apple Watch on their left wrist at a disadvantage.The main highlight of the Apple Watch is the Digital Crown which Apple says is its most revolutionary navigation tool since the iPod Click Wheel and iPhone Multi-Touch. The Digital Crown provides the means to scroll, zoom and navigate information on the watch without obstructing the display. But this claim only holds true if the watch is worn on the left wrist, since the position of the crown is on the top-right of the watch.Apple typically has a good track record for designing its products to be accessible to a wide range of users. OS X comes with numerous accessibly features and support for alternative input and output devices. Likewise iOS provides customizable gestures, one-handed navigation support, as well as features that enable iPhones and iPads to be used by hard of hearing and sight impaired users.Estimates indicate that around 70% of the world's population is right-handed, around 10% are left-handed, and the remaining are ambidextrous. Watches and jewelry are traditionally worn on the non-dominant hand, and most wrist-worn fitness trackers are recommend to be worn on the non-dominant hand by manufactures.Apple has designed a left-hand mode that flips the Apple Watch's interface to allow it to be worn upside-down on the right arm, but this still changes the position of the Digital Crown from the top the bottom. Alternatively, right-wrist-watch wearers could adapt to wearing the Apple Watch on their left-wrist. Either way it seems that many prospective Apple Watch buyers will have to "Think Different", or wait and hope that the second-generation watches have a more universal design.Apple Watch's asymmetrical design changes the experience for many usersPhoto: Company