China's panel makers have reported increased operating margins in the first half of 2014 largely due to their efforts in promoting smartphone, tablet and low-priced LCD TV panel products, with Tianma Optoelectronics reaching 5.4%, BOE 4.8% and China Star Optoelectronics 3.7%, according to Digitimes Research.BOE's performance in particular will be worth further attention as it will increase its production capacity of large-size TFT LCD panels by 99.5% from 2013-2017, while small- to medium-size AMOLED applications will increase 225.4%.The company continues to maintain good relations with Samsung Electronics and Lenovo, which has helped it improve revenues and shipments as a result of the two vendors' increased sales growth.However, Digitimes Research noted that BOE is expected to see less than 10% on-year growth in revenues during 2014 – a first since 2010 – due to customer order adjustments.

Recently in the digital home industry, Samsung has purchased SmartThings, which allows people to sync up their connected gadgets to a single smartphone app and hardware hub, to further its presence in the smart home industry and home automation market, according to Digitimes Research.Samsung's is also expanding its Ultra HD services with OTT providers, including Amazon and Netflix, in order to push sales of Ultra HD TVs, giving the company product differentiation advantages over other competitors in the market.Additionally in August, HBO showed signs of expanding its OTT and B2C business opportunities in overseas markets as pay TV services in the US have been fluctuating, noted Digitimes Research.

Asustek Computer's Windows-based detachable T100, which was developed in close cooperation with Microsoft and Intel and released in the third quarter of 2013, has successfully attracted price-conscious consumers due to its friendly pricing and free Office software. Asustek shipped almost two million T100s prior to the end of the first half of 2014.With the success, Asustek is expected to continue expanding the product line to increase its presence in the market and try to become the market leader in the second half. However, Digitimes Research believes Windows-based detachable devices' inherent size limitations and competitions from other vendors' 2-in-1 consumer devices and inexpensive notebooks will slow the T series' growth in the second half.Digitimes Research expects Asustek's new T200, which will be released by the end of the third quarter, to only have shipments of 20,000-30,000 units per month, while the shipments of the company's new 8.9-inch model to be released in the fourth quarter will also be far lower than those of the T100.The T100 achieved an excellent balance in size, form factor and price, successfully attracting price-sensitive consumers who need both notebooks and tablets. However, to expand the product line by releasing large- or small-size version of the product is expected to face some issues.First, to make a large-size version will increase costs from the touch module and the panel, resulting in increases in the product's retail pricing. In addition, detachable tablets with over 10-inch displays will have features very similar to conventional notebooks and Microsoft is unlikely to provide subsidies, such as licensing fees or free Office, for such products, which might hurt conventional notebooks' sales. As a result, the large-size detachable products will lose its attractiveness in pricing.Digitimes Research estimates that Asustek's 11.6-inch T200 will see monthly shipments of only one tenth of those of the 10-inch T100.As for making a small-size version, poor user experience caused by small product sizes could impact consumer demand. In the past, demand for netbooks with below 10-inch displays was usually weak, while Lenovo's recent plan of quitting the 8-inch Windows-based tablet market in the US also has proved that small-size Windows-based products are difficultly to sell because their small sizes provide limited Windows conventional control interfaces. Small-size detachable tablets will also feature small keyboards, which are unpopular with users.Digitimes Research expects Asustek to release an 8.9-inch detachable model in the fourth quarter with its shipment volume coming in between those of the T100 and T200.

With Apple showing more aggressiveness in producing its new 9.7-inch iPad, its overall iPad shipments in the third quarter of 2014 are expected to return to the growth trend.However, weakening demand for tablets in Europe and the US, the coming of large-size iPhones and the delay of the third-generation iPad mini are expected to impact iPad's shipments in 2014. Digitimes Research estimates the volume at lower than 70 million units, the first shipment drop for the device.Apple's sixth-generation iPad entered into mass production in August and is expected to become available in early fourth quarter. The new iPad has no significant changes in exterior design, but adopts a direct bounding technology to reduce the gap between the cover glass and LCD, reducing the device thickness and display reflection, and enhancing transmittance.Digitimes Research expects the new iPad to help iPad shipments return to the growth trend in the third quarter with their volume reaching 16.95 million units, up 8.7% on year. The 9.7-inch models will account for 58% of overall iPad shipments.Since Apple does not plan to release a new iPad mini for 2014, the company's iPad shipments will lack some drivers for growth in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, dropping demand for high-end tablets in Europe and the US is also expected to cause tablet sales during the peak season in 2014 to be weaker than the previous years.Apple's 5.5-inch iPhone, which is set to be released in the fourth quarter as well as the new iWatch, which is expected to become a popular gift choice for year-end shopping season and carry a similar price range as the iPad mini, are both expected to impact demand for the iPad mini.Digitimes Research expects iPad shipments to reach only 22.5 million units in the fourth quarter, down 13.5% on year, while shipments in 2014 will drop 8.32% on year to only 69.4 million units, the first on-year drop since Apple released its tablet family.

A battle, which has been given the title #GamerGate on social media, between gamers and the gaming press has been ongoing for three weeks and is showing only minimal signs of losing momentum. But with the year-end holiday season approaching, the top-three console makers: Microsoft (Xbox 360 and Xbox One), Sony (PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4), and Nintendo (Wii U and 3DS), as well as major publishers including Activision (Call of Duty), Electronic Arts (The Sims), and Ubisoft (Assassins Creed), will need to, at some point, start to make efforts to actively calm down the tensions and generate positive PR for the gaming community.If not, they run the risk of seeing poor sales during the industry's peak-sales quarter, which could then have an knock-on impact on the consoles' key component makers and manufacturing service providers, including Taiwan's Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and Pegatron Technology, in the first and second quarters of 2015.Denial and isolationWhat started out as an innocuous sex and bribery scandal involving, among others, a blogger at one of the gaming sectors' leading bloggs, exploded into controversy when those attempting to discuss the allegations were silenced on numerous seemingly unrelated gaming forums as well as link aggregators such as reddit.The attempts to, as the gamers saw it, censor the discussion, only amplified interest (due to the so-called Streisand effect), and prompted members of a well-known image-board to begin digging deeper. Investigations rapidly uncovered an intricate web of undisclosed personal and financial links between numerous bloggers and the games-developers they were writing about and the developers' publicists, as well as allegations of corruption inside the judging body of one of the industry's prominent awards.AngerOutraged at the perceived lack of ethical standards erupted across social media eliciting an indignant response from a significant portion of the gaming press that "those complaining didn't understand how the industry worked". This battle of 140-characters grew increasingly acrimonious as the days passed and several prominent figures including game developers, critics and YouTube celebrities reported having received death threats and a barrage of insults and hate-speech.The fact that a female developer and a prominent feminist social commentator where among those reporting to have been threatened was eventually picked up by the wider technology press as well as some mainstream media outlets including The Guardian and BBC News leading to a flood of articles and op-ed reports on the theme of "gamers are dead" as a cultural identity. By highlighting the fact that two women had been threatened, while ignoring the fact multiple males had also received the same threats, many of these articles argued that today's gaming culture was dominated by males, and as a result supported and even promoted misogynistic, racist, and other bigoted sentiments, leading to the endemic harassment of minorities in the community.However, this attempt to paint the angry gamers as a bunch of sexist, homophobic, racist males who were raging at being forced to "become politically correct" was rapidly rebuked by females, homosexuals, transsexuals and other minorities who all consider themselves gamers in the thousands using the Twitter hashtag #notyourshield.BargainingAttempts were made to "stop the hate" in the form of an open letter from developers to the gaming community as well as an online petition. Combined the two calls-to-action have, to date, received over 10,000 signatures, but the tensions go on and many gamers who feel incensed by the media's decision to not only refuse to capitulate and reform, but to in-fact lash back, has led to the formation of website blacklists in an attempt to "starve these sites of traffic and ad views" and an e-mail campaign to advertisers to force a boycott.DepressionAlthough Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and the publishers will have to navigate a political minefield in order to broker a resolution, the cost versus benefit of staying out of the argument grows less in their favor as time progresses.Most of the gaming industry's revenues are generated during the fourth-quarter. The major publishers have for the past several years scheduled the release of the latest installment of their main game franchises in late October and November. These launches are preceded by multi-million dollar cross-media marketing campaigns which can bring the total development and marketing costs of a AAA game into the region of US$300 million, but they generate revenues double or even triple that amount within the first few days of the game's release.Meanwhile, increased consumer spending in the fourth-quarter means the console makers see a significant uptick in shipments in the quarter. For example, Microsoft shipped 7.4 million Xbox console units into the retail channel, including 3.9 million Xbox One consoles and 3.5 million Xbox 360 consoles in the fourth quarter of 2013 (its fiscal second-quarter 2014). This was compared to two million Xbox console units, including 1.2 million Xbox One consoles in the previous quarter.If gamers continue to actively disengage from the press over the coming months, it is not unreasonable to expect companies to see a significant financial impact in fourth-quarter 2014. Furthermore, if the gaming press continues to negatively portray gamers as bigots and hatemongers, many parents could be alarmed into crossing an Xbox or PlayStation off their child's gift-list and could perhaps choose to buy a tablet or smartphone instead, since these are more often perceived as casual gaming platforms. This would then accelerate the already emerging trend of these devices becoming the game industry's mainstream platforms.AcceptanceAlthough it would be inappropriate for the major hardware vendors and games publishers to use financial pressure or other influence to force a particular editorial viewpoint onto the media, these companies can lend their weight of support by allowing company spokespersons and other prominent figures to discuss the issues openly, or by financially supporting causes, research and PR initiatives that promote a positive image of the gaming community. This has happened multiple times in the past when gaming has been linked to promoting violence or school yard shootings by the media.Although representatives from these companies were not prohibited from signing the "stop the hate" open letter, so far there has been a distinct lack of people coming forward to share their views on-the-record. Meanwhile, anonymous (and therefore unverifiable) posts have been made on message boards claiming that there are people inside these companies that do wish to speak out, but they have been expressly prohibited from doing so. Lifting this vow of silence would have a dramatic effect on opening the dialog on the issues.Several causes that promote the image of diversity in the gamer community have risen to prominence as a direct result of the civil war. A charity game jam (a type of game development competition) has received support in its attempt to raise US$65,000 to develop and produce one of five game concepts originally conceived by female gamers. A direct donation to this charity, or an indirect promotion via an "I am a gamer" sale, would increase the profile of this cause and potentially allow more than one game to be produced.Meanwhile, the NotYourShieldProject is a worldwide, multimedia initiative to show the diversity of gamers in the form of image collages and videos. With industry backing, this project could be nurtured and leveraged to generate positive PR for the games industry.Finally, the idea of a help-group to give advice and support to victims of online harassment has been floated. Support for this or existing anti-bullying support groups could be another opportunity to generate positive news.Tweets per day of #gamergate and #notyourshiled recorded by analytics service TopsyPhoto: Digitimes, September 2014

Whether major smartphone vendors follow Apple to adopt sapphire-screen covers will hinge on cost, and US$30 for a 5.5-inch sapphire-cover will be a competitive price in 2015, according to Digitimes Research.US-based GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) will supply sapphire for making screen covers for the new iPhone, Digitimes Research indicated. Based on GTAT's about 2,500 crystal-growing furnaces and mature crystal-growing process (for example, a 115kg sapphire ingot and linear slicing), GTAT can produce enough sapphire to make 45 million 5.5-inch covers in 2015.South Korea-, China- and Taiwan-based smartphone vendors have begun testing sapphire screen covers, Digitimes Research noted. However, the price of sapphire ingots and wafers in 2015 will not drop significantly on year.

The total number of mobile communication subscribers in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) market will reach 744.3 million in 2016, with 3G to account for 53.1%, 2G for 39.9% and 4G for 7%, according to Digitimes Research.Eight of 10 ASEAN countries had mobile communication user density (number of subscribers divided by population) of over 100% in 2013, with Malaysia ranking first with 145%, Digitimes Research indicated. Maxis, Celcom, DiGi and Umobile, the four largest mobile telecom carriers in Malaysia, have begun 4G commercial operations and have been pushing 2G subscribers to shift to 3G or 4G. Currently, 4G subscribers in Malaysia account for less than 10% of all mobile subscribers.In comparison with Malaysia, mobile telecom communication user bases in the Philippines and Indonesia are still growing, with significantly intense market competition in Indonesia due to too many operators. Because the governments of the Philippines and Indonesia have policies that enable mobile telecom carriers to secure certain revenues and profits, the less competitive environment makes them slow to upgrade networks.

China's tablet application processor (AP) market is expected to grow in the third quarter of 2014, buoyed by seasonal demand and roll-outs of new chips by makers to improve their cost structure, according to Digitimes Research.Top-vendor Rockchip Electronics will see its third-quarter shipments grow significantly and its performance for the second half of 2014 to be better than that in the first half.Rockchip's cooperation with Intel will begin to bear fruit, with plans to start shipping its first integrated baseband processors in the fourth quarter of 2014, Digitimes Research noted.AP shipments from MediaTek will peak in the third quarter, while shipments from Allwinner Technology are expected to decline significantly in the second half of the year as the timing of the roll-outs of its new products is too close to rival companies.Intel may take the number three spot in market share due to its move to provide subsidies and improved efficiency in the management of its software, component and channel operations, Digitimes Research commented.

Mobile platforms based on forks of Android, including Miui developed Xiaomi Technology, CyanogenMod, and Fire OS by Amazon, are likely to become three mainstream Android-based operating systems, according to Digitimes Research. Other consumer OSes available in the market also include ColorOS developed by Oppo, Flyme OS by Meizu, and Smartisan OS by Smartisan Technology. In the business segment, there are Replicant OS, XobotOS, Samsung's Knox and PrivatOS. However, since Google has said it intends to strengthen the security of the Android system, and Samsung also plans to integrate its Knox into Android, it remains to be seen if the development of security-centric Android-based OSes will continue, Digitimes Research said.

Taiwan handset makers originally expected to continue receiving orders for Lumia series products from Microsoft Mobile and also acquire new orders from Amazon and Facebook in 2014, but according to the latest upstream information acquired by Digitimes Research, Taiwan makers were not able to land orders from Amazon and Facebook as expected, and may even see their orders for Lumia-branded Windows Phones decrease.From the fourth quarter of 2013 to the first half of 2014, Compal Electronics and FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of the Foxconn Group, had both been talking with Amazon about cooperation and also received requests for quotation (RFQ) from the vendor.After more than half a year of negotiations, and Amazon even released its in-house designed Fire Phone, Amazon has not yet fully established its smartphone outsourcing plans, causing Compal and FIH Mobile to fail to land Amazon's smartphone ODM orders in 2014 as expected.In the second half of 2013, Facebook started cooperating with Compal Communications, which was still an independent company at the time, to outsource smartphone ODM orders. After Compal's merger with Compal Communications in the first half of 2014, and having shipped several thousands of entry-level Android smartphones to Facebook, Compal's cooperation with Facebook ended and the two firms have not had any other cooperation so far.As for Nokia's smartphone department, which was acquired by Microsoft and is now Microsoft Mobile, Taiwan's smartphone makers originally expected the vendor, which has support from Microsoft's enormous resources, to expand its ODM orders for Lumia series Windows Phone in 2014, but instead the vendor has been cutting Taiwan makers' ODM orders since the third quarter of 2014, fully terminating smartphone and tablet projects that have not yet entered mass production, as it has turned to focus on business reorganization and cost reductions.Digitimes Research believes Taiwan smartphone makers' ODM orders from Microsoft Mobile, Facebook and Amazon will need to wait until the second quarter of 2015 or even the second half of 2015 to have a chance to see improvements.