The Android operating system was again the spotlight of Google I/O developer conference and in addition to a preview of the latest Android L, the Internet giant also launched an entry-level turnkey solution, Android One for emerging markets.Google has strengthened Android L's user experience and performance, aiming to raise its competiveness in the high-end market. Meanwhile Google is pushing Android One into emerging markets in a bid to quickly expand its shares and better regulate second-tier and white-box Android products.Google aggressively promoted its material design concept at I/O conference. The idea is expected to become the main guideline of app designs and Google is also planning to expand the idea into web apps, looking to increase its influence on other platforms.For hardware, Android L will officially support 64-bit processors and adopt a new-generation Android Runtime (ART) to enhance performance. Google also raised webpages' importance in the Android environment and in addition to upgrading webpage's processing level to the same as apps, the Internet giant also developed functions to seamlessly connect webpages with apps.In Android L, the boundary between local and web apps is blurred.Android One, which will initially release in India, is a software-hardware-integrated turnkey solution and through a standardized component configuration, the solution will effectively reduce development and production costs.The solution is enabled by the latest operating system and software services from Google, aiming to standardize entry-level products in the Android ecosystem.Digitimes Research believes that Google's cooperation with India-based players over Android One is just the beginning of the Internet giant's plans for emerging markets where it has had no control over many so-called Andriod devices . Google is looking to have Google-certified Android-based handsets take over in these markets.

The G1F touch technology, which is composed of a glass-type touch sensor and a thin-film touch sensor, is gradually losing its competitiveness in the face of GFF and OGS touch.Prices for the traditional GFF, which is composed of a dual layer of ITO film sensors,have been falling fast, while OGS has seen improved yield rate and ruggedness.Currently, major G1F touch panel suppliers, Taiwan-based Youngfast and Korea-based Melfas, are turning their focuses to metal-mesh thin-film-type touch panel and single-layer-multi-points thin-film-type touch panel production, respectively, and Digitimes Research believes the new technologies will offer the two suppliers new business opportunities.Youngfast's glass-type touch sensor production capacity, which was originally established to help the maker own a complete supply chain for G1F touch panel production, is able to supply about 150,000 tablet-use touch panels per month currently. With the G1F technology losing out in the market, Youngfast is expected to continue strengthening its GFF touch panel production, focus on mass producing OGS touch panels using its existing glass-type touch panel capacity, and cooperate with Japan-based Fujifilm to start metal-mesh thin-film-type touch panel production.In the future, Youngfast's OGS and metal-mesh product lines are expected to replace G1F ones in the maker's offerings for the mid-range to high-end tablet segments.Although Youngfast's OGS touch panels have not yet received any orders for Microsoft's new tablet, China-based Lenovo's branch in Japan has adopted the maker's metal-mesh touch panels for its high-end Thinkpad Tablet series. Because of the series' high-end configuration, Youngfast is only supplying 40,000-50,000 touch panels each month currently.As for Melfas, the company used to manufacture touchscreen ICs and following its entry into G1F touch panel production in 2013, the maker has seen staggering growth in revenues. However, due to poor yield rates, the company did not achieve profitable operation until the third quarter of 2013.As its main client Samsung stopped adopting G1F touch panels for its products, Melfas, using its touchscreen IC manufacturing experience, entered single-layer multi-points thin-film-type touch panel production in March 2014 and is targeting mainly Samsung's entry-level/mid-range smartphone supply chain.Despite fierce price competitions from China-based makers such as Toptouch, Melfas continues to enjoy a good share of shipments thanks to Samsung's policy of protecting local component suppliers.

Google's new Android Auto platform announced at Google I/O developer conference is focusing mainly on the connection between Android-based smartphones and car infotainment systems, and the vehicle industry is showing more signs of incorporating mobile applications and smart features into newer vehicles as nearly 30 vendors are now cooperating with Google in 2014, up from four in previous years.Some of these vendors also plan to add support for iOS to their systems.In addition to connection between mobile devices and applications, the Android Auto platform will eventually enter into the smart home industry.Google has cooperated with Nest to offer solutions that allow drivers to pass the vehicle's information to their houses' Nest branded smart thermostats through apps in their smartphones or tablets and micro-manage the thermostats as needed. With Google pushing Android into car electronics systems, the move is expected to further enrich car electronics systems' applications.Although most mobile platform developers have just started developing applications for car electronics in 2014, the development of smart car electronics are expected to pick up quickly with support from car vendors, telecommunication service providers, hardware and software developers, Digitimes Research believes.

Sales of smartphones by local brands in China are expected to rebound starting the second half of third-quarter 2014 after seeing their sales drop by nearly 30% sequentially in second-quarter 2014,according to Digitimes Research.Although subsidies for the purchase of smartphones in China have shifted to 4G models, the number of new 4G subscribers increased only eight million in the first five months of 2014, which were lower than expectations.Digitimes Research found that smartphone shipments from Coolpad began to show stagnation in the second half of May, Lenovo saw its inventories of entry-level models build up, while Xiaomi Technology, Oppo, Vivo and Gionee did not launch new 4G models to boost sales in the second quarter.However, export shipments of smartphones by China-based vendors grew 15-20% sequentially in the second quarter, with emerging countries in Southeast Asia serving as the major outlets for China's smartphones.Local brands are expected to launch an array of new 4G models in the second half of 2014 in order to help China Mobile fulfill its goal of selling 80 million 4G smartphones in 2014. As a result, the smartphone market in China will rebound quickly starting the second half of third-quarter 2014.Overall, smartphone shipments by China-based vendors are expected to top 400 million in 2014, with exports accounting for over 30% of total shipments, estimates Digitimes Research.

During Google I/O 2014, the Internet giant introduced Android TV as the successor of Google TV and added new features into its Chromecast. Digitimes Research believes that Android TV did not resolve the difficulties that Google TV faces, but only resembles the giant's return to the TV business. Chromecast's new features are expected to add social applications onto the device, increasing users' attachment to the product and start benefiting Android-based handheld devices.Android TV's main functions include voice search on video, video recommendation, OTT and games. Some of the functions are improvements from the defects of the first-generation Google TV, but most of them were already being adopted in the second-generation Google TV or some vendors' Smart TVs.For example, voice search and the video recommendation are able to improve Google TV's drawbacks on the keyboard input usage experience, but the functions have already been integrated by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics into their smart TVs and are also being supported by the second-generation Google TV.Digitimes Research believes the most important message Android TV has delivered is the TV's entry into the Android ecosystem. Google's statements: "Just giving television the same level of attention as phones and tablets" and "one Android SDK for all form-factors" imply that Android TV will help accelerate the creation of new apps, but a rich app database does not necessarily create killer applications and the issue is what Google will need to face when re-entering the TV market.As for Chromecast's new features, they are mainly helping the device to become more suitable for social interactions. The new features include connections between a smartphone and Chromecast without needing the same Wi-Fi area; "Backdrop" for displaying smartphone photos on a TV and ability to mirror an Android device's display onto a TV.With the mirroring function able to provide the sharing of any content from an Android-based smartphone, the feature is expected to significantly boost Chromecast's capabilities. Since the function only supports some specific Android smartphones, Chromecast's popularity is expected to start providing benefits to Android-based handheld devices, Digitimes Research analyzed.

Trading activities between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are growing rapidly with the two sides' import and export values both exceeding US$100 billion each year for the past five years. In 2013, the combined amount of import and export values between the two reached US$230.31 billion with ASEAN contributing 15.5% of Japan's overall export value. The values are continuing to grow, according to Digitimes Research's findings.Japan mainly exports steel, semiconductors and car components to ASEAN. From 2009-2013, Japan's exports of raw materials include steel and transportation products including car components and each enjoyed over 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) each year. The export of IT products including semiconductors had less than 5% CAGR during the period because of Japan IT industry's weakening.Looking at Japan's foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2013, ASEAN accounted for 17.5%, up from 4.8% in 2008. Among countries in ASEAN, Japan had higher FDIs in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, each having over 50% CAGR from 2009-2013, Digitimes Research noted.Japan's investment in Indonesia was the largest within ASEAN and Japan has been increasing its investments in Indonesia, helping the Southeast Asia country to advance from Japan's fifth largest invested country in 2011 to second in 2013, behind only China.Productions of cars and related components are Japan's major investment items in Indonesia. Indonesia's large population and support from government policies also helped the country's car industry grow and enjoy sales of 1.23 million cars in 2013, up 10.2% on year with 95% of the cars made by Japan-based makers.Thailand's governmental fluctuations also pushed Japan-based car makers to expand their investments in Indonesia, bringing component makers to establish plants in the country.

The China government has been offering tax incentives to promote the development of its semiconductor industry since the implementation of its 12th five-year economic development plans in 2011.Under the encouragement of the policy, the number of IC design houses in China grew from about 500 in 2010 to 632 by the end of 2013. However,a number of new IC design companies set up during the three-year period were mostly small-scale operators without much competitiveness. The promotion of industry mergers and acquisitions thus has become a major policy formation for the IC design industry in China recently.To accelerate the industry integration, China's State Council has promulgated recently a set of "National Semiconductor Industry Development Guidelines" laying out the goals for its IC industry for 2015, 2020 and 2030.To meet these goals, China's central government will set up a CNY120 billion (US$19.32 billion) national industry investment fund to finance the build-up of advanced manufacturing processes as well as the mergers and acquisitions within the IC industry.With the support of the investment fund, China will be able to see its production capacity for 12-inch wafers increase significantly, the number of mergers among its domestic IC companies surge, and more China-based IC companies launch plans to acquire foreign semiconductor firms, Digitimes Research believes.

In the first half of 2014, Wi-Fi chipmakers can be divided into two groups: one focusing on developing Wi-Fi chip solutions with better specifications and higher speed, and the other that is no longer interested in increasing the number of antenna or transmission speed, but instead focusing on meeting Wi-Fi chip demand for emerging applications.The number of Wi-Fi antenna marks a major difference between the two groups. Chipmakers who focus on pushing high-end specifications mostly support four Wi-Fi antenna specifications with some pushing 6- to 8-antenna solutions.These chipmakers are also persuading their brand partners to put more antenna in their products to strengthen communication performances. Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone's dual-antenna setup and Asustek Computer's RT-AC3200 router's 6-antenna design are expected to become the new trends for top-end products in the future, Digitimes Research analyzed.As for the other group of chipmakers who are mainly eyeing the markets for wearable devices and Internet of Things (IoT) are mainly focusing on making their 1- to 2-antenna solutions smaller, cheaper, less power consuming and powerful in terms of performance. They are also working on industries such as car electronics and medical devices.

Introduced in 2011, the Chromebook was initially developed mainly for the education sector and has achieved outstanding sales in the past two years. During Google I/O 2014, Google announced plans to further integrate Android with the Chromebook, and Digitimes Research believes the tech giant is looking to expand the Chromebook' presence in the consumer market in the second half of 2014, an expected business direction after Google placed both its Android and Chrome teams under the management of Sundar Pichai in March 2013.With growing demand from the education sector plus new demand from the consumer market, the Chromebook's share in the notebook market is expected to reach 4-5% in 2014, Digitimes Research forecasts.Market changes and application services developments will also affect Chromebook products' future development direction and Digitimes Research expects new Chromebook products to become available as soon as the third quarter of 2014. The number of Chromebook models with different touch panels, industrial designs and ARM processor choices, will increase and boost their prices.To counter Google's aggressive move for the Chromebook, Microsoft released the Windows 8.1 with bing project in April and started releasing US$249 notebooks that it jointly developed with brand vendors in May.Considering the price/performance ratio, most brand vendors have neglected Microsoft's original plan of using solid state drive (SSD) and instead adopted traditional hard disc drives (HDDs) for their US$249 notebooks, causing these devices to have a bulky appearance. Although the Wintel-based devices are expected to enjoy strong sales, they are still unable to get rid of the stereotype that low-price Wintel notebooks are unable to come in a slim form factor.

A number of start-ups, which apparently have made a fortune from producing smartwatches and smart bracelets, have begun to develop other wearable devices, particularly smart rings. Some start-ups have raised new capital from fund-raising websites and have begun accepting pre-sale orders and also delivering products, according to Digitimes Research.Digitimes Research believes that the development of smart rings could follow the business models of smartwatches and smart bracelets under which the start-up companies will pioneer the development of technologies and market for smart rings, and brand vendors may step into the segment after the technologies have been proven and the market starts to take off.However, the development of smart rings still needs to be observed as the small form factor may limit the number of functions built into the rings, and the limited compatibility with handsets and usage impracticalities make less sense in reality, said Digitimes Research.