Taiwan panel makers' shipments of large-size (9-inch and above) TFT LCD panels reached 60.165 million in the first quarter of 2015, down 10.2% on quarter but down 3.3% on year, according to Digitimes Research.

Shipments of smartphones by China-based vendors declined by nearly 30% sequentially to 91.8 million units in the first quarter of 2015 due to sluggish demand both at home and overseas, as well as reduced production affected by the traditional Lunar New Year holidays, according to Digitimes Research.

Taiwan-based ODMs shipped a total of 2.3 million digital cameras in the first quarter of 2015, decreasing 42.4% on quarter and 13.6% on year, according to Digitimes Research.

Global notebook shipments not including detachable models reached less than 38 million units in the first quarter of 2015, down 4.7% on year and 19.4% sequentially, according to Digitimes Research's latest report about notebooks. The shipment drop was due to seasonality plus inventory left over from the fourth quarter of 2014...

Demand for all types of lighting products in the Japan market in 2015 is estimated at a total value of JPY646 billion (US$5.39 billion) and LED lighting will account for 78.6% (penetration), according to Digitimes Research.

Average retail prices for 20- and 24-inch LCD monitors in the US, UK, Germany, China and Japan during April 2015 are expected to decrease 8.7% to US$116 and 6.5% to US$244, respectively, according to Digitimes Research.

Microsoft unveiled its third-generation own-brand tablet, the Surface 3 on March 31 with a size and industrial design similar to those of the previous-generation models, but instead of using an ARM-based platform and Windows RT operating system, the device has adopted Intel's Atom processor and Windows 8.1, which can be upgraded to Windows 10 at a later time.

Philips originally planned to spin off its wholly-owned subsidiary Lumileds and automobile lighting business to make them an independent company by the end of the first half 2015. But on March 31, Philips announced a deal to sell a 80.1% stake in Lumileds to Go Scale Capital for an amount of US$2.8 billion, which is a rather nice price for a transaction in the LED industry.

According to Digitimes Research's latest findings from Taiwan's and China's smartphone/tablet upstream supply chain, in exchange for hardware players to pre-install its software applications such as Office, OneDrive or Skype onto their Android-based devices, Microsoft is offering them discounts on the patent licensing fees it charges their Android devices.

Semiconductor capital spending by Samsung Electronics is expected to reach an all-time high of US$15 billion in 2015, making the company's capex the world's highest in the semiconductor industry for the sixth straight year since 2010, according to an estimate of Digitimes Research. Meanwhile, SK Hynix's capex is expected to stay flat at US$5.1 billion in 2015 as compared to the previous year.