BOE and China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) both have reported more than 8% in net profits in the first quarter of 2014, beating out Korea- and Taiwan-based panel makers, including Samsung Display, LG Display, Innolux and AU Optronics (AUO), according to Digitimes Research.Both Korea and Taiwan panel makers suffered from decreased tablet panel shipments during the quarter due to the traditional off season while China makers continued to secure orders and expand overall panel production.BOE's and CSOT's net profits grew 31% and 114% on year in 2013, respectively, and are expected to continue growing in 2014, bringing competition to the forefront against Taiwan and Korea makers, added Digitimes Research.

Taiwan panel makers' shipments of 9-inch and above size TFT LCD panels reached 62.21 million units in the first quarter of 2014, down 3.2% on quarter, according to Digitimes Research.In the notebook panel segment, AU Optronics (AUO) shifted production on one of its 5G lines to notebook panel production while Korea-based makers shifted production away from notebook panels to tablet panels, bringing in slight notebook panel shipment growth of 0.6% for Taiwan makers during the quarter, according to Digitimes Research's latest quarterly FPD Data Tracker report on Taiwan's large-size panel shipments.Taiwan makers tablet panel shipments increased 2.2% during the first quarter while TV and monitor panel shipments declined 2.9% and 9.3% respectively.Digitimes Research said Taiwan panel makers are losing their competitive edge in the 32-inch LCD TV panel market due to price competition from China makers, adding that 32-inch LCD TV panels made up 35% of overall LCD TV panel shipments in the first quarter.

The bit-growth rate of non-PC DRAM chips is expected to reach 46% in 2014, led by strong demand for mobile, specialty and graphics DRAM parts, according to Digitimes Research.Powered by demand from the cloud computing and big data sectors, the bit-growth rate of server DRAM chips will grow by anannual rate of 27.2% in 2014, slightly lower than the 28.8% of a year earlier but much higher than a projected 9.7% rise for standard DRAM in 2014.The rate of bit-growth for mobile DRAM parts is expected to top as high as 62.7% in 2014, buoyed by brisk sales of smartphones and tablets, said Digitimes Research.Meanwhile, demand for graphics DRAM is likely to grow at an annual rate of 42%, propelled by a several-fold increase in use of graphics DRAM chips in Sony's Playstation 4 and Microsoft's new Xbox One as well as by hardware upgrades of multimedia devices.

Shipments of smartphone application processors in the China market are expected to grow 13.6% sequentially and 10.9% on year in the second quarter of 2014, according to Digitimes Research.The mobile communication industry in China has entered into a period with steady growth, with shipments now to be more regulated by seasonality. Individual chipset suppliers thus will see their shipments gain momentum along with a take-off of the LTE chip market, Digitimes Research believes.MediaTek is expected to see its AP shipments climb 10.9% sequentially in the second quarter, led by rising shipments of its 8-core MT6592 processors as well as dual-core CPUs, Digitimes Research estimates in its latest quarterly data report on China's smartphone AP market.Shipments of single-, dual- and quad-core solutions by Spreadtrum Communications will gain momentum in the second quarter. Additionally, the IC design house will begin to ship 3-mode LTE SoCs in the quarter.Qualcomm will continue to push sales of its Qualcomm reference design (QRD) solutions as well as its LTE chips and 64-bit family products with its shipments likely to expand 22% sequentially in the second quarter.HiSiliconTechnologies and Nvidia will be able to maintain their shipment momentum in the second quarter thanks to continual orders from their respective clients, according to the Digitimes Research report.

China touch panel makers' shipments to the handset, tablet and notebook segments dropped 19.9%, 13.5% and 44.7% respectively in the first quarter of 2014, according to Digitimes Research's latest quarterly data report.The drop was mainly due to shipment slowdowns that generally take place in the first quarter of each year coupled with holiday seasons and worker shortage.Thin-film type touch panels are expected to make up 77.5% of the makers' shipments as of second-quarter 2014 as China handset vendors put in increased orders for the technology to meet entry-level and mid-range smartphone demand in China during 2014, Digitimes Research estimates in its latest quarterly data report on China's touch panel industry.The demand will push China-based O-Film's handset touch panel shipments to around 35 million units in the second quarter as a result, added Digitimes Research.Digitimes Research also expects the makers' shipments of 11-inch and below size touch panels for use in tablet products to increase 7.9% in the second quarter due to increased demand from Samsung Electronics, Lenovo and various white-box vendors.

Taiwan makers' LCD monitor shipments dropped 18.9% on quarter and 4.4% on year in the first quarter of 2014 to 19.83 million units, according to Digitimes Research.The global LCD monitor market saw limited growth in 2013 and continues to fluctuate going into 2014. Shipments are expected to rise in the second quarter by about 2% due to demand in China, however.Digitimes Research added that many panel makers are shifting production capacity away from monitor panels to small- to medium-sizes.

The "information security" has faced tougher-than-ever challenges as the Internet and mobile devices have become prevalent during the modern era. "Bring your own device" is putting the operating environments of many governments and businesses at risk, said Robert Chin, Chairman, President & CEO of Clientron, in an exclusive interview. On the other hand, thin client PCs incorporating cloud computing technologies are smaller, lighter, and energy-saving, providing enterprise and organization users with the convenience and confidentiality they need most to have better security control."While the shipment of the PC is declining, the sale of thin clients continues to grow annually," said Chin, noting the promising growth of thin clients in the interview. "Especially when cloud computing applications at this stage have gradually become universal, a major portion of processing and storage can now be saved on the cloud, which further boosts the demand of thin clients." Clientron has launched thin client products combined with cloud computing technologies.The top three thin client PC manufacturer in the worldClientron, founded in 1983, targets user-side thin clients in the B2B market. The company took the lead and developed the world's first 486 thin client in 1996. Since 2006, the accumulative shipments of thin clients have exceeded 2.6 million units, making Clientron the third biggest thin client manufacturer in the world. Its clients include internationally renowned suppliers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, IGEL and NEC.Explaining why Clientron has been favored by numerous clients, Chin noted that "our product lines are supported by 9 CPU platform suppliers, with Intel, TI, AMD and VIA are all partners of Clientron's embedded system solutions, which allows us to grasp product trends accurately."Given that the appeal of thin clients is small-volume production of a wide range of different products, Clientron's R&D team leverages its combination of various embedded platforms and operating systems to design products that meet the demands of public sectors, banks, schools, military units, and many different fields. This is the one of core competences of Clientron.More than 90% of Clientron's clients, up to 150 companies in total, are foreign companies and mainly located in Europe. Chin himself has three mobile phones and five phone numbers so as to provide timely and complete services. "My mobile phones are never switched off," said Chin. Moreover, owning two factories, situated in Taipei and Xiamen China respectively, enables Clientron to manage the allocation of production capacity as well as the design and manufacture ability more efficiently than competitors in the same industry.The soaring sales of POSApart from thin clients, Clientron began to lay out plans for the POS (point of sales) market in 2011 and saw a substantial growth of 189% in revenues from the segment in 2013. The main reason behind it is that the all-in-one flat panel products introduced by Clientron had caught the eyes of clients with their beautiful designs, coupled with an excellent heat dissipation performance that effectively avoids malfunctioning and reduces the need for maintenance, which accelerated its entrance into the US and European markets."Clientron will continue to develop new products based on the profound and professional foundations of embedded systems accumulated over many years." Chin especially pointed out that Clientron is taking active measures planning for the medical electronics market, believing that many Medicare business opportunities will be generated from the aging societies. "Instead of life-related products, we choose to penetrate peripheral devices with ICT technologies." For instance, the Patient Infotainment Terminal, which integrates personal medical information, infotainment, calls and even shopping with credit cards, is identified by Clientron as a medical application with great market potentials.The future lies in market business opportunities and smart applications originated from linking sensors, IoT, terminals, and cloud computing. In this industry, which is full of growth potentials, Clientron will utilize its experience and know-how in professional embedded platform design, as well as agile manufacturing abilities and quick service support to constantly expand its presence through vertical integration of different industries, and provide clients from various fields with the best solutions for smart embedded platforms.Robert Chin, Chairman & CEO of Clientron, believes the thin client market will continue to grow.

Taiwan makers' handset touch panel shipments reached 50.19 million in the first quarter of 2014, up 12.4% on quarter, according to Digitimes Research.Makers such as TPK benefited from orders from Apple for its iPhone 4 and 4S as Apple aimed to maintain steady sales in emerging markets while Wintek saw orders from Nokia for entry-level smartphones.Looking head to the second quarter, Taiwan maker's shipments are expected to reach 50.78 million units, up 1.2% on quarter due to demand from Apple, Nokia and HTC, said Digitimes Research.Digitimes Research also noted that Taiwan makers' shipments of touch panels used in tablets dropped 35.9% sequentially to 10.82 million units in the first quarter due to the product life cycle of iPad 2, Google Nexus 7 and Amazon tablets coming to an end. Looking ahead to the second quarter, shipments are expected to increase 2.5% to 11.08 million driven by growth from China-based tablet vendors.The makers' shipments of touch panels used in notebooks meanwhile dropped 56.1% in the first quarter to about two million units and are expected to drop another 15.9% in the following quarter to 1.69 million units, added Digitimes Research.

Over the past 60 years and throughout the establishment of Taiwan's electrical infrastructure, Tatung has helped Taiwan Power Company (TPC) build power plants and substations. Tatung has also provided infrastructural facilities including generators, transformers, switchgears, as well as electrical wires and cables. Looking forward, Tatung will continue to closely participate in the upgrading of Taiwan's electrical infrastructure as well as in the development of the smart grid.Which engineering achievement had the greatest impact on civilization in the 20th century? According to the assessment of U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE), electrical infrastructure tops the list, winning over the personal computers, mobile phones, and the Internet for one important reason: without electricity, none of these popular candidates would have existed.Entering the 21st century, electrical infrastructure is still critically important. However, traditional electrical grid architectures can no longer satisfy new developmental requirements, such as the requirements of incorporating more and more renewable energy, as well as energy conservation and carbon reduction. This is why the electrical grid is in such dire need of upgrading and transformation. Integrating ICT technologies will make the electrical grids intelligent, which is why smart grids are the popular trends of the future.According to Tatung Smart Grid BU Senior General Manager, Chang-Ping Lin, in order to realize the smart grid, we must not only rely on traditional electrical infrastructure technologies, such as those enabling power generation, power transmission, power transformation, power distribution, and power consumption, but also integrate ICT technologies as well as experience in large-scale IT software integration. Tatung is one of the few companies in Taiwan that possess these capabilities, and has pioneered in the research and development of smart meters as well as advanced AMI metering systems. Tatung believes that it has an important role to play in the establishment of the smart grid.Therefore, Tatung not only plays the role of system integrator, which is the one role that is most lacking in Taiwan, forming strategic partnerships, integrating technologies (such as networking and telecommunications modules, data collectors, and industrial computers), and developing both domestic and international smart grid business opportunities; it also works with Tatung University to foster tomorrow's talented smart grid workers.The most important aspect of smart grid development is systems integration capabilitiesChang-Ping Lin believes that the greatest advantage of Taiwan's vendors in terms of smart grid development is their strong ICT components manufacturing industry. However, it is not without its disadvantages, such as its lack of actual experience in system integration and system depolyment. In order to make up for this specific disadvantage, the government has been promoting the Penghu Smart Grid Demonstration Site through the Second-Phase National Energy Program; however, due to concerns over stable power supply, its range of application as well as verification items are limited and may not be able to achieve strong results. He recommends that the government consider using the NEDO model in establishing an overseas demonstration site.Taking the above advantages and disadvantages into consideration, what opportunities and challenges will Taiwan's vendors face in the future smart grid industry? In terms of opportunities, for ICT vendors, since they are not restricted in terms of regional electricity infrastructure restrictions, opportunities are plentiful; for electrical power vendors, although they are restricted by regional protectionism, there is still opportunity. In terms of emerging regions, such as ASEAN countries, the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, Taiwan's vendors may be able to export full, flexible, customized systems. In terms of more advanced markets, such as Europe, the United States, and Japan, although chances of exporting entire systems are small, there may still be potential profits in key components, such as smart meters, etc.In terms of challenges, Chang-Ping Lin points out that Taiwan's vendors need to quickly establish system integration capabilities as well as system software and data analysis capabilities. Smart grid architectures are extremely complex. In addition to real-time monitoring of circuits, transformers, and switches in the electrical power system, additional technologies such as software, communications, and sensors also need to be incorporated. Furthermore, data needs to be analyzed in order to conduct intelligent scheduling and control, which further shows that the above-stated capabilities are all indispensable. And taking into consideration that the life cycle of electrical equipment must be at least 8-10 years, and error tolerance ranges are extremely small, the only way to gain the trust of global customers is to obtain stringent international certifications.In addition, the smart grid business is a long-term investment. Looking at related projects implemented by the Taiwan government as well as the governments of other countries, it can be clearly seen that they are planning for the long term and that returns will not be obtained overnight. Therefore, vendors wishing to enter this market should be prepared for long-term investments and should not enter with a short-term speculation mentality.Working with partners to gain domestic and foreign business opportunitiesIt is not hard to see that Taiwan's development of smart grid technologies will bring many benefits. Firstly, the Taiwan Power Company already began in-depth research of the smart grid many years ago, and has clearly identified its advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional centralized electrical grids and south-to-north electricity transmission architectures. It has therefore set four primary goals, which are to establish a safe and reliable electrical grid, enhance electrical power efficiency, optimize customer service quality, and integrate distributed generations (DG).In terms of government efforts, in August of 2012, the Smart Grid Master Program was introduced, with the primary goals of conserving energy, reducing carbon emissions, boosting the amount of renewable energies, and reforming the power industry. However, at the same time, the government must also maintain stable power supply, which is a seemingly contradicting goal; only through smart-grid real-time monitoring and scheduling will we be able to achieve the goal of peak suppression, as well as integrate energy storage and control technologies, allowing renewable energy grids to merge to solve the issue of regional congestion, thereby enhancing the efficiency and quality of the power supply, producing innovative value-added services, facilitating the positive reform of the electrical power industry, and finally achieving an optimal balance.In light of this, Tatung will continue to play a pivotal role in Taiwan's electrical power infrastructure, integrating corporate resources, taking up the difficult responsibility of system integration, working hand-in-hand with partners to participate in the establishment of Taiwan's smart grid as well as development of the global market.Tatung Smart Grid BU Senior General Manager, Chang-Ping Lin, stresses the company has an important role to play in the development of smart grids

Taiwan is highly dependent on imported energy, which is a potential threat to the security of its energy supply and its economic development. This is why energy conservation and carbon reduction is so important. Its first priority will be to reduce the amount of power consumption in electrical equipment; in the industrial and commercial spaces, air conditioning often accounts for up to 40-50% of power consumption, which clearly makes it the area that has the most urgent need for smart energy conservation.Most home air conditioning systems emphasize temperature control, whereas air conditioning systems used in shopping malls, restaurants, theaters, and hospitals, etc., must provide environmental control as well as functions that ensure user comfort. The role of temperature and humidity environmental control systems (clean rooms) in industrial processes is even more critical, since the quality of environmental temperature and humidity control directly affects the quality and yield of products. Commercial air conditioners include water (air) cooled box type air conditioners, water (air) cooled water coolers, water (air) cooled brine chillers, commercial dehumidifiers, heat pumps, and box-type air conditioners, etc.There is no doubt that the above-stated air conditioning products play a key role in supporting economic development, since many types of functions rely on air conditioning systems, including constant temperature and constant humidity for production processes as well as refrigeration and freezing, and the high levels of sensible heat required for machine rooms. However, in companies, medical institutions, government establishments, and schools, etc., air conditioning systems account for at least 40% of total power consumption, making it an "energy killer" and truly leaving much room for improvement.Chi-Hung Chen, Manager of Tatung's Air Conditioning Design Division, believes that adding smart energy conservation functions to commercial air conditioning systems is the trend of the future. In light of this important trend, key product design goals will include hybrid heat pumps, high energy efficiency IPLV highly-parallel chiller refrigerant systems, inverter air conditioning systems, and centralized box-type air conditioning smart management systems.Future products will be designed around the concept of smart energy conservationHeat pumps are a type of high-efficiency refrigerant system that can absorb heat from Mother Nature and use it to produce hot water. Under reasonable operating conditions, its COP (Coefficient of Performance) should exceed 3. Heat pumps can replace traditional electric, gas, and diesel water heaters, saving users up to half or more in terms of energy and operation costs. In addition to producing hot water, hybrid heat pumps can also provide cold water as well as collect cold air for reuse, further increasing energy efficiency. The total COP values for most heat pumps usually exceed 5.The "High Energy Efficiency IPLV Highly-Parallel Chiller Refrigerant System" is undoubtedly a major highlight in Tatung's commercial air conditioning system product line, since, slightly earlier, Tatung had already introduced a similar product model that emphasized the use of the R410A environmentally friendly refrigerant and had a load efficiency that was more than 25% higher than traditional models. The difference between highly-parallel refrigerant systems and traditional chilling systems is the ability to conduct partial load (partial compressor operation) operation and dramatically enhance heat exchange efficiencies. "High Energy Efficiency IPLV Highly-Parallel Chiller Refrigerant Systems" have even higher efficiency than the high-efficiency flooded chillers widely used in industries today. They also have smaller sizes and use scroll compressors, which have lower maintenance costs and higher efficiency compared to screw compressors. In addition to lowering electricity costs, these models will also play a role in protecting our precious environment.The three pillars of commercial air conditioning systems – environmental protection, energy conservation, and safetyInverter air conditioners are well-known for energy savings. Inverter technologies can adjust compressor operation speeds through varying power source frequencies, thereby achieving rapid cooling, constant temperatures, and low noise. For production process air conditioning applications, this can provide stable chilled water output temperatures and allow for even more precise environmental temperature and humidity control, thereby further improving process yield. In addition, refrigerant flows can be mediated through changing compressor operation speeds, which produces significant energy conservation effects when in low-frequency operation.According to Chi-Hung Chen, in the average commercial environment, multiple compressors are usually required to spread out operation loads when non-inverter type air conditioners are used. This results in relatively high power consumption. In industrial environments, due to production process requirements, this may result in the need to allocate a large area of space for a chilled water storage tank; however, all of these traditional drawbacks are eliminated when inverter-type air conditioning systems are used.Furthermore, this year (2014), Tatung plans to introduce a new box-type model that is equipped with "Centralized Electronic Panel Control and Management" functionality. This type of model has an MCU board at its core as well as RS-485 Modbus-RTU communications functionality, allowing users to control and manage up to 99 air conditioners in a centralized fashion, Chi-Hung Chen explains. Users can not only access input/output states and sensor temperature values, but also read/write final temperature configuration values, function modes, system ON/OFF states, as well as the status of offloading monitoring points. In environments where many air conditioning systems are installed, such as schools, hospitals, or factories, traditional electronic control systems only allow one-to-one control, which will result in a huge waste of manpower and maintenance costs. To the contrary, the one-to-many control mode provided by "Centralized Electronic Panel Control and Management" is undoubtedly the smarter and more ideal alternative.It is also worth mentioning that Tatung's commercial air conditioning systems not only reflect the above-mentioned product design trends, but Tatung is also the only box-type air conditioner (regulated vertical expansion energy source product) vendor in Taiwan that has successfully obtained the Energy Conservation Certification Label. Tatung also insists on using environmentally friendly refrigerants, such as R134A or R410A, in all of its product lines, stressing ozone layer destruction coefficient values of zero. Tatung also emphasizes safe designs, achieving its goal of "being safe even if components malfunction." These measures were all taken to meet the environmental protection, energy conservation, and safety requirements of industrial and commercial customers.Chi-Hung Chen, Manager of the Air Conditioning Design Division, points out key trends for smart, energy-conserving commercial air conditioners.