Panel makers need to take a more active role in developing technology and products that applications can be based around and not the other way around. Sharp's Free Form Display is an example of how new innovative panel applications can spur demand and help expand the maker's business model.In the case of Sharp, its Free Form Display has the ability to attract customers in the vehicle and home segments where demand is expected to increase the most over the next couple of years. The displays can be used in vehicles to fit a variety of different sizes, shapes and usage, which is something unique and at the same time brings value to customers.In the home segment, Free Form Display could be used all over ranging from bathroom, kitchen and garage facilities where many home builders are eyeing increased business opportunities to include smart home features. The displays could also be used in bedroom and living room arranagements where space may be uniquely set up and limited.In the business segement, such displays could be used to replace clocks, menus, calendars and many other devices that display information. The displays can be built into existing structures rarther than being placed on or added to existing peripherals, and would take up less space.All of these applications could also be connected through smart systems controlled through other display devices including tablets and smartphones, as they could include Wi-Fi and cellular options for increased access and mobility control. This would give an edge over other competitors in the smart home and connected device segments as well as solidify new business opportunities.Panel makers have the opportunity to take a more leading role in creating technology and implementing it into the market to create their own business opportunities rather than being subject to waiting for business opportunities to arise. On top of that, and perhaps more importantly, panel makers should treat their products as devices that can help or create convenience in peoples' lives and promote them differently in the form of devices either via in-house methods or in conjunction with other companies. This is an active apporach that makers should take in order to stay strong in the market, particularly as most panel applications are maturing quickly in the market.The bottom line is that there needs to be more thought into creating how new technology can take a leading role into developing new segments and applications rather than being subject to the changes. In the case of Taiwan makers who currently face competition in technology from Korea and Japan and disadvantages in pricing from China, considering such options could help rectify their business models and lead to more sustaining development.

Taiwan-based LED maker Epistar announced a merger with Formosa Epitaxy (Forepi) on June 30, 2014, with the former aiming to fully acquire the latter and become the surviving company. Epistar explained that the merger is meant to improve its strengths in competition for first-tier international lighting companies' LED orders.Epistar said demand from first-tier international lighting vendors has been strong, resulting in a 30% shortage in the high-end LED segment.Epistar's merger with Forepi will immediately resolve Epistar's capacity shortage problem and greatly improve Forepi's product mix and utilization rates. Prior to the merger, Forepi's LED epitaxial wafer production value per unit was 30.7% lower than that of Epistar, which shows that Forepi was receiving orders at prices lower than the market average.With Forepi starting to fulfill orders coming from Epistar in July, Forepi is expected to see improvements in profitability. With technological assistance from Epistar, Forepi's production capacity from its existing equipment can go up by 20-30% to reach a monthly output of over 400,000 units.The merger will also create the largest supplier in Taiwan and in the world. Digitimes Research's figures show that Epistar and Forepi's combined capacity accounted for 65.6% of Taiwan's blue LED segment in the second quarter of 2014.By the end of 2014, the number of Epistar and Forepi's InGaAlP and blue LED manufacturing equipment will reach 500 sets, double those of San'an Optoelectronics and accounting for 22.6% of global LED chip capacity.In addition, the merger is expected to have further influence on the LED industry in the future. Since Epistar and Forepi are pushing the strategy of "run as one company," their decision is expected to help stabilize the industry and minimize price competitions.

Global shipments of Ultra HD (4K resolution) TVs will increase from 1.5 million units in 2013 to 68.2 million TVs in 2017, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 160%, according to the latest Digitimes Research Special Report. The report, titled "The transition to 4K TV - UHD TV market forecast, 2014-2017," forecasts that 26.6% of all TVs shipped in 2017 will be UHD TVs, while in the 55-inch segment, more than 90% of the LCD TVs to be shipped in 2017 will deliver UHD or higher resolutions.As with other new types of video services, UHD adoption will rely on compatible content and TVs to drive the market. While the current video industry environment in not ideal for UHD TV, Digitimes Research argues that the expected support of Blu-ray Disc (BD) for UHD content and increased user-created content will help demand take off in 2015. However, it will be active engagement from TV manufacturers that will ultimately be the primary driving force of UHD TV growth.Traditionally, new TV technologies, such as 3D and OLED have been driven from the top end of the market, in terms of both vendor support and price points. UHD technology, on the other hand, is being driven by panel makers in mainstream markets by a multitude of vendors, with the China market taking the lead. Based on this, leading global vendors such as Samsung and Sony may be forced to engage in UHD TV price competition earlier than they would like, meaning there is a chance for UHD TV to quickly become widespread in the overall TV market. Digitimes Research forecasts that in 2015 the penetration rate of UHD TVs in terms of the overall TV market will exceed 10% for the first time, with shipments reaching 30 million units.The Digitimes Research Special Report also looks at opportunities in the UHD TV market from various perspectives, including developing trends in supply chain dynamics and technology trends in the TV SoC and LCD panel industries. In addition, the report provides analysis of the competitive strategies for UHD TV deployment for vendors from South Korea, Japan, China, as well as regional TV vendors.About DIGITIMES ResearchDIGITIMES Research is the research arm of DIGITIMES Inc., Taiwan's leading high-tech media outlet. Operating as an independent business unit, DIGITIMES Research focuses on monitoring key high-tech industries, while also guiding clients toward suitable new businesses. Digitimes provides market intelligence and analysis to more than 1000 corporate customers worldwide. Research and consulting services including a full range of products, from in-depth Special Reports on industry trends in the flat panel display (FPD), LED, and semiconductor industries, to Tracker services that monitor the global mobile device supply chain on a quarterly basis.Media contact: Michael McManus (Michael.mcmanus@digitimes.com)

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.