Taiwan LCD monitor makers' shipments reached 24.47 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, up 1.5% on quarter, according to Digitimes Research.Overall, global LCD monitor shipments declined 6.6% on year in 2013 to 145 million units, with Taiwan makers responsible for 91.25 million, down 8.2% on year.Digitimes Research added that Taiwan LCD monitor shipments are expected to decline 10% in first-quarter 2014 due to the period traditionally being a slow period.However, the Taiwan makers are expected to see on-year shipment increases throughout 2016 as OEM orders from Korea-based makers are expected to increase due to the limited profits being made from the technology, added Digitimes Research.

Shipments of tablet-use application processors (AP) in China edged down 2.7% sequentially in the first quarter of 2014, affected by seasonality, according to preliminary findings by Digitimes Research. However, the first-quarter shipments still represent a 37.6% on-year growth. Local chipmaker Rockchip Electronics remained the top vendor in the segment in the first quarter but its shipments dipped by 4.8% sequentially. But rival company Allwinner Technology saw its shipments increase, buoyed by an improvement in product portfolio and an optimization of the software of its dual-core CPUs, estimated Digitimes Research. MediaTek saw its tablet AP shipments to China slip 7.1% sequentially in the first quarter of 2014 after shipments reaching a peak in the previous quarter. Additionally, MediaTek's launch of a new AP without a baseband processor did little to lift its first-quarter shipments. The combined share of the top-3 tablet AP vendors slipped 0.8pp to 76.5% in the first quarter of 2014 as compared to the previous quarter. Other vendors including HiSilicon Technologies, Nvidia and Intel doubled their shipments, while Amologic switched its focus to network STB devices.

When announcing its LTE product lineup in 2013, China Mobile originally set 5-mode support for five major networking standards in China as a basic requirement for its 4G products, but the company lowered it to 3-mode at the end of 2013, as most chipmakers were unable to supply 5-model single-chip products and Qualcomm, who was able to supply such chip solutions, was tough about its licensing fees.The change allowed chipmakers such as China-based Spreadtrum and Leadcore Technology to join the LTE supply chain immediately. However, in early March 2014, after evaluating the market's demand/supply status, the telecom carrier decided to restore its original requirement and will only offer subsidies to 5-mode smartphones.Since 3-mode smartphones carry much lower costs compared to 5-mode ones, Digitimes Research expects 3-mode smartphones' average selling price (ASP) to drop below CNY1,000 (US$161) by the end of the first half of 2014 and could drop to CNY800 in the second half, replacing existing low-price 3G and 2G smartphone products.China Mobile will continue to subsidize 3-mode smartphones until the end of May and starting from June, the carrier will withdraw all subsidies and only give sales commission to smartphone vendors. However, Digitimes Research believes 3-mode smartphones will continue to replace existing 3G/2G handsets due to their pricing advantages.Since cheap 2G and 3G smartphones still have high penetration rates in tier-2 and tier-3 cities of China, potential demand for handset upgrade is rather large. Spreadtrum's upcoming 3-mode SoC smartphone application processor (AP), set to be released later in April, and MediaTek's 3-mode baseband solution are both aiming for such a market segment.Despite an end to subsidies from telecom carriers, demand for 3-mode smartphones will remain strong because of their low prices. The pricing advantage has been partly enabled by their sales through the Internet and some other special channels, which helps reduce marketing costs.In terms of the LTE smartphone chip market prior to mid-March, Qualcomm's LTE chip shipments were contributed mainly by its Snapdragon 400 and close to 90% of LTE devices available in the market used the solution. The remaining share was contributed by Marvell.As for other chipmakers, MediaTek's LTE AP plus baseband solutions have yet to ship, while Huawei's P7 using Hisilicon's LTE solution is also not yet available. Since most chipmakers are expected to release their 3-mode chip solutions later this month with related devices to become available in May or June, Digitimes Research expects Qualcomm's LTE solutions to account for 80% of China's LTE smartphone shipments in the first half of 2014.

A young company comes with global perspective, firm determination in international market penetration and ambitious, iCatch inc. arguably is a world-class leading brand in security surveillance industry. In this exclusive interview with iCatch, you are about to learn that this company has solid foundations not only in product development and state-of-the-art technology, but also global channel marketing and strong relationships with regional distributors, by means of cultural inheritance, core competence and win-win models. Vanne Lin, the Executive Vice President at iCatch inc., reveals her ambitious in international market penetration, as well as iCatch's unique competitiveness through manage level's cultural inheritance. 'In the future,' said Vanne, 'iCatch will enter global medical industry, we are able to provide solutions with very much sought-after features such as positioning and alarming on top of security surveillance, which would make medical services even more user-friendly.'iCatch established her own brand in 33 nationsIn 2013, iCatch established markets in 33 nations with her own brand name, and will continue to build up further relationship with regional distributors. For that, iCatch can be seen in major trade shows worldwide - Secutech (Taiwan), ISC West (US), IFSEC (UK) to name a few.In 2014, iCatch will focus on mobile surveillance solutions and newly introduced Universal DVR family. In terms of demands in mobile surveillance, iCatch provides a very user-friendly system which allows the user to monitor through computer browsers and mobile devices. And alarm would be sent to user's mobile devices when events are triggered, which gives the user first-hand message so that countermeasures can be conducted immediately.iCatch's budget-friendly Universal DVR family is able to accommodate digital HD signals (1080P, 720P) and analog signals (960H, D1) in one single DVR, which provides great flexibility for upgrade. With existing coaxial cable infrastructure, the user is able to change some of the analog cameras with HD-SDI ones, or simply add new HD-SDI cameras at crucial points to fulfill surveillance capabilities with ease.In the mean time, iCatch is also developing cloud surveillance system. At this moment, basic features such as remote storage, playback and backup are declared mature. iCatch promises that more efforts will be spent on this project to complete the feature as well as produce line.Create product core competence, establish channels worldwideMajor surveillance system manufacturers are from South Korea, China and Taiwan. South Korea enjoy advantages over software capabilities, hence they can be seen in major tender cases. Yet in the meantime they are less strong in terms of hardware development and cost structure. On the other hand, Chinese manufacturers are benefited from the policy - they are able to obtain tax refund and other funding form the government. Also due to low labor and development cost in China, Taiwanese manufacturers often found themselves are far less competitive. Nevertheless, many Chinese manufacturers are still short of global perspective, global marketing staff and core competence. And low cost segment prevents it from entering mid and high level segments. The major problems that the Chinese manufacturers face still, are services and product stability.Looking back to iCatch, who owns a comparative advantage in services and product stability, hence is able to produce competitive products with only 10% higher than Chinese ones in terms of cost. In the meantime, mid-term 2-year product roadmap is set, way to establish relationship with high royalty customers. Future products will focus on medical / nursing solutions for seniors, with practical features such as positioning and alarming. At this moment, iCatch has gathered extensive experiences in large international project planning in Germany and Ukraine...etc.HD surveillance system will domain the market'HD surveillance system will domain the market. Users don't really care about jargons like SDI, TVI or CVI.' Said Vanne Lin, the Executive Vice President at iCatch inc. 'What they do care about is high image quality they can see on the monitor. And our product performs better than our fellow competitors.' iCatch's DVR is able to output 30 frames per second at million pixels, 16 channels. This can hardly be outpaced.On top of DVRs, iCatch also offers Intelligent Network solutions (IVR). They come with built-in switch. For users this means hassle free setting and no external switch needed, truly plug-n-play. And iCatch's IVRs share identical GUI with DVRs, so that the user can adopt it intuitively, saving up after service efforts.Global surveillance market will continue to grow stably for sure, commented by the Executive VP. In terms of business strategy, she reveals, 'Each entrepreneur must consider own core competence, product differential and global marketing strategy to root in the market. Strategic alliance with other companies can also be very valuable approaches. As the No.1 security surveillance system manufacturer in Taiwan, iCatch will continue to invest in R&D. On top of our user-friendly platforms, an even more budget-friendly price structure will also be materialized. As a future plan, iCatch is going to enter medical related markets, creating even further brand value.'If you have ever wondered what iCatch's advantages would be to penetrate medical markets, the answer has to go to Vanne, who has COO experience at one of the world's top 3 medical companies, and is very familiar with related channels worldwide. Her big picture is to combine security surveillance with medical and nursing, and will provide more competitive products and solution to fulfill different segments.Vanne Lin, the Executive Vice President at iCatch inc.

On-cell touch panels were once expected to be the solution with the best development potentials in China's entry-level to mid-range smartphone sector, but so far, the number of mobile devices using on-cell touch and their shipments have been far below the original expectations.Digitimes Research identifies two major issues with on-cell touch panels. User experience with its single-layer multi-touch technology is unsatisfactory. Difficulties in putting dual-layer ITO sensors on the back of the color filter extend the time needed to complete a project.ITO film prices have recently dropped, helping reduce the overall production costs of dual ITO film-based GFF touch panels. This has prompted China smartphone vendors to turn to the technology their products, causing the TFT LCD-based on-cell segment to see a slower-than-expected development.By integrating a display with a touch panel, on-cell technology has simplified related supply chain players' production, helping lower the costs as well as reduce handsets' weight and thickness. However, since the electromagnetic wave of the TFT LCD is prone to interfere with transmission, on-cell touch is usually adopted in mid-range or entry-level mobile devices which have lower display pixel densities.Taiwan-based Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) started mass producing on-cell touch panels in September 2013 and is supplying them to China-based CoolPad, while Taiwan-based Innolux and China-based Tianma have also recently started their mass production of such touch panels. Taiwan-based HannStar and China-based BOE have yet to start mass production for on-cell touch panels, and have just sent samples to its clients.However, makers that have already started mass production are only shipping 100,000-200,000 on-cell touch panels per month and have yet to see the staggering growth they had expected. Digitimes Research believes that the slow growth is a result of several vendors such as ZTE delaying their projects using on-cell touch panels. Some touch module makers have canceled their orders for on-cell touch panel makers and adopted GFF touch instead.On-cell touch technology still has several basic issues. The weak sensitivity of its original single-layer multi-touch technology. CPT has conquered it by using the dual-layer sensor technology, but the yield rate for this process is low, resulting in supply constraints.LCD panel's electromagnetic wave interference issue can be resolved by adopting the full lamination process; however, adopting such a process has greatly raised the touch module's overall costs, making on-cell touch panels less competitive in terms of pricing. Currently, the quote for an on-cell touch panel is US$7 higher than a same-size standard TFT LCD panel, which is slightly more expensive than other solutions.ITO film's recent average selling price (ASP) has dropped from CNY300 to around CNY200 per square meter and the fact that players other than Japan-based Nitto Denko are offering their ITO films at only CNY180, have greatly reduced overall production costs of GFF touch panels, which is restraining on-cell touch panels' shipment growth.For on-cell touch technology to become popular, in addition to improving on-cell touch panels' yield rates and overall production capacity, panel makers will also need to find ways to eliminate electromagnetic wave interference without using full lamination. Developments of controller ICs should also focus on how to deal with air layers. Such improvements will be vital to on-cell touch technology's stable development.

According to Digitimes Research's latest digital still camera (DSC) pricing tracker, global DSCs' average selling price (ASP) was up 9.6% on month and reached US$309 in March, matching Digitimes Research's previous analysis that the global DSC ASP will continue to rise in the future as most DSC vendors will give up the mid-range and entry-level markets to minimize impacts from smartphones.Several high-end spring season DSCs featuring 5x or higher optical zoom were released in March and were one of the main growth drivers of the ASP. The ASP of CMOS DSCs with above-15x optical zoom was up 11.3% on month in March and the above-15x segment had the highest ASP increase among all. The 5x-10x optical zoom segment had the second largest on-month ASP growth in March, up 10.4% from February, Digitimes Research's figures showed.The ASP increase of DSCs with above-15x optical zoom shows that DSC vendors have changed their high-end product strategy, packing their products with as many high-end features as possible.

Samsung Electronics' mid-range and entry-level mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) in 2013 mostly adopted touch panels using thin-film technologies such as glass-film-film (GFF) or glass-film (G1F). Because the key component, the indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent conducting film (TCF), had been in short supply since the second half of 2012, Samsung decided to adopt G1F technology, which uses fewer ITO films compared to GFF technology for its entry-level/mid-range products. However, the strategy has triggered a reshuffle in Korea-based touch panel makers' rankings in terms of revenue performance.Samsung's main touch panel supplier is Korea-based Melfas, which focuses on developing G1F technology. Melfas's revenues for the first three quarters of 2013 were KRW495 billion (US$458.18 million), up significantly from the KRW191.6 billion of the entire 2012, approaching fellow maker Iljin Display's KRW510.3 billion and surpassing Smart Mobile Application Company's (SMAC) KRW415.8 billion for the same period.But Melfas still has weaker operating profits compared to GFF suppliers Iljin Display and SMAC. This shows that G1F's yield rate is still not as stable as that of GFF.ITO film shortages have started easing since the second half of 2013. If G1F continues to see yield rate issues, Samsung may stop using G1F touch panels in 2014. To further reduce its mobile devices' thickness, Samsung is expected to start adopt more slim GFF and GF SITO (GF1) touch panels.Slim GFF is able to reduce the thickness of a touch panel by shrinking the ITO film's thickness. In 2014, Iljin Display and SMAC will both shift some of their capacities to produce slim GFF touch panels. Meanwhile, to avoid the impact created by Samsung stopping using G1F, Melfas has developed GF1 technology that only uses a single piece of ITO film, similar to G1F. GF1's yield rate is also easier to improve.On the other hand, Korea-based LG Innotek, an affiliate of LG Group, is currently supplying GFF and glass only (G2) touch panels and the company's revenues from related businesses rose significantly from KRW66.3 billion in 2010 to KRW560 billion in 2013. However, LG Innotek is still facing challenges such as raising its G2 yield rates and selling products to non-LG clients.If Samsung stops adopting G1F touch panels, Digitimes Research believes Melfas's GF1 production will be crucial to sustaining its business in 2014.

Demand in China's smartphone market is expected to reach 422 million units in 2014, with 278 million units contributed by China-based vendors, according to the latest DIGITIMES Research Special Reprort, "2014 China Smartphone Market and Industry - Forecast and Analysis."The continued expansion by international vendors Samsung and Apple will push up their sales to almost 144 million units in the China market, growing nearly 4% from 2013.As competition in the local market heats up, China-based vendors are turning to overseas markets in order to maintain their shipment volumes, especially taking an aggressive approach to penetrating emerging markets, which hold higher barriers for overseas vendors to enter, according to the DIGITIMES Research Special Report.This DIGITIMES Research Special Report examines two aspects of the China smartphone market. The first part covers the China smartphone market, measuring local shipments in China from both China-based vendors and international vendors such as Samsung and Apple. The second portion of the Special Report covers the China smartphone industry and measures shipments from China-based makers and vendors in the local China market as well as their shipments to overseas markets.The outlook for the 2014 China domestic smartphone market is that fewer local brands will remain to compete in the market. With the general enhancement of software-hardware specifications in 2013, brand-building and channel management have become the key to sustainability. Vendors without the advantage of substantial product differentiation will face the challenge of being eliminated in the short term. On the other hand, local vendors need to deal with inventories with discretion to counter the vigorous attacks initiated by international vendors in the domestic market.In terms of the China smartphone industry, DIGITIMES Research expects global shipments of China-based smartphone vendors to reach 412 million units in 2014, a 30.7% increase from 2013. Overseas shipments will account for about 126 million units. While shipments to mature markets are expected to grow on a small scale, shipments to emerging markets are expected to expand at strong rates, mainly due to the low base they are starting from.In the forecast for shipments from different vendors in 2014, Lenovo and Huawei are expected to reach 50 million units. Huawei has been engaged in overseas markets for a long time so its export portion outweighs Lenovo's. ZTE's and CoolPad's shipments are expected to reach 35.5 million units. TCL has shown a significant growth in exports with shipments expected to exceed 26 million units in 2014, ranking No. 5 on the list. Second-tier vendors Gionee and Xiaomi are expected to ship 20 million units.DIGITIMES 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 cover a full range of industries, including information and communications technology (ICT), flat panel display (FPD), LEDs, semiconductor design and manufacturing.

China-based handset vendors will continue to focus on rolling out entry-level to mid-range smartphones for China and other emerging markets in the first half of 2014 due to persistently strong demand for those models, according to Digitimes Research.Instead of unveiling new flagship models at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 held in Barcelona in February, Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo all highlighted their latest entry-level and mid-range models at the fair.Huawei unveiled its mid-range model, the Ascend G6, which sports a 4.5-inch display and supports 3G and LTE standards, targeting mainly the emerging LTE market in China.ZTE also showcased an array of LTE-enabled models, including the Grand Memo II LTE, which comes with a 6-inch IPS display. ZTE also unveiled two Firefox-based models, the Open C and Open II, targeting the entry-level segment.Lenovo launched three mid-range models at MWC. All of the three models are powered by a MediaTek MT6582 quad-core CPU, with prices ranging US$229-349. However, Lenovo currently lags behind other fellow companies with regard to the development of LTE smartphones, according to Digitimes Research's analysis.

There were 428.2 million subscribers of OTT (over the top) TV subscribers in China as of the end of 2013, increasing 144.3 million from 2010 and accounting for 69.3% of all Internet service users, according to Digitimes Research.OTT set-top boxes (STBs) took up 15.1% of all types of STBs shipped in the China market during the third quarter of 2013, hiking 10.4ppt from 2012, Digitimes Research indicated.Device vendors such as Huawei Device and Xiaomi Technology, OTT TV operators such as LeTV and PPTV, cable TV operators such as BesTV and Wasu, and Internet service providers such as Alibaba, launched own-brand ARM-architecture OTT STB models for retail sale at CNY299-499 (US$49-81) in 2013.