Taiwan-based ODMs and own-brand makers will ship 24.05 million handsets in the fourth quarter of 2014, increasing 15.1% on quarter and 43.8% on year. 20.55 million units (85.4%) will be smartphones, growing 11.7% on quarter and 27% on year, according to Digitimes Research.WCDMA will account for 74.2% of the handset shipments, GSM 13.3% and CDMA 2000 12.5%, Digitimes Research indicated.Among ODMs and own-brand makers, Chi Mei Communication Systems will have the largest handset shipments accounting for 32.8% of the total, followed by HTC with 21.6%, Compal Electronics 17.5%, Asustek Computer 14.6% and Arima Communications 12.5%.

Following China-based application processor (AP) supplier Rockchip's entry into the Chromebook industry, China-based end device makers are also expected to join the Chromebook supply chain, according to information Digitimes Research has collected from the Greater China supply chain.China-based Bitland and BYD will start producing Chromebooks for brand vendors in 2015 and they will be among only a handful of makers capable of making the device.Digitimes Research believes Google's recruitment of Rockchip into the Chromebook camp is meant to expand the the device's supply chain.Currently, most non-Samsung Chromebooks available in the market are produced by Quanta Computer, while Compal Electronics has a small amount of orders from Acer and Lenovo. Samsung Electronics manufactures its Chromebooks in house.In 2015, Google is looking to relax the entry barriers to its Chromebook supply chain by expanding its partnerships with chipmakers and manufacturers. Bitland and BYD are both expected to enter the Chromebook supply chain because of Rockchip. Lenovo is also expected to launch products using their platformsLenovo has been outsourcing a small volume of notebook orders to Bitland for a long time and the maker is also a major ODM partner of Lenovo's motherboards and has even established plants in Hefei, China, specifically for the vendor.BYD, which has been operating in the notebook manufacturing industry for many years, has a tight relationship with Rockchip. Although BYD used to make tablets for Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Toshiba, these products' shipments were mostly weaker than expected because of unstable product development.For non-China-based firms, Digitimes Research believes that apart from Acer and Samsung, other brand vendors will also see their Chromebook shipments gradually pick up. While Chromebook manufacturing currently relies heavily on Quanta, the supply chain will see changes. But the changes may not occur until 2016.

The combined revenues of Taiwan's top-six LCD driver IC makers are expected to register a 6.1% increase in 2014, according to Digitimes Research.Revenues for the top-six makers reached NT$24.5 billion (US$792.5 million) in the third quarter of 2014, up 4.3% on quarter, Digitimes Research disclosed. The sequential growth was slower than expected due to disappointing demand from China's smartphone and tablet markets.Looking into the fourth quarter, Taiwan's top-six LCD driver IC makers will see their combined revenues decrease 1.5% on quarter as a result of seasonal factors, Digitimes Research indicated. For all of 2014, the makers will collectively generate NT$93.55 billion in driver IC revenues, up 6.1% on year.

With Microsoft Mobile's announcement in July 2014 it will terminate its feature phone business within a year and a half, Samsung Electronics and China's white-box handset players have been aggressively competing for the market since the third quarter, and MediaTek and Spreadtrum are both expected to benefit from Microsoft's decision.Digitimes Research estimates that Microsoft Mobile's monthly feature phone shipments in 2014 are around 10-15 million units.Visiting China's white-box handset players and related component makers, Digitimes Research discovered that the white-box industry is shipping 35-40 million feature phones each month in the second half of 2014, and with Microsoft gradually reducing its feature phone scale, they are eagerly trying to take over demand left by the software giant.Samsung, which has already shifted its focus to smartphones and tablets, originally planned to dramatically downsize its feature phone business in the first half, but has decided to increase its feature phone component orders to its upstream supply chain starting the third quarter after Microsoft's plans to quit from the feature phone industry. The growth bottleneck Samsung's smartphone business is currently encountering also prompted the vendor to take the opportunity.Since Microsoft Mobile's feature phone chips are mainly supplied by non-Taiwan and non-China players, MediaTek and Spreadtrum, the two largest chip suppliers for white-box feature phones, are expected to benefit from the business opportunities created by Microsoft's exit, according to Digitimes Research's analysis. Spreadtrum is also a major chip supplier of Samsung's feature phones.

The monitor market saw various developments in November, namely the release of curved high-end monitor technology from Samsung Electronics and new Ultra HD monitors from Lenovo and Acer.Samsung released its S27D590C for as low as US$490 in the China market. The device comes equipped with vertical alignment technology and panels developed by Samsung Display.Lenovo and Acer meanwhile each launched new Ultra HD units, including the PRO2840M at about US$655 and the CB280HK at US$590.Dell, Samsung Electronics and IIYAMA have Ultra HD monitors using TN technology and equipped with HDMI and DisplayPort technology, added Digitimes Research.

Pricing for LCD TVs in the 46- to 48-inch range declined 8.4% in November to around on average of US$810, according to Digitimes Research. The pricing includes the US, Germany, UK, Japan and China markets.However, 60-inch TV pricing on average increased from US$1,709 to US$1,741 as demand increased due to the holiday period.TVs sized 32-inch meanwhile increased from US$302 in October to US$326 in November.Taiwan makers' shipments of LCD TVs reached 8.96 million units in the third quarter of 2014, up 3.2% on quarter and up 0.1% on year. Looking to the fourth quarter, Taiwan makers can expect to see shipments hit 9.56 million units, up 6.2% on quarter. Total shipments will reach nearly 35 million units in 2014, about 10 million less than the volume seen in 2011 when Taiwan's LCD TV shipments peaked, said Digitimes Research.

At the Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Autumn Edition) 2014, many IT vendors showcased their latest wearable devices with white-box smart bracelets being a spotlight at the show, and competition among players was rather fierce.GPS and Bluetooth sport smartwatches are growing popular among joggers in the US and Europe. GPS and camera smartwatches also see good demand in the children market. Digitimes Research expects more white-box players to join the two sectors in the first half of 2015.Since the smart bracelet industry has a low entry barrier, many China-based white-box players have used standardized modules to tap the market. However, these wearable devices are seeing fierce price competition due to lack of differentiations, according to Digitimes Research's latest report on wearable devices.With the jogging markets in the US and Europe having seen a significant increase in smartwatch demand, GPS device vendors have been aggressively developing sport smartwatches featuring GPS functions. White-box players have also launched Bluetooth sport smartwatches for monitoring body conditions.Conventional watch vendors are still placing their focuses on developing hybrid watches with long battery life and so far have shown little interest in smartwatches that are able to connect with smartphones.Smartphone-connectable smartwatches are mostly being developed by white-box and tablet vendors and most of the devices introduced in the third quarter adopted MediaTek's MT62XX solution. Several white-box players are set to adopt MediaTek's Linkit and Rockchip's solution for their smartwatches for 2015.Meanwhile, white-box players have also started focusing on developing children smartwatches including models featuring camera modules for learning and playing purposes, as well as GPS models to prevent children from getting lost.Digitimes Research believes that white-box players' smart bracelets are unlikely to contribute strong revenues due to fierce price competition. GPS and Bluetooth sport smartwatches are expected to benefit from the growing demand in the US and Europe.

The LCD TV contract manufacturing market is expected to surpass 50 million units in 2015, with Taiwan makers expected to be responsible for 38.33 million, according to Digitimes Research.The entire LCD TV market is estimated to reach 229 million units in 2015, which means Taiwan makers will be responsible for producing 16.8% of the share, up from 16.1% in 2014.Taiwan's growth is expected to come mainly from Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), which has secured increased orders to Mexico in addition to Vizio, a major client of Taiwan makers, continuing to see growth in North America. Compal will also see steady shipments to Toshiba while various makers can expect to benefit from Sony orders.Foxconn may also see more than 10 million in unit shipments during 2015 to give the company 30% on-year growth and Amtran will see steady orders from Sharp, said Digitimes Research.Digitimes Research also noted that Taiwan makers' shipments of LCD TVs reached 8.96 million units in the third quarter of 2014, up 3.2% on quarter and up 0.1% on year. TPV, Foxconn and Wistron were the top three makers in terms of shipments during the quarter, with Wistron seeing significant shipment increases to Vizio. Compal meanwhile saw less-than-expected shipments to Toshiba while Vizio decreased orders to Amtran.Looking to the fourth quarter, Taiwan makers can expect to see shipments hit 9.56 million units, up 6.2% on quarter. Total shipments will reach nearly 35 million units in 2014, about 10 million less than the volume seen in 2011 when Taiwan's LCD TV shipments peaked, said Digitimes Research.

October average retail pricing for 7W LED light bulbs (equivalent to 40W incandescents) in the China market increased 2.4% on month to CNY34.70 (US$5.70), while that for 9W models (equivalent to 60W incandescents) fell 0.2% to CNY41.60, according to Digitimes Research.Average retail prices for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs in Japan in October stood at JPY1,668 (US$15) and JPY3,370 respectively, rising 0.2% and 9.7% on month, Digitimes Research indicated.October average retail prices for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs in other markets were: KRW11,450 (US$11.5, down 8.1% on month) and KRW14,256 (down 2.3%) in South Korea; US$17.5 (down 9.8%) and US$20.8 (up 5.1%) in the US; EUR11.50 (US$14.70, down 12.9%) and EUR14.20 (up 11.8%) in Europe.Samsung Electronics 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs for sale in the South Korea market had the highest average lumen-price ratios of 72.5lm/US$ and 90.4lm/US$ respectively in October. In terms of luminous efficiency, Samsung 40W-equivalent LED light bulbs available in South Korea and Toshiba 60W-equivalent models for sale in Japan had the highest average levels of 77.1lm/W and 103.5lm/W respectively.

As users of white-box servers (produced by ODMs and sold directly to clients) mostly need a large number of small-size, low-power and inexpensive models pre-installed with Linux and customized to some extent, white-box servers are mostly rack or micro types instead of towers or blades.The users usually have in-house technical teams to handle their servers' maintenance and find server brand vendors' designs limiting their operations; therefore, they have turned to supplies directly from ODMs.Although blade-type servers have advantages over the small form factor, the users' demand for blade servers is still limited because many blade servers' rack designs are not compatible with others. To avoid incompatibility, many users have chosen micro or large-size rack type servers, Digitimes Research's findings showed.Choosing Linux for operating system also helps to reduce overall costs.