The global top-5 notebook brand vendors' combined shipments in April dropped 24% on month and 3% on year, while shipments of the top-3 ODMs dropped 15% on month and 9% on year, according to the latest figures from Digitimes Research. Most vendors replenished their inventories during March, and reduced their demand in April.Among the top-5 brand vendors, only Asustek Computer achieved on-month growth in April. Acer and Dell both suffered around 15% on-month drops, while Hewlett-Packard's (HP) shipments declined over 40% in April after the completion of its education procurement orders.Lenovo's shipments slid over 20% on month in April because the company had been pushing its shipments in March in order to meet the shipment goal for fiscal 2013 ended March 31, 2014.Compal Electronics, Wistron and Inventec suffered large on-month drops in April, but these ODMs were also the ones who enjoyed strong shipment rebounds in March.Despite the weakened shipment growth of tablets in the first quarter, notebook shipments still suffered a 6% on-year drop during the period. Since the second half of 2013, notebook shipments have mostly been contributed by demand from the enterprise market, entry-level education procurement orders (including the Chromebook) and demand for entry-level consumer models. Raising notebooks' added value only has a limited benefit over boosting demand, according to Digitimes Research.

LCD monitor vendors focused on releasing 24- and 28-inch Ultra HD units in April 2014, according to Digitimes Research.Many of the new units displayed at NEC in April were equipped with GB-R white light LED backlighting, which helps in improving green and red color performance, in addition to IPS wide-angle panels with Ultra HD technology.Large-size units are also a major focus of monitor vendors aiming at niche markets and maintaining profits, added Digitimes Research.

Amid strong sales in the smartphone market, mini molding chokes have become the hottest area in the passive components industry since last year. Mini molding chokes are small, have low DC resistance, and are capable of withstanding large currents, resulting in their broad use in midrange to high-end smartphones that emphasize product performance, thereby continually driving related demand.A report from the ITRI IEK Components Research Department indicates that global market demand for mini molding chokes in 2014 is estimated at 8.7 billion units, with the overall market still in a state of demand exceeding supply. Chilisin Electronics is a major supplier in the industry.Introducing the World's Smallest Mini Molding ChokeVendors currently capable of supplying mini molding chokes include Chilisin Electronics, Japan's TOKO, Japan's TDK, and Cyntec (which is part of the Delta Electronics Group). What's worth mentioning is that the HEI (High Efficiency Inductor) series of power inductors introduced by Chilisin at the end of 2013 has properties that outperform those of competitors' and has successfully obtained certifications from many mobile phone customers in the market. In addition, Chilisin plans to introduce an even smaller mini molding choke - the industry's first HEI201208 (2.0 x 1.2x0.8mm) - this quarter. It is expected to meet mobile phone customers' needs in terms of smaller-sized components, making Chilisin an industry leader.Longer battery life is an important goal for smartphone power management design. Comparisons show that Chilisin's products outperform competitors' in terms of both inductor Q factors under light loading and RDC values under heavy loading. This shows that Chilisin's mini molding chokes perform efficiently both under heavy loading (PWM) and light loading (PFM), meeting efficiency requirements of mobile phones under operational modes as well as reducing power consumption under standby modes.To promote this product, Chilisin continues to strengthen partnerships with mobile phone chip vendors, serving as a primary solution supplier when mobile phone chips are announced and actively doing design-in with various major vendors. In the first half of this year, most mass-produced models on the market still use 2520 mini molding chokes; beginning from the second half of the year, the 2016 form factor will gradually become the mainstream. But Chilisin is one step ahead of the industry and has already started mass-producing 201210 molding chokes. Mobile phone clients who have adopted this product are expected to expand their orders during the third quarter of this year. It is understood that each high-end smartphone uses about 15-25 power inductors. Currently, Chilisin has a complete lineup of high-end smartphone mini molding chokes in the 3225, 2520, 2016 and 2012 sizes, and they are capable of meeting the needs of different regions as well as different generations of mobile phones.Continued Optimization with Inductor Arrays Being Added to the BlueprintsChilisin stresses that with the increase in operating frequencies for chips in mobile phones, power efficiency requirements under light loads are also more and more stringent. A 1-2% difference in efficiency can make the difference between winning and losing an order from mobile phone vendors who try to squeeze out every single drop of power savings. Chilisin believes that its high-efficiency inductor products have significant competitive advantages. Judging from previous experiences with dealing with Japanese mobile phone vendors, it is clear that they care much more about inductor performance than cost considerations. Chilisin has established close partnerships with many Japanese customers through major Japanese dealerships in the form of strategic alliances, in which high-performance HEI series products are extremely popular.As a follow-up to the current series of HEI molding chokes, Chilisin plans to introduce its UHEI (Ultra-High Efficiency Inductor) series at the end of this year, providing mobile phone vendors with products of even higher efficiency. Furthermore, Chilisin also plans to introduce its MTFA 2-in-1 inductor array products in the first half of 2015, which will make even more effective use of the limited circuit space in handheld devices, providing customers with an even more diverse range of product solutions.Chilisin has successfully expanded its production capacity for mini molding chokes from 60 million units per month last year to 100 million units per month this year. Through continual improvement of its process technologies, Chilisin has increased its yield to above 80%. Chilisin's executives have stated that since overall market demand has been exceeding supply this year, they plan to continue to expand production capacity throughout the year.Meeting Different Needs through a Diverse Range of ProductsThis year's inductor product market has focused on mini molding chokes, whereas Chilisin began strategically planning for the mobile phone market in 2009, which has allowed it to successfully enter the supply chains of various major global smartphone vendors. When you look at why new customers prefer Chilisin, its success in introducing mini molding chokes is one factor. Another important reason for its ability to maintain its competitiveness is its constant improvements in product integration.Chilisin's products are suitable for DC-DC converters, RF applications, as well as EMI suppression applications. Their constructions, ranging from multilayering or thin-film, to wire-winding or molding, provide the ability to meet the diverse design needs of all types of mobile phone customers. For example, for mobile phone power inductor applications, HEI or MHCD series mini molding chokes can support PMIC circuits, and the metal-based MRSC series magnetic wire-wound power inductors can support step-up circuits for backlighting; for Wi-Fi modules, there are multilayer-process MPB power inductors for small current applications. Over the years, Chilisin has accumulated much knowledge on different types of processes and technologies, and to this day continues to pursue perfection. Chilisin's R&D team has begun to combine and consolidate various different types of process technologies to engage in the development of next-generation products, and it is anticipated that when these products are introduced, they will once again become highlights of the market.Capability of Vertically Integrating Powders and ProcessesChilisin has always been able to quickly introduce new inductor products in line with the latest trends in the electronics industry as well as different market segment requirements. The key to its success is the fact Chilisin has its own powder factory and the capability of develop powders in-house. Chilisin points out that the Ni-Zn ferrite and metal-alloy powders required for producing inductors is 100% internally developed, without any help from outside sources. Therefore, Chilisin is able to formulate materials based on customer requirements and provide effective solutions rapidly, thereby quickly meeting the needs of its customers in terms of properties and specifications. This is also one of the underlying reasons why Chilisin is able to offer competitive prices.Chilisin is able to manage a variety of powder materials and it is one of few specialists who simultaneously possess the know-how for developing and manufacturing multilayer inductors, precision wire-wound inductors, thin-film inductors, and molding chokes. Therefore, Chilisin is not only capable of meeting the needs of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and notebooks; it also continues to supply components for various types of products, including PC monitors, LCD TVs, servers, as well as telecommunications equipment. It is now even planning to enter the automotive electronics market. Looking forward, Chilisin's independent materials development and technological capabilities, as well as its diverse market strategies, will continue to inject endless momentum into the company.A comparison of Chilisin's and T Company's products

Samsung Electronics and Lenovo, both of which have ambitious goals for tablet shipments for 2014, both released new tablets in May 2014. Pricing of the new tablet from Samsung is still far higher than those of its competitors and is expected to impact the Korea-based vendor's shipment performance.Lenovo released its first 8-inch entry-level tablet and the device's price-performance ratio is also better than those of its tablets from the previous year.Lenovo was the most aggressive vendor in terms of tablets with phone functions in 2013. In 2014, the top-4 Android tablet brand vendors, including Acer, all invested in the phone-tablet segment. Asustek is trying to expand in China with its entry-level Fonepad 7, while Acer is promoting its tablets with phone functions aggressively in emerging markets.However, brand vendors are unlikely to achieve rapid growth in the segment, which is mostly being dominated by regional vendors.As for Windows-based tablets, with Asustek's entry-level T100 successfully turning consumers' attention back to Windows-based detachable tablet devices, Acer has released its new Switch 10 with Acer Snap Hinge design. However, lacking a strong price-performance ratio, the Switch 10 may face pressure from successors of the T100 in the near future, Digitimes Research believes.

Japan- and Korea-based operators have been aggressively promoting their LTE services. Their counterparts In Latin America and Europed have also been accelerating the process towards commercialization for LTE. The number of LTE users worldwide surpassed 200 million in 2013, up 130 million from 2012. Digitimes Research expects the number of users to reach 335 million in 2014 as US-based Sprint and T-mobile USA are both expanding their LTE networks, while China has recently started operating its enterprise TD-LTE network.In 2013, the number of enterprise LTE networks worldwide reached 260. Among them, the number of enterprise TD-LTE network doubled from the previous year. However, TD/FD-LTE dual-mode networks' proportion in overall TD-LTE network dropped 30pp from the previous year, according to figures from Global Mobile Supplier Association (GSA). The trend shows that demand for multi-mode networks is still rather weak, according to Digitimes Research's analysis.In the end market, there were a total of 1,371 device models supporting LTE in 2013, a growth of 106% on year. Of these devices, smartphones continued to see significant growth, while data-processing applications such as dougle, MiFi and customer premise equipment (CPE) saw declines.Taiwan's LTE data-processing product shipments were about four million units in 2013 and are expected to reach six million units in 2014 despite the volume in the first half of 2014 failing to achieve strong growth. CPE will stay the main shipment contributor of Taiwan players. Since LTE-based smart mobile device's growing demand is impacting dongle and MiFi sales, some Taiwan players have shifted their capacities to manufacturing LTE modules for mobile devices.

With interesting designs, superior pricing and an innovative marketing strategy, China-based smartphone vendor Xiaomi was able to become the top local brand in China in the first quarter of 2014, according to the recently published Digitimes Research China Smartphone Market and Industry Tracker report.According to the Digitimes Research report, Xiaomi saw its quarterly shipment total surpass the 10 million mark for the first time, and the vendor only trailed international brands Samsung and Apple for smartphone shipments in the local China market.While Xiaomi has targeted several market segments with its attractive designs, the company has significantly exceeded market expectations in the below-CNY1,000 low-cost segment with its flagship Redmi product. Xiaomi's sales have surged over the past few quarters, with its shipments outpacing other local players such as ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, and Lenovo.Xiaomi has also maintained a strong marketing buzz in the local smartphone market by focusing its sales through its online platform and only making the Redmi phone available certain days of the week, providing those who are able to purchase the device with a feeling of exclusivity, despite the low price of the model.Digitimes Research expects Xiaomi to continue with its success in the second quarter with double digit shipment growth, though its quarterly growth rate will be much lower than it was in the previous two quarters.

With the China smartphone market maturing, application processor (AP) providers are facing new challenges to increase their market share. According to the latest Digitimes Research China Smartphone AP Tracker report, beginning in the the fourth quarter of 2012, annual growth and quarterly growth for smartphone AP shipments both rapidly slowed.In the first quarter of 2014, overall smartphone AP shipments declined 4.2% quarter-on-quarter in the China market, with slowing shipment momentum for MediaTek and Spreadtrum being the primary causes, noted Digitimes Research. MediaTek's shipments were affected by a decline in its TD and EDGE product shipments, an immature LTE product strategy, as well as seasonal adjustments.In the second quarter, while Digitimes Research believes MediaTek will see its shipments rebound to double-digit growth, its two main competitors, Qualcomm and Spreadtrum, will see even stronger growth, causing MediaTek's overall market share to drop below 50% for the first time since the second quarter of 2013.According to the Digtimes Research China Smartphone AP Tracker report, MediaTek is benefittting from the strong performance of its 8-core products but the company is at a disadvantage in the growing LTE market, as it currently lacks a single-chip solution.

Despite the impact of seasonality and inventory adjustments at PC and consumer electronics product clients, the top-three Taiwan-based wafer foundry houses still managed to ramp up their combined revenues by 0.4% on year to US$6.15 billion in the first quarter of 2014, buoyed by replenishment orders for smartphone solutions from Qualcomm, Broadcom and MediaTek, according to Digitimes Research.However, inventory value at major IC suppliers around the globe saw a sequential drop to a nine-quarter low in the quarter. Along with an expected economic recovery, chip vendors are expected to begin to replenish their inventories in the second quarter, which will be instrumental to boosting revenues at the top-three foundry houses in the quarter, said Digitimes Research.To cope with strong demand from the smartphone and tablet sectors, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has continued to ramp up the capacity of its 28nm process, and will start generating revenues from its 20nm production node in the second quarter of 2014. Meanwhile, the 28nm PolySiON process at United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) will also start contributing to its revenue growth in the second quarter.As a result, the ratio of revenues generated from 28nm and below processes of the top-three foundry houses will increase significantly in the second quarter, along with an improvement in ASP.With the completion of annual maintenance at TSMC and UMC in the second quarter, newly added 12-inch fab capacities, as well as from an 8-inch fab from Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS), the top-three foundry houses are expected to roll out 6.48 million 8-inch equivalent wafers in the second quarter, with the capacity utilization rates of their advanced processes ramping to 98.2%, Digitimes Research estimated.Overall, the top-three foundry companies are expected to see combined revenues soar 20.4% sequentially to US$7.37 billion in the second quarter of 2014, with the growth momentum to continue into the second half of 2014.

April average retail price for 7W LED light bulbs (equivalent to 40W incandescent ones) in the China market rose by 5.9% on month to CNY35.9 (US$5.7), while 9W (equivalent to 60W incandescent) models saw an 1.4%, according to Digitimes Research.Average retail price for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs in the Japan market in April stood at JPY1,668 (US$16) and JPY2,681 respectively, with the former rising on month by 1.5% and the latter by 3.3%, Digitimes Research indicated.April average retail prices for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs in other markets are: KRW14,215 (US$13.7, down 2.2% on month) and KRW16,355 (up 1.4%) in South Korea; US$19.2 (down 11.9%) and US$21.6 (down 1.8%) in the US; EUR13.4 (US$18.8, up 1.5%) and EUR14.6 (down 3.9%) in Europe.Osram 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs available in the South Korea market had the highest average lumen-price ratios of 67.9lm/US$ and 110.2lm/US$ respectively in April. In terms of luminous efficiency, Toshiba 40W- and 60W-equivalent models for sale in the Japan market had the highest average levels of 74.6lm/W and 97.4lm/W respectively.

Intel is set to ship 40 million application processors (APs) for tablets in 2014, up 400% from the volume in 2013, though most market watchers believe the goal is rather difficult to achieve. Digitimes Research has found that Intel is currently placing its focus on penetrating into the Android tablet market and is persuading brand vendors and China white-box players to join its camp by offering subsidies and support from its China-based supply chain, which Intel has been nurturing.With Microsoft also seeing success for its detachable tablets with high price-performance ratios and set to become more aggressive in the entry-level Windows tablet segment in the second half, Digitimes Research expects the Windows on Intel platform to become another important contributor to Intel's tablet AP shipments for 2014.Digitimes Research expects Intel to ship 32 million tablet APs in 2014, achieving 80% of its goal.In terms of platform proportions, 60% of Intel's shipments will be adopted in Android-based models because the Android-on-Intel tablet is the main focus of Intel for 2014. Intel started offering technology support, marketing subsidies and CPU price cuts for Android-on-Intel tablets in the second half of 2013 and has been nurturing China's supply chain to provide low-price components.Currently, Android-on-Intel tablets' costs are already lower than those of the same level Android-on-ARM models. Asustek Computer has already turned to adopt Intel's platforms for all of its Android-based product lines, while many brand vendors and China white-box players have also been considering following suit.Since the Android tablet market's scale is far larger than that of Windows tablets, penetrating into the Android tablet market is much easier than expanding the Windows tablet market, Digitimes Research believes.Although only 40% of Intel's tablet APs will be used in Windows-based tablets, the volume will still grow significantly to 12.8 million units in 2014. The growth will be contributed mainly by two factors: Microsoft and Asustek's jointly developed T100, which successfully entered a market segment that other notebook and tablet vendors have never touched; and Microsoft's decision to offer free Windows for 9-inch and below mobile devices, which provides Microsoft with chances to cooperate with white-box supply chain to develop entry-level Windows tablets.Digitimes Research expects 65% of Intel's tablet AP shipments to go to brand vendors because their shipments are more stable and the two sides have been cooperating over notebook products for a long time.The remaining 35% will be shipped to China's white-box players. In addition to providing the same subsidies to white-box players, Intel is also investing in China's supply chain to gain white-box players' trust.