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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Taiwan-based ODMs and own-brand makers shipped 18.4 million smartphones in total in the third quarter of 2014, increasing 6% on quarter and 11.7% on year, according to Digitimes Research.
Lenovo and Asustek are expected to release Chromebooks using Google-certified solutions from China-based Rockchip in the first half of 2015 at the latest, and their devices are expected to be priced at US$149, a new low for notebook products, according to Digitimes Research's latest finding from the Greater China supply chain.
