Google TV, which was first launched in 2010, will no longer see any subsequent product release in the future as Google has already merged its Google TV team with the Android team, and the company will also turn to push TV products adopting Android operating system in the future with the Chromecast being one of the star products.Google's experience in Google TV has helped the company achieve success with its Chromecast, but the company's roadmap for the TV industry may also need to be adjusted.Digitimes Research believes that the Chromecast will generate demand for Android TV in the market and turn the Android TV system into a core entertainment device in families because of its smartphone connectivity. The Chromecast is also expected to boost adoption of Chrome browser and increase PC advertisements' presence in the TV advertising market.

Japan's PC market saw its sales value in October 2013 rise 4.4% on year despite an on-year drop in sales volume. Notebook sales have also seen increased value, but declining volumes since March 2012 due to the increased number of high-end notebook models on the market such as those equipped with touch panels, which have boosted Japan's overall PC pricing and helped ASP return to the level in 2010 at JPY70,000 (US$670). Because Japan's PC market is already in a state of saturation, local consumers now wait longer to replace their products, while older-generation models are enjoying better demand in the country than new models due to limited specification differences. In October, ultrabooks only accounted for 6.9% of Japan's total notebook sales, down significantly from 11.7% half a year ago due to Intel shifting its focus to tablet products, Digitimes Research's figures showed. As Microsoft is set to end support for Windows XP in April 2014, Japan-based brand vendors are aggressively pushing new PC models, hoping to catch the replacement trend. Some key specifications that the vendors are promoting are Windows 8.1, Intel Haswell processors, high-resolution displays, and touchscreen/convertible designs. Tablet and desktops are expected to become the main sales drivers for Japan-based vendors at the end of 2013, while Japan's enterprise market is also expected to benefit from the replacement trend brought about by Windows XP. However, PC demand in Japan is likely to turn weak again in 2014.

High-definition displays have seen growing adoption by mobile devices and created enormous pressure on the design of application processors since the transmission and processing of HD content rely on lots of support, such as bandwidth, memory capacity and processor performance. This has prompted the industry to introduce mobile GPU to mobile devices.In 2013, about 10% of mobile devices worldwide feature 1080p displays, while WQHD-based displays have a share almost 2%, according to figures collected by Digitimes Research. It is believed that 1080p displays' share will rise to 20% and WQHD displays 5% in 2014.Future mobile devices' average resolution is expected to surpass that of PCs, but since mobile devices' GPU performance is only one tenth of that of PC, it remains to be seen how GPU designers are going to maintain a balance between performance and power consumption.

China-based makers will ship 575.315 million touch panels for smartphones, 164.506 million units for tablets and 10.362 million units for notebooks in 2014, increasing on year by 34.4%, 39.6% and 304.0% respectively, according to Digitimes Research.Film-based models will account for 70.4% of China makers' smartphone touch panel shipments and 44.4% of the tablet touch segment, while the corresponding proportions for glass-based models will be 21.0% and 54.6%. Resistive touch will have 8.6% and 1% of the shipments to the smartphone and tablet segments respecitvely, Digitimes Research indicated.Among China-based makers, Shenzhen O-film Tech will share 20% of the smartphone touch panel shipments, 11.1% of the tablet touch panel shipments and 60% of the notebook touch panel shipments. Chung Hua EELY Enterprise will share7.2% of the shipments to the smartphone segment and 13.3% of the tablet segment. Truly Opto-electronics, Mutto Optronics and Top Touch Electronics will respectively occupy 12.3%, 5.1% and 4.1% of the smartphone touch panel shipments.

With aggressive promotions by retailers, iPad sales during the year-end shopping season have grown strongly. Promotions - such as Best Buy's US$100 price cut for iPad 2, Walmart's and Target's US$100 gift cards coming with purchases of the iPad Air or the iPad mini - helped the iPad series tablets become the best selling products among major retailers on Black Friday. The iPads reportedly even accounted for 18% of Target's total sales revenues for that day.The iPad mini with Retina was not widely available in the retail channel because of panel supply issues; however, the issues are being resolved gradually, Digitimes Research believes.LG Display is the major panel supplier for the iPad mini with Retina. The Korea-based maker's a-Si process initially had low yield rates for the device's ultra-thin high-definition panels due to light leakage problems, and shipments for the iPad mini with Retina were hampered. However, the problems reportedly have already been resolved recently, and Sharp and Samsung have also joined the panel supply chain for the device. Therefore Digitimes Research believes iPad mini with Retina shipments will likely rise to four million units in the fourth quarter of 2013, up by 1-1.5 million from the original forecast.In the first quarter of 2014, the device's shipments are expected to reach 5-6 million units, boosted by demand from Asia during the Lunar New Year holidays.

Taiwan-based LCD driver IC makers as a whole will ramp up their revenues in 2013 for the second straight year, with the combined figures for the year reaching NT$87.74 billion (US$2.96 billion), up 10.7% from a year earlier, according to Digitimes Research.For the fourth quarter of 2013, revenues of six major LCD driver IC players will dip 6.8% sequentially and 5% on year due to decreased demand for large-size driver IC parts as well as slow sales of small-size driver ICs to the handset sector affected by seasonality, Digitimes Research said.While most vendors have been strengthening their deployments on small-size driver IC applications for sustaining growth, Himax Technologies has designated its efforts to develop driver IC parts for smartphone applications and will see sales of its smartphone application shipments soar 67.6% on year in 2013.With regard to the business outlook for 2014, demand for driver ICs for monitor and notebook applications will drift downward due to dwindling demand from end-market device makers, while shipments for tablet applications below 9-inch are expected to grow 27%.With annual demand for smartphones expected to expand 29.8% in 2014, shipment growth for related driver ICs shipped to the handset sector will be higher than that for shipments of large-size IC parts, Digitimes Research added.The rising popularity of Ultra HD TVs will ramp up demand for driver ICs from the TV sector; an increase of one percentage point in the penetration rate of the Ultra HD TVs in 2014 will be equivalent to an increase in demand for 85 million TV-use LCD driver ICs. Global shipments of driver ICs for TV applications totaled 2.36 billion units in 2013.

ARM-based server shipments worldwide are expected to reach 20,000 units in 2013, accounting for 0.2% of total server shipments and the volume is estimated to grow to 1.06 million by 2017 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 170%.ARM-based servers started becoming available at the end of 2012 and as more vendors are promoting their related products in 2013, Digitimes Research expects ARM-based server shipments to gradually increase every year.ARM has unveiled its objectives for the server business, including having ARM-based server shipments account for 5-10% of global volume by 2016 and 10-15% by 2017.Digitimes Research believes that Windows Server operating system's support for the ARM architecture is the key factor deciding the growth of ARM-based server shipments.Poorer than expected support could result in ARM-based server shipments only achieving a CAGR (2013-2017) of only 150%. However, stronger than expected support could result in a CAGR of 180%.

MediaTek is expected to grow its share in the global application processor (AP) market to 26.2% in 2014, slightly outpacing Qualcomm's 25.6%, according to Digitimes Research.Smartphone-use APs currently account for nearly 80% of global AP shipments, which are dominated by top-5 suppliers, including Qualcomm, MediaTek, Apple and Samsung Electronics.Shipments of APs for tablet applications are also concentrated on a number of leading suppliers, but China-based chipset vendors have emerged as the leading suppliers in the segment thanks to brisk demand for white-box tablets in China, Digitimes Research said.However, with regard to product development roadmaps of major suppliers, chance is high for MediaTek to lead all vendors in shipments of smartphone- and tablet-use APs in 2014, although it may lag others in the LTE segment.Qualcomm will benefit from the rapid development of the LTE market in 2014 and continue focusing on medium- to high-end AP sector, while Apple will see its market share decline progressively as its products will continue to face strong competition from the Android camp in the end-market for smart devices, Digitimes Research commented.

Global production of high-brightness LED chips in 2014 will reach a total value of US$12.743 billion, increasing 129% on year, according to Digitimes Research.LED lighting will take up 39.4% of high-brightness LED chips to be produced in 2014, followed by mobile device LED backlighting with 18.6%, LCD TV backlighting 8.5%, LED display boards 7.7%, automotive use 6.8%, tablet backlighting 6.3%, notebook backlighting 4.9% and LCD monitor backlighting 2.3%, Digitimes Research said.Global LED lighting will reach a total market value of US$25.82 billion, hiking 38% on year and taking up 23.4% of total market value for all types of lighting. Of LED chips to be used in lighting in 2014, light bulbs will account for 36.8%, tubes 33.4%, downlight/projection lamps 23.3% and street lamps 6.5%.

TPV Technology, Foxconn Electronics, Compal Electronics, Wistron, Amtran Technology and Pegatron will ship 35.95 million OEM/ODM LCD TVs in 2014, increasing 5.3% on year and accounting for 16.9% of global shipments, according to Digitimes Research.TPV will ship 16.85 million LCD TVs with Philips and Vizio to be major clients, followed by Foxconn with 7.2 million units and Sony to be the major client, Compal with 4.3 million units mainly to Toshiba, Wistron with 3.6 million units mainly to Vizio, Amtran with two million units mainly to Sharp and Vizio, and Pegatron with 1.2 million units mainly to Toshiba, Digitimes Research indicated.