The government in India, at the end of 2012, implemented the National Telecom Policy, a set of reform policies including nationwide licensing in place of regional licenses, enforcement of regulations on the use and auctioning of frequency bands, mechanisms for mobile telecom carriers to withdraw from the market, and phone number portability, as well as goals to pave the way for healthy development of the local mobile telecom market, according to Digitimes Research.Mainly due to unbalanced market competition and telecom regulations, the number of mobile communication subscribers in India grew over 20 fold during 2003-2012, Digitimes Research indicated. Following the implementation of the National Telecom policy, the number decreased by about 30 million from a peak in 2012 to 904 million in the first quarter of 2014.However, India's mobile telecom market has been toward healthy development, as indicated by rebounding ARPU (average revenue per user), growing mobile Internet-access penetration in rural areas, and mobile telecom carriers' swing from losses to profitability, according to statistics by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Despite the improvement, more than 80% of mobile Internet-access subscribers use GPRS/EDGE networks, signifying the need to upgrade network infrastructure.

After visiting China's smartphone industry in August and September, Digitimes Research found that demand for 4G smartphones in China did not rise as expected and most vendors' domestic shipments did not achieve any growth.Digitimes Research estimates that even if China's top-three telecom carriers strengthen their promotions for the fourth quarter, vendors that focus mainly on domestic shipments such as CoolPad, Lenovo and Xiaomi, are still unlikely to achieve their shipment targets for 2014.With China Mobile's TD-LTE service starting to operate at the end of 2013, China-based smartphone vendors originally expected 4G smartphone demand to improve significantly in the third quarter after seeing the business opportunity fail to take off in the first half, but demand did not improve as expected in the third quarter.China-based CoolPad, which turned all its smartphone product lines to support 4G in the first half, accumulated a large excess inventory of 4G smartphones in the channel from January-April. Since its sales in the third quarter remained weak, the vendor's orders to its upstream supply chain were greatly reduced for the quarter.Lenovo, which started launching 4G smartphones at the end of the second quarter, had issues with 3G inventory from the first half and saw its shipments impacted in the third quarter. Seeing demand for 4G models remaining unclear, the vendor is taking a conservative approach about placing 4G orders.Xiaomi, which saw its ranking increase significantly in the first half, also faced weak 4G smartphone demand in the third quarter. The vendor's 4G-based Hongmi sales did not stand out, causing its quarterly shipments to fail to achieve as strong a growth as before.China's smartphone market is seeing mild growth in 2014 because the market has already reached a plateau. Even with China telecom carriers' plans to push mid-range and entry-level 4G smartphones in the fourth quarter, which will boost CoolPad, Lenovo and Xiaomi's 4G smartphone shipments, it will be traded with a significant reduction in 3G model shipments.As a result, the three China-based first-tier vendors, which still heavily rely on domestic sales, are unlikely to achieve their shipment goals for 2014.

No mid-range digital cameras for sale at US$300-400 were launched in the global market in the third quarter of 2014 possibly due to increasing competition from smartphones, according to Digitimes Research.In order to increase differentiation between digital cameras and smartphone cameras, vendors have increased optical optical zoom specifications, with 12x optical zoom models taking up 75% of newly launched digital cameras, Digitimes Research indicated. In addition, more and more digital cameras support Wi-Fi, including the Panasonic FZ1000, TZ60, TZ61, TZ56 and SZ8 as well as Samsung Electronics WB351. Wi-Fi-enabled models account for 75% of newly launched digital cameras. The FZ1000, TZ60 and TZ61 also support NFC functionality.Among seven major Japan-based digital camera vendors, Nikon, Sony and Olympus did not launch new consumer models in the third quarter.

Bit demand for non-PC DRAM, mainly niche mobile DRAM and server-use DRAM, will increase 38% on year in the second half of 2014, much higher than 2.7% for standard DRAM, according to Digitimes Research.In particular, bit demand for server-use DRAM will soar by an annual rate of 46.6% in the second half of 2014 due to fast growing cloud computing and big data applications.While the ratio of specialty DRAM to the total niche DRAM market is relatively low, the increasing application of specialty memory chips by flat-panel TVs will ramp up the on-year bit growth rate of specialty DRAM to 22.5% in the second half, Digitimes Research added.Additionally, the bit growth rate of mobile DRAM will significantly surpass that of standard DRAM in 2015, making mobile DRAM the mainstream memory chips in the market.

Microsoft has provided brand vendors its Windows 8.1 with Bing solution, offering low Windows licensing fees enabling them to sell notebooks at US$249 or lower. Following the initial release on June 1, 2014, Microsoft is set to release a new solution in February 2015.To prevent the product line from hurting its brand partners' profits, Microsoft will limit the solution to only 14-inch and below models in mature markets. But vendors will still be allowed to release 15-inch models using the solution in emerging markets.Although Microsoft's specification changes for Windows 8.1 with Bing are mainly in consideration of brand vendors' profitability, Digitimes Research believes vendors that have strong market influence, will still be unwilling to largely cooperate with Microsoft to adopt the solution in 2015 which will impact Microsoft's plans of using inexpensive notebooks to suppress Chromebook development.Microsoft started negotiating with notebook vendors about the Windows 8.1 with Bing solution in October 2013 and is charging a low licensing fee for notebooks that adopt the platform and are priced at US$249 or below, aiming to push vendors to release more Windows-based notebooks that have price points similar to those of Chromebooks.So far few vendors are aggressively pushing related products considering the market segment's maturity and low profits.The top-5 brand vendors' shipment targets for the product line by the end of 2014 range from 1-1.5 million units maximum to 500,000 units minimum and are expected to achieve shipments of 4.5 million units altogether in 2014.Meanwhile, Chromebook's on-year shipment growth is expected to maintain at 100% in 2014 and Microsoft's inexpensive solution will not yet create any pressure on Chromebook sales.

All of the 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries except Laos and Myanmar have started nationwide fixed-line broadband Internet-access networks and the total number of subscribers increased to 19.9 million at the end of 2013, with a 2003-2013 CAGR ate of 40%, double the global average for the same period, according to Digitimes Research.Despite the fast growth, broadband Internet user densities (divided by population) in all ASEAN countries except Singapore are lower than the global average of 37% and download speeds in 70% of ASEAN countries are below 6Mbps, Digitimes Research indicated.High charge to income ratios and little differentiation in services have negatively impacted development of broadband Internet services in ASEAN countries. In 2013, ratios of service charge rates to gross national income in ASEAN countries except Singapore stood at 5-15%, much higher than below 2% in most developed countries. In addition, value-added services for market differentiation are generally not available.In the future, population growth, high economic growth and growing OTT (over the top) demand are expected to support continued development of broadband access in ASEAN countries, but substitution by LTE mobile communications is likely to bring negative impact on the development.

The South Korea government aims to increase the South Korea market value for the Internet of Things (IoT) from KRW2.3 trillion in 2013 to KRW30 trillion (US$28.9 billion) in 2020, much larger than Machina Research and Stracorp's projected five-fold growth in global IoT market value from US$200 billion in 2013 to US$1 trillion in 2020, according to Digitimes Research.The South Korea government also aims at 350 small- to medium-size enterprises focusing on exports of IoT services/products with 30,000 employees, as well as a 30% hike in production efficiency for the enterprises that will have adopted IoT in 2020, Digitimes Research indicated.The South Korea government in May 2014 came up with an IoT development master plan for developing IoT services and products through setting up an open IoT ecosystem consisting of service, platform, network, device and IT security sectors, as well as collaboration among enterprises of varying sizes and in various industries.

The global proportion of small- to medium-size TFT LCD production capacity from China is expected to increase to 35% as of 2017, up from 15.5% in 2011, according to Digitimes Research. In terms of large-size TFT LCD applications, China's global share will increase from 5.3% in 2011 to 25.5% in 2017.The statistics include production from both China-based makers and international makers who have facilities in China.China-based makers will be responsible for 33% and 17% of the global shipments of small- to medium-size and large-size LCD panels, respectively, in 2017. Their shipments to the two segments are expected to reach 130 million and 970 million units in 2017, up 51% and 54% respectively compared to 2013.BOE will hold the largest flat panel display spot in China from 2014-2017, holding 38% of all revenues produced from panel makers in China in 2017. That percentage is expected to exceed 40% in 2018 following the company's developments of high-end technologies, including LTPS TFT LCD, AMOLED and Oxide TFT LCD.Digitimes Research also believes China makers will hold a 17.4% revenue proportion in the global TFT LCD industry in 2017, up from 11.4% in 2013.

China-based e-commerce operator Alibaba has strengthened its operations utilizing the use of mobile devices, with transactions concluded on its e-commerce platform through mobile devices accounting for 32% of its total online sales in the second quarter of 2014, according to Digitimes Research.With rival company Tencent expanding its business through the use of social networking software and its cooperation with online shopping operator JD.com, Alibaba has also been trying to further improve the traffic flows of its e-commerce through the launch its own social networking software and acquisitions of search engine and e-map operators.Alibaba has also strengthened its cooperation with physical stores, expanding its online-to-offline business model to also include offline-to-online model.Alibaba has also stepped up deployments in overseas markets, particularly in North America and committing investments in local companies. However, Alibaba will face some operating issues including the high consumer's loyalty toward the market leader Amazon for its high-quality and value-added services, different shopping behavior, and concerns over the storage of transaction data in a China-based firm.While Alibaba will see its online transaction values continue to expand in China, its business model that counts on advertisements and services will be difficult to transfer from terminal ends to mobile devices. As more online transactions are shifting to mobile devices, it will be difficult for Alibaba to ramp up its profits. But the massive consumer data that Alibaba has compiled from various segments of its e-commerce operations may be useful for its cloud data development.However, due to different consumer demand and cultural differences, it is also difficult for Alibaba to duplicate its successful business model it did in China to overseas markets, Digitimes Research commented.

Taiwan panel makers will continue to focus on production of a-Si panels for use in handsets to compete in the high-end smartphone panel segment, according to Digitimes Research.The makers will lack competition in terms of production capacity compared to China and Japan makers, with China makers expected to begin mass production on several new LTPS lines in 2015 into 2016.Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) in particular plans to produce a-Si panels and will also allocate some production to IGZO TFT technology. Additionally, AU Optronics (AUO) will aim to use the technology for high-end handset panel orders while Innolux on the other hand is expected to promote the technology for entry-level and mid-range handsets.The Taiwan makers are also focusing on orders from China, with recent trends indicating that demand for high-resolution, low-priced units is still on the rise, making a-Si technology a competitive technology for Taiwan makers in the handset segment, Digitimes Research believes.