Asustek Computer and Apple are currently the top-2 tablet vendors in Japan. In terms of operating system, Google and Apple led the tablet market in Japan with Android and iOS together accounting for 94.4% of the sales in January-October 2013.Toshiba launched its Dynabook Tab VT484 on November 21, 2013 and is the first Japan-based vendor to have released Windows 8-based tablets. With the release of Windows 8.1 in December, more Windows-based tablets are expected to be available. Since 8-inch Windows-based tablets have already stimulated some demand in Japan, Digitimes Research expects Windows' share in Japan's tablet market, which totals less than 5% currently, to increase.Meanwhile, the digital camera market in Japan has seen DSLR shipments grow, but the global digital camera market remains sluggish.Canon and Nikon have recently reduced their global shipment estimates for digital compact cameras (DSCs) for 2013 to eight million and 6.2 million units, respectively. Canon shipped 8.2 million DSCs and Nikon 6.98 million in 2012.Canon also reduced its global DSLR camera sales target for 2013 to below the previous year's level. Japan-based second-tier DSC vendors have turned their focuses to mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (MILC) models, which are mainly for the doemstic market.

As the consecutive winner of Taiwan Excellence Award, EverFocus' IP cameras, Hybrid mobile NVR solution, and their cross-system integration surveillance platform once again won four Taiwan Excellence Awards this year.Delivered by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), Taiwan Excellence Award recognizes technologically innovative products produced by enterprises in Taiwan. As an award winner for six consecutive years, EverFocus continues to impress.Instead of getting one award, EverFocus' splendid products received four awards separately this year. The award-winning products are EverFocus Hybrid Mobile Solution, EAN3300 3MP HD box IP camera, EHN3261 2MP outdoor bullet IP camera, and Genie Cross-System Integration Surveillance Platform.By combining the capabilities of 3G-Capable Hybrid EMV1600 Mobile NVR, EMW330T IR Vari-focal Lens Mobile Camera and EMN2320 IP Mobile Camera as well as our VMS/CMS software and mobile Apps, EverFocus Hybrid Mobile Solution can fulfill a wide range of user requirements, allowing for pure IP, IP and Analog combination, or Analog-only operation according to customers' needs and industry standards.EAN3300 is a 3 MP high definition box network camera which delivers high definition image quality with up to 15fps in 2048x1536 resolutions. EAN3300 supports both H.264 and MJPEG multi-streaming. The camera has a built-in slot for a micro SDHC card, providing uninterrupted recording when network system is down. Power over Ethernet (IEEE 802.3af) supplies power to the camera via the network for easy installation with only one cable, eliminating the need for power cables and reducing installation costs. EAN3300 conforms to ONVIF/PSIA for compatibility with other network video devices - even from other manufacturers.The EHN3261 is a 2 MP auto focus form-factor bullet IP camera, providing 30 fps at 1920 x 1080 viewing resolution with 10X optical zoom lens. The camera supports quad streams from H.264, MPEG4 and MJPEG video compression formats. Equipped with vandal proof IK10-rated and weather-resistance (IP68) housing plus ten IR LEDs for enabling the night visibility of up to 40 meters, the camera meets a wide variety of needs for outdoor surveillance. The camera has a built-in SDHC card slot, providing local recording when the event was triggered. Power over Ethernet (IEEE 802.3at) supplies power to the camera via the network for easy installation with only one cable, eliminating the need for power cables and reducing installation costs. EHN3261 conforms to ONVIF / PSIA for compatibility with other network video devices – even from other manufacturers. You can also use EverFocus Mobile Applications to remotely view the live views of the cameras through your handheld devices; or use EverFocus CMS to remotely manage multiple IP devices connected on the network.The Genie Cross-System Integration Surveillance Platform adopts an open and flexible architecture, and with plenty of integration scalability. The lead time and required resources to customize new features can be lowered dramatically. With the brand new idea of monitoring and manipulating this platform through ordinary web page, it erases the need of program pre-installation to user machine once and for all. Contents and structures displayed in the web page are managed by the host server, thus when adjustments are required, simply set that on the server side and it will apply to all, no updates or settings for user's computer are needed any more."EverFocus is proud that four of our products once again have won the award and we will deliver more innovative award-winning products for the years to come," said Diane Chen, PR Coordinator of EverFocus Global Brand Marketing Department.EverFocus once again won four Taiwan Excellence Awards

As mobile Internet access is becoming more popular, telecom carriers worldwide are all facing difficulties providing sufficient mobile data services to meet user demand. Solutions considered include canceling unlimited service plans, or establishing small cell base station or Wi-Fi networks to offload traffic.Wi-Fi-based offloading needs to be integrated with carriers' existing 3G or 4G equipment, and involves purchasing enterprise-level Wi-Fi products, which is commonly known as carrier Wi-Fi, to achieve optimization.According to Digitimes Research, over 13 Wi-Fi equipment makers to have already entered the carrier Wi-Fi market, which it has categorized into five major groups based on their experience and background.Among the five groups, makers with emerging technologies will be weaker in terms of competitiveness, and if demand in the carrier Wi-Fi market starts to decline, these makers will be the first to face challenges.

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%.