China-based panel makers BOE, Tianma Micro-electronics and China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) are showing increasing signs of improved technology and are likely to start producing more high-end panel products in 2013.The panel makers currently use a-Si TFT technology to produce Ultra HD (3840 by 2160) TV panels but are looking into using IGZO technology in 2013 instead. The makers are also aiming to release 400ppi smartphone panels during the year.BOE and Tianma are also looking to mass produce LTPS TFT LCD panels followed by AMOLED panels in 2014. Additionally, Tianma is developing SFT wide-angle display technology while CSOT is also pursuing HVA technology for use in TV panel applications.The panel makers are also expanding their production capacity, and are continuing to receive funding from the China government, indicating that China is increasing its role as a major player in the panel industry, according to Digitimes Research.

Taipei, Taiwan, March 26, 2013 - The global LED lighting market will be worth US$25.4 billion in 2013, representing 54% growth on the 2012 figure of US$16.5, while the LED lighting penetration rate will also rise to 18.6%, according to a new DIGITIMES Research Special Report titled "Global high-brightness LED market forecast."The report describes how the luminous efficacy of LEDs continues to rise, with manufacturers likely to be well ahead of the US Department of Energy's (DoE) development targets of 129 lm/W for warm white light LEDs and 164 lm/W for cold white light LEDs.LED lighting product prices are likely to drop by 20-25% in 2013, as LED component performance/price ratios rise from 2012's 500 lm/US$ to 1,000 lm/US$ in 2013.Looking further ahead to 2015, the US DoE targets are for LED component costs to drop 37% from 2013 levels, while 60W-equivalent LED bulb costs are to drop by 38% from 2013 levels by 2015. LED lighting prices would then be at a price point even more acceptable to general consumers.Lighting policy in many countries is also critical to the development of LED lighting, and this effect has been most marked in the Asia region. For example, Japan now has the highest LED lighting market penetration rate of any region, with the rate set to rise to 73.8% by 2015; South Korea's Korea Association for Photonics Industry Development (KAPID) projects that the country's LED lighting industry will have an output value of US$7.8 billion by 2015, 5.6 times the figure for 2012; while China's LED lighting market is growing by 30% per year, which will give the country nearly one third of total global output value for LED lighting in 2015.All of these factors will drive major growth in the LED lighting market, which will beat even the significant gains forecast over the last one to two years. "In addition to the rise of LED TV applications, LED lighting will begin to replace conventional lighting technology in the market. LED lighting will take 38.6% of the global lighting market by 2015," predicts Jessie Lin, author of the report. DIGITIMES Research in fact projects that the global LED lighting market will be worth US$44.2 billion by 2015.The DIGITIMES Research provides region-by-region analysis of the LED lighting market, including major players and prospects for each region. The report covers the US, Europe, China and Japan, with insights into government policy, corporate mergers, unique regional factors and other key aspects of market development.For more information about the report, visit Digitimes Research.Source: Digitimes Research, March 2013About DIGITIMES ResearchDIGITIMES Research is the research arm of DIGITIMES Inc., Taiwan's leading high-tech media outlet. Operating as an independent business unit, DIGITIMES Research focuses on quantitatively monitoring key high-tech industries, while also guiding clients toward suitable new businesses. DIGITIMES Research provides market intelligence and analysis to more than 1000 corporate customers worldwide. Research and consulting services cover a full range of industries, including information and communications technology (ICT), flat panel display (FPD), LEDs, semiconductor design and manufacturing.Contact: Michael McManus (Michael.mcmanus@digitimes.com)

While the debate and the mystery regarding a possible bailout of China's solar giant Suntech is still going on, the latest news is that the founder and the CEO of Suntech reportedly face legal actions from the China government! According to reports from China Daily, The Australian, and the Sydney Morning Herald, the founder, Shi Zhengrong, and CEO, David King, have been prevented from leaving China. But Shi is an Australian citizen. Therefore, according to the report from the Sydney Morning Herald, a spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Australian government said Shi has not been barred from leaving China.China Daily added that earlier media reports have claimed the Suntech founder has been doing suspicious transactions such as having Suntech procure solar materials from a polysilicon firm under his name.The reports about the travel ban come after Suntech's announcements regarding its China-based subsidiary, Wuxi Suntech, entering into insolvency and restructuring due to a petition filed by eight China-based banks. The local court in Wuxi, China, where Suntech is headquartered, accepted the petition on March 21.Despite the possibility of legal actions against its top executives, the China government is likely to bail out the solar giant. It is too big to fail. Suntech is a solar module maker that partners with solar cell, wafer, and polysilicon firms around the world. The livelihood of many depends on Suntech, not to mention international investors. Suntech is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but the firm is registered in the Caymen Islands while its assets are in China, said a report from Reuters. In addition, Suntech employs around 200,000 people around the world.Wuxi Guolian, a holding company owned by the Wuxi government, is reportedly THE ONE that is most likely to take over Suntech. However, oddly, Reuters reported that a spokesperson from the government-owned firm said he had no information on any plans regarding a bailout for Suntech. The report continued with the person stating that if there is any news regarding the restructuring of Suntech, it will be released through Wuxi Guolian. So, is there a bailout for the solar giant? Who knows.The relationships between the local businesses and the government in China often take place behind closed doors, or through "back doors." International investors are probably not the top priority for the China government; the local banks are. According to China-based media Xinhua, Suntech owed nine China-based banks up to CNY7.1 billion (US$1.14 billion) as of the end of February. Maybe after the bailout by Wuxi Guolian, Suntech will be able to return to production and gradually pay off its debts. But there is also a possibility that the firm will not get the bailout and collapse, possibly causing unemployment and social unrest in China. But, on the bright side, if the China government refuses to bail out Suntech, it might gain a bargaining chip to ask Europe to abolish its anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation against China-based firms. So who knows? The fate of Suntech may change the fate of a lot of people.

Due to rising prices of NAND flash in the third quarter of 2012, Japan-based semiconductor firm Toshiba has reported fourth-quarter 2012 revenues of its semiconductor business unit grew by 10.5% on quarter, reaching JPY231.6 billion (US$2.4 billion). The firm has seen revenue growth for two consecutive quarters. Toshiba also reported fourth-quarter operating profits of JPY20 billion, showing an on-quarter growth compared to JPY12 billion in the third quarter.Japan's second largest semiconductor firm Renesas Electronics saw fourth-quarter semiconductor revenues decrease by 13.7% on quarter because revenues from its three major product lines, MCUs, analog and power devices, and SoC solutions all showed sequential decreases compared to the third quarter. Renesas reported fourth-quarter revenues of only JPY177.2 billion and the overall net operating loss grew to JPY7.9 billion from JPY5.7 billion in the third quarter.Sony, the third largest semiconductor firm in Japan, divides its semiconductor business into in-house use and outside sales. The fourth-quarter revenues from outside sales reached JPY90 billion, representing a sequential increase of 19%. The firm has reported revenue growth for two consecutive quarters and continues to stay in profit.Renesas is likely to report net loss for the third consecutive year in the 2012 Japan fiscal year (from April 2012 to March 2013), Digitimes Research believes. The firm focuses on small volume production of diversified MCUs to suit the specific need of each customer, and hence the profitability is relatively small compared to other semiconductor products such as NAND flash that can be massively produced.Toshiba is expected to continue being the largest semiconductor firm in Japan. The firm plans to begin the volume production of NAND flash using the 15-18nm technology in 2013 and develop 3D NAND flash technologies. Sony will focus on expanding the capacity of CMOS image sensors.

The Japan government continues to promote the use of renewable energy and lower the percentage of electricity generated from nuclear power. In July 2012, the government announced a full buy-back scheme which successfully stimulated solar installations. Installations in the fourth quarter of 2012 alone reached over 1GW and the total 2012 installations showed an on-year increase of about 200%. A new feed-in-tariff (FIT) will become effective in April 2013. Under the new scheme, the FIT for solar PV systems under 10kW is lowered to JPY38/kWh (US$0.40/kWh) and the FIT for systems above 10kW is lowered to JPY37.8/kWh. Ahead of the cuts, the Japan market has been experiencing a surge of installations.Digitimes Research predicts the total solar installations in Japan to reach 3.2-3.5GW in 2013.Due to geographical limitations and high population density, the Japan market mainly focuses on residential solar PV systems. The government has also simplified procedures by allowing online applications for small-size solar PV systems under 50kW. Japan has also been promoting large-size solar PV system projects by expanding subsidies, which has attracted many investors, and the market share in fourth-quarter 2012 of large-size solar PV systems was comparable to residential systems. However, large-size installations have many construction restrictions, and therefore demand has not been as high as rooftop systems and the market has been reaching saturation. Many firms still focus on the residential segment in Japan.The Japan market offers many opportunities for solar firms as other markets are currently engaged in a trade war. Japan-made solar products do not have stronger quality or efficiency compared to brands from other countries, and at the same time China-made products have been gaining market support. Hence, it remains to be seen whether local firms will benefit from the government subsidies.

While a majority of the total touch panel shipments is still taken up by the mobile phone sector at present, those shipped to other applications are on the rise. Fabless firm FTDI Chip has introduced a graphic controller that integrates display, audio and touch functions for any product with an information-oriented human-machine interface, from e-book readers, white goods control panels to medical devices, public transport systems, and beyond.Headquartered in Glasgow, FTDI Chip was established as a developer of USB interface ICs. The launch of its EVE (embedded video engine) family demonstrates the firm's ability to diversify into new markets and products.The current touch-enabled display systems usually require a whole heap of silicon with a multitude of different chips, each having a relatively high pin count, said Dave Sroka, global product director at FTDI. This impacts on the overall bill of materials, mandates a large area of board real estate, and results in extensive power requirements.Sroka indicated that the initial offering in its EVE family, the FT800, is targeted at cost-effective QVGA and WQVGA TFT display panels. The object-orientated approach of FTDI's graphics controller eliminates the expense of traditional frame buffer memory as it renders images in a line-by-line basis with 1/16th of a pixel resolution.The FT800 is an SoC combining display, audio and touch functionality, providing an optimized solution that reduces power, board area and BOM costs, Sroka noted. Engineers are able to easily create their desired graphic user interfaces (GUIs) for a range of interactive display systems, such as an 8-bit microcontroller based processor for a GUI with smartphone-like graphics, Sroka said.In a space-saving 48LD QFN package, the FT800 is capable of providing 24-bit (true colour) support on an 18-bit interface. The chip comes preloaded with a useful set of fonts and sounds on its ROM to further facilitate completion of the development process as quickly and easily as possible, Sroka said.Display systems with touch and audio functionality are breaking into a far greater variety of application environments, Sroka observed. A more integrated design is more needed to reduce the amount of data that must be transferred, and keep the number of chips involved and the board space taken up to minimal levels, Sroka said.In addition, Sroka disclosed that FTDI's R&D center in Singapore and regional branch offices and distributors in other countries in Asia provide technical support to key customers and field engineers. The Asia market now accounts for about 30% of company revenues, Sroka said.Dave Sroka, global product director at FTDI, talks about a new approach to intelligent display designPhoto: Company

Samsung will extend its mobile handset market share lead over its nearest competitor to 11 percentage points in 2013, thanks to the launch of its latest Galaxy S handset, IHS iSuppli said in a new report."Combined with a massive worldwide rollout through almost every operator, the lifestyle focus of the S4 will help drive Samsung's market share sharply in 2013," said Ian Fogg, director for mobile and telecommunications research at IHS, in the report.The Samsung Galaxy S4 introduced last month has not yet hit market shelves, but IHS already provided an optimistic outlook for Samsung's handset market share lead in 2013.According to Samsung, the S4 will roll out with 327 mobile operators around the world in 155 countries starting at the end of April. The model features a larger, 5-inch full HD AMOLED display, and also demonstrates major upgrades in the sensors and application processor compared to the S3. IHS iSuppli: Top-5 handset vendors in 2012 (ranking by unit shipments) Rank Company 2011 2012 1 Samsung 24% 29% 2 Nokia 30% 24% 3 Apple 7% 10% 4 ZTE 6% 6% 5 LG 6% 4% Source: IHS iSuppli, compiled by Digitimes, March 2013

Panasonic is mulling plans to sell its mobile phone business, the Sankei Shimbun reported Tuesday (March 19), without providing its sources.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and HTC were both pinpointed by the press as among the potential buyers for Panasonic's handset division, though there seems no good reason why either of them should make the acquisition.Nonetheless, HTC might consider owning a well-known local brand to further expand company presence in Japan. HTC has enjoyed impressive sales of its J series, including the recently-announced J Butterfly, in the country.The possibility for TSMC to acquire Panasonic's handset business is more unlikely. TSMC serves system companies in sections ranging from consumer mobile devices to industry and military grade products, and therefore the contract chipmaker surely does not want to become a direct competitor of any of its customers.A more likely scenario is that Panasonic, or the buyer of Panasonic's handset division, works with TSMC to develop smartphone solutions. However, the rumor about TSMC being interested in taking over Panasonic's mobile phone unit has raised some eyebrows.

As OLED has been consistently facing mass production issues for applications on large-size displays such as TV panels, and is expected to have high production costs for at least a few more years as industry observers have predicted, display developers have been looking for alternative solutions to providing high contrast and more energy-efficient products to their TV and possibly even tablet, smartphone and notebook customers. One of those solutions is quantum dot display technology.Quantum dots (QD) or semiconductor nanocrystals are a form of light emitting technology and consist of nano-scale crystals that can provide an alternative for applications such as display technology. This display technology differs from CRTs and LCDs, but it is similar to OLED displays, in that light is supplied on demand, which enables new, more efficient displays and allows for mobile devices with longer battery lives, according to recent reports from New Scientist.QD displays also consume lower power and have richer color than conventional OLED, claim some analysts. The analysts also state that the white light produced by quantum dots has high brightness and excellent color reproduction, raising its potential to replace the backlight unit (BLU) using the LED to form the "QLED."But has the technology proved itself in actuality? As of early 2013, Sony used QD components made by QD Vision to improve the color of some of its high-end Bravia TVs, shown at CES 2013. Various analysts who viewed the TV claimed the range of colors it could display was increased by about 50% compared to LCD TVs. Judging by the photos Sony has posted displaying the technology it seems this claim is legit.Despite QD technology starting to pop up in the market, Digitimes Research has found that no makers of the QD technology have plans to mass produce it in the short term and may need at least another 3-5 years. Samsung Display is also not expected to take priority of the technology and instead will continue development of its OLED research, added Digitimes Research.OLED is gaining a lot of hype in the market, as it should considering the picture quality it provides. However, despite recent large investments into OLED either through Samsung Display or LG Display, there still has been only little progress in terms of using the technology for large-size applications. A large reason for this, claim the analysts, is that manufacturing OLED displays typically requires depositing organic molecules on the substrate using expensive evaporation techniques, hence the high costs and complicated production process. The analysts also stated the two companies may need another 3 years at least to bring down costs so that OLED TVs may be affordable for consumers, which if true, means that TV vendors could be battling for OLED displays as well as quantum dot display technology in the future.In the meantime, one thing seems for sure- Samsung and LG are still likely to use OLED, as they have made huge investments in the technology, so it is likely that Japan-based TV vendors who are looking for a new high-end technology for use in their TV products might want to consider investing in the technology perhaps with Sharp, as their Korea-based rivals have their OLED technology niche while China-based TV vendors are largely aiming to get Ultra HD TV panels from Taiwan-based panel makers.

There is a Chinese saying: observing flowers in the fog. It simply means people aren't seeing things clearly. This is how I feel about the recent events unfolding at Suntech, a China-based large-size solar firm.Seriously? On Friday, March 15, 2013, Suntech Power Holdings did not make the due payment of US$541 million on convertible bonds. Here comes the surprise: the firm's share price on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) went up by 4.48% that day. This may be the result of investor confidence being boosted by an article in the New York Times, published on March 13, 2013, which said that Wuxi Guolian, a holding company owned by the municipal government of Wuxi, China, confirmed a deal to buy Suntech (entirely or partially). However, the person that confirmed this from Wuxi Guolian declined to identify herself, said the report. The article was published on March 13, wouldn't it be more reasonable for the share price to surge, let's say, on March 14? Also, there may be a pending lawsuit against Suntech for not paying back the loan, according to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald.This is not the only bizarre thing. Another China-based solar giant that has been facing financial problems for more than a year, LDK, saw its share price rose by 13.60% on March 15. On January 21, 2013, LDK signed an agreement with a China-based investment company, Fulai Investment, for the latter to purchase 17 million of newly issued ordinary shares of LDK, or 12% of LDK's total shares. The total investment was around US$31 million, according to a company press release published on January 22, 2013. However, the firm has not issued any quarterly financial reports after June 26, 2012.I am not a stock investor; nor do I know the game of the financial market, so I guess investors thought if Suntech paid the debt, then everything would be fine. And if Suntech did not pay the debt, it means the acquisition would go ahead and again, there would be nothing to worry about even though by becoming a state-owned enterprise, Suntech's current inefficient business model would continue. I thought it would be logical for the share price of Suntech to fall on the day the firm failed to pay back on its US$541 million of loans. If one day I fail to pay back my mortgage when it is due, I hope there will be some people (especially the bank I am owing money to) who still have faith in me and think that I did not pay back the loan because I have a bankroller backing me up, and give me more money to spend. That would be wonderful!