Taiwan-based ODMs Ability Enterprise, Altek, Asia Optical and Foxconn Electronics will ship 2.703 million digital cameras in total in the second quarter of 2014, increasing 14.2% on quarter but decreasing 53.5% on year, according to Digitimes Research.
Taiwan and worldwide notebook shipments dropped 13.8% and 14.2% sequentially, and 6.8% and 5.5% on year, respectively in the first quarter of 2014, according to Digitimes Research's latest figures. The sequential drops were mainly due to seasonality.
The single-layer multi-touch applications, mass production of which has been enabled by touch IC designer Goodix' technology, requires only a single layer of ITO film to support 5- to 10-point touch. Previously, the technology worked well only on small-size touch panels, but Goodix has made improvements to enable mass production of the technology on 7- to 8-inch touch panels.
Global tablet shipments reached only 58.56 million units in the first quarter of 2014, down almost 30% sequentially, but up 4.6% on year despite Samsung Electronics trying to boost both its high-end and entry-level tablet shipments and Lenovo pushing shipments to meet its fiscal 2013 targets...
Microsoft's operating system business has been seeing internal conflicts and external threats in areas such as technology development, partner relations and operating model. Without a clear long-term strategy, the software giant will need to gradually improve these issues soon, according to Digitimes Research.
System on chip (SoC) solutions for Ultra HD TVs are expected to become more mature in 2015 as Ultra HD content, transmissions and display technology develop, according to Digitimes Research.
Qualcomm has received recognition from brand vendors for its mobile application processors (APs) based on its in-house developed architecture. However, its competitors have started to pick up their pace in releasing new products, and the CPU cores have become less important in SoC products. Amid such developments in the industry, Qualcomm has been forced to rethink its in-house AP development.
Optimizing its experience of shipping LCD driver ICs for HD displays used in iPads, Korea-based Silicon Works is expected to ramp up its shipments of display driver ICs for Ultra HD TV applications in 2014, according to Digitimes Research.
Chi Mei Communication Systems (CMCS) saw a significant increase in handset shipments in first-quarter 2014, because of Nokia's joint design manufacturing (JDM) orders for feature phones, while Compal Communications also achieved sequential shipment growth. Only Arima Communications suffered a slight drop.
