Sales of Windows-based tablets in Japan have been rising as vendors have been aggressively releasing Windows 8.1-based 8-inch models since October 2013...

Metal mesh technology has entered mass production at some China-based touch panel makers, such as O-film, since the second half of 2013. It helped O-film become the largest notebook touch panel supplier in the world in the fourth quarter of 2013, thanks to its pricing advantages. Lenovo was one of the early adopters of metal mesh touch panels for its notebooks.

The production value of Taiwan's IC testing and packaging industry is expected to grow 5.9% in 2014, higher than the 4.9% growth posted a year earlier, as well as the 4.2% growth projected for the global IC backend industry in 2014, according to Digitimes Research.

Global leaders in the sapphire industry, in attempts to return to profits from losses incurred in 2012-2013, will focus on increasing utilization rates rather than expand capacities in 2014. Therefore, the global sapphire capacity in 2014 will be approximately the same as that in 2013, Digitimes Research estimates.

The LCD TV panel surface area shipped in 2014 is expected to rise 8.7% on year as demand for TVs is expected to increase and the average TV panel-size increases, according to Digitimes Research.

Depleting energy sources, climatic changes and rising power prices have highlighted the importance of energy savings and carbon reductions, and consequently, efforts have been made to optimize efficiency of energy use for buildings or factories...

With most of the China-based panel makers aggressively eyeing the high-resolution small- to medium-size panel market but lacking experience, Digitimes Research believes that in 2014, China's LTPS small-to-medium-size panels will still mainly be on the HD level. However, in 2015, FHD shipments should start picking up...

March average retail price for 7W LED light bulbs (equivalent to 40W incandescent ones) in the China market slipped 11.0% sequentially to CNY33.9 (US$5.5), while 9W models (equivalent to 60W incandescent ones) saw a 2.9% decline to CNY44.0, according to Digitimes Research.

In March, global top-5 notebook brand vendors and top-3 ODMs both achieved an over 25% on-month shipment growth due to February's weak shipments caused by inventory adjustments, orders for new products and end of support of Windows XP in early April, according to Digitimes Research's figures.

Among global top-7 PC brand vendors, only Apple (sixth place) still outsources its tablet orders mainly to Taiwan-based EMS providers and ODMs, while the rest - Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell, Acer, Asustek Computer and Toshiba - have gradually shifted their entry-level tablet design and manufacturing to China-based makers...