Demand for e-book readers remained strong in first-quarter 2011, with global shipments soaring 236% on year to 4.8 million units. Digitimes Research believes global e-book reader shipments will reach 27 million units in 2011.Among the brand-name vendors, Amazon will continue to be the market leader with an 60% share of global shipments in 2011. Barnes & Noble may hold on to second place, but its gap with third-place Sony will narrow.North America will remain the biggest market for e-book readers, accounting for 72% of global shipments, but growth in the area is slowing down. E-book reader vendors are now aggresively expanding their presence in the Europe market, which is registering higher-than-average growths.Monotone e-book readers will remain the mainstream in the next three years, during which no breakthrough in developing color devices can be expected. Global e-book reader shipments will reach 63 million units by2014.Source: Digitimes Research, April 2011

Taiwan-based makers will ship 14.772 million digital cameras in the second quarter of 2011, rising by 25.1% sequentially but dropping by 1.4% on year, according to data collected by Digitimes Research.Ability Enterprise and Altek will be the top-two makers in terms of unit shipments with a combined share of 82.9%, while Fujifilm, Nikon, Eastman Kodak, Sony and Samsung Electronics will be the five largest clients in terms of order volume.Of the shipments, 51.5% will be 14-megapixel models, followed by 12-megapixel ones with 28.5%, 10-megapixel or below with 13.3%.Source: Digitimes Research, April 2011

Taiwan-based makers are expected to ship 31.394 million LCD monitors in second-quarter 2011, up 3.2% sequentially and 8.8% on year, and accounting for 69.9% of the global total. Digitimes Research estimates that Taiwan's total second-quarter LCD monitor shipment value will reach US$3.723 billion, or US$118.6 per unit.TPV Technology, Chimei Innolux (CMI), Qisda and Wistron will be among the top-five makers in terms of unit shipments. Of the shipments, 85% will fulfill ODM/OEM order and 15% for own-brand sales.Source: Digitimes Research, April 2011

Taipei, Taiwan, April 26, 2011 - A number of smaller handset vendors are rushing to launch low-priced (sub US$150) Android handsets targeting users in emerging markets in 2011, with related shipments forecast to reach 20-25 million units this year. The shipment total represents up to tenfold growth on 2010 shipments, and the segment will account for 12.1-15.1% of overall Android handset shipments, according to a recently published Digitimes Research Special Report.The report, titled "The rise of the low-priced Android smartphone," charts the rapid growth of the global smartphone market and the rise of Android as a smartphone platform. According to figures from Digitimes Research, global smartphone shipments for 2010 totaled 288 million units, representing 61.2% growth on the 2009 figures and accounting for nearly 20% of all mobile phone shipments.In 2010, the Android platform also gained momentum in the market, the report explains. Carriers worldwide began to partner with manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung Electronics in an effort to outdo each other in launching high-end Android smartphones in order to entice customers to sign up for mobile data services. The end result was that Android handset shipments and sales went from strength to strength, growing so much that Android was catapulted into second place in the smartphone platform rankings.While competition in the high-end smartphone market has already been through a gradual process of warming up before finally reaching fever pitch, the low-priced Android handset market has only just got underway; demand in this sector remains far from fully tapped, and serious competition is only just starting in 2011.The report notes that handset chip manufacturers around the world are convinced that demand for low-priced Android smartphones will soon follow in the footsteps of the high-end handset market and grow rapidly over the coming years. Such firms have all made and begun to execute plans to move into the low-priced Android handset processor market, hoping to emulate the success of the feature phone turnkey solution model and grab a share of the potentially lucrative low-end sector.China- and Taiwan-based chip design firms such as MediaTek, Infomax, Rockchip and Leadcore successively launched solutions for low-priced Android handsets beginning in the second half of 2010, and major international chip vendors including Qualcomm, ST-Ericsson, Broadcom, Texas Instruments (TI) and Marvell all launched turnkey solutions for low-priced Android handsets in fourth quarter 2010 or first quarter 2011.This Digitimes Research Special Report tracks and analyzes the key players in the low-priced Android market, from the upstream turnkey solution providers to the downstream system players handset vendors, revealing the competitive advantages of the various players in this rapidly growing market segment and the prospects of the overall low-priced Android market.Shipments of low-priced Android handsets to pass the 20 million mark in 2011Source: Digitimes Research, March 2011More information about the report About 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 monitoring key high-tech industries, while also guiding clients toward suitable new business as well. Market intelligence and analysis is provided to more than 1,000 corporate customers worldwide. Research and consulting services cover a full range of industries, including information and communications technology (ICT), flat panel display (FPD), renewable energy and semiconductor design and manufacturing.Contacts:Michael McManus (Michael.mcmanus@digitimes.com)Shannen Yang (Shannen.Yang@digitmes.com)

Digitimes Research estimates that Taiwan-based makers' shipments of WLAN products will total 77.421 million units in second-quarter 2011, dropping 5.3% sequentially and 19.1% on year, due to seasonality as well as indirect impact from the disasters in Japan.The forecast shipments consist of 62.751 million network interface cards and 14.670 million wireless routers.Source: Digitimes Research, April 2011

Latest data collected by Digitimes Research show that Taiwan-based optical disc drive (ODD) makers shipped 17.8 million units in first-quarter 2011, increasing 7.9% sequentially, thanks to considerable demand from the notebook segment.Slim-type and half-height models took up 52.8% and 47.2%, respectively, of the first-quarter shipments, and a further breakdown shows that DVD+RW/-RW burners accounted for 81.5%, DVD-ROM drives shared 17.7%, and Blu-ray Disc (BD) ROM drives, combo drives and burners combined for 0.8%.Source: Digitimes Research, April 2011

LCD TV panel supply will be tight in second-quarter 2011 because of unstable supply of some of the components. Digitimes Research predicts that Taiwan-based makers will ship 10.93 million LCD TVs in the second quarter, up 6.3% sequentially and 39.2% on year.Taiwan makers' total LCD TV shipments will reach 54.88 million units in 2011, accounting for 26% of the global total.Source: Digitimes Research, April 2011

Taiwan-based manufacturers shipped a total of 30.42 million LCD monitors in the first quarter of 2011, down 3.7% sequentially, according to latest data collected by Digitimes Research.While the contraction rate for the first-quarter monitor shipments suffered by Korea makers was higher than that of Taiwan vendors', the ratio of shipments from Taiwan makers to global monitor shipments dropped 0.1 percentage point to 69.9% in the first quarter due to increased shipments from China and other emerging countries, the Digitimes Research data show.First-quarter monitor shipments from Taiwan makers still represented an increase of 3.8% from a year earlier, indicating the industry remained healthy. Additionally, the impact of the March 11 Japan earthquake on global monitor shipments was limited, as evidenced by over 30-40% sequential shipment growth rates recorded by Taiwan makers in March.Source: Digitimes Research, April 2011

Latest data collected by Digitimes Research show that Taiwan makers' large-size LCD panel shipments (9-inch and larger models and including those for tablet PCs) decreased 1.4% sequentially to 65.15 million units in the first quarter of 2011.In comparison, global shipments of large-size flat panels were down 5% to 160.72 million units during the same period with shipments from Taiwan makers accounting for a 40.5% share.With sales of LCD TVs from international major players falling short of their targets and China-based TV vendors recording flat performance during the first quarter, Taiwan's LCD panel makers saw their first-quarter shipments of TV panels decline 4.8% sequentially.With regard to shipments of IT panels, including those for monitor, notebook and tablet PC applications, the performance of Taiwan-based makers was better than industry average.Among Taiwan's makers, Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) posted the highest 3.3% sequential growth rate in shipments of large-size LCD panels in the first quarter, while AU Optronics (AUO) saw its large-size panel shipments edge up 1.4% on quarter, buoyed by increased shipments for IT applications.Although LG Display saw its large-size LCD panel shipments drop 15% sequentially in the first quarter, shipments of table PC panels by Taiwan-based makers still lagged far behind those shipped by LG Display, the Digitimes Research data show.Source: Digitimes Research, April 2011

After three consecutive quarters of unsatisfactory performance, Taiwan's notebook shipments in the second quarter of 2011 are expected to remain weak and as shortages of components such as ICs for optical drives and hard drives, caused by Japan's earthquake on March 11, will start impacting the notebook supply chain in the quarter, despite Taiwan's notebook shipments will still see a sequential growth of 6.1%, they will see a drop of 2.1% compared to the volume a year ago, while global notebook shipments to see 8.8% growth on quarter and only 3.7% on year, according to Digitimes Research senior analyst Joanne Chien.Global notebook shipments in the first half of 2011 are expected to reach only 98.02 million units and with the second-half currently still offering no big surprises, while netbook shipments are dropping, Chien believes that global notebook shipments in 2011 may grow only 5.8% on year to 210 million units, marking the first time for the notebook market to see annual growth that is not a double-digit percentage and also lower than the 20.1% in 2010.As for the netbook segment, Acer's strategy of adjusting its orders for the second quarter will result in Taiwan notebook makers' total netbook shipments to drop to around 4.5 million units in the quarter. Although Taiwan's traditional notebook shipments will still achieve a growth of 9% sequentially, on-year growth will only reach 1.4%, a lot lower than 50% in the same quarter a year ago.For the second quarter of 2011, Apple, Asustek Computer and Acer will be the top-three players having increased notebook order volumes to their partners, with Apple mainly benefiting from its newly launched MacBook Pro notebooks, while Asustek and Acer both had smooth inventory digestion.As for notebook makers, Inventec, which used to be the fourth-largest notebook maker worldwide, will drop to number six in the second quarter with Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) to take fourth place with shipments of more than four million units in the quarter. Inventec's shipment volume in the second quarter will also have a gap of about 1.2 million units with the fifth largest, Pegatron Technology, Chien added.Source: Digitimes Research, compiled by Digitimes, April 2011