Average retail prices for LED light bulbs equivalent to 40W and 60W incandescent ones in the Japan market stood at JPY1,717 (US$17.2) and JPY2,468 respectively in October, slipping on month by 3.2% and 3.7% respectively, according to Digitimes Research.

China white-box tablet shipments reached about 25 million units in the third quarter of 2013, up 56.3% sequentially and 40.4% on year thanks to strong overseas shipments, which accounted for 80% of the total volume...

US-based crystal growth solution and equipment provider GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has announced that Apple will pre-pay US$578 million to secure sapphire supply. GTAT will be able to use the funds to set up additional sapphire production capacity which will produce enough sapphire to make 5-inch screen covers for 33.79-50.56 million iPhones a year, Digitimes Research estimated.

Global LED tube shipments are expected to reach 380 million units in 2014 to give the technology a 9.74% penetration rate in the market, according to Digitimes Research.

GTAT has signed a multi-year sapphire materials agreement with Apple.

Taiwan-based makers will ship a total of 17.14 million handsets in the fourth quarter of 2013, increasing 3.3% sequentially and 17.1% on year, and 99.71% of them will be smartphones, growing 4% sequentially and 26.2% on year, according to Digitimes Research.

Tablet shipments from major brand vendors worldwide are expected to reach 42.15 million units in the fourth quarter, up 18.1% sequentially, but down 2.5% on year, as the market has started maturing.

The global top-5 notebook brand vendors saw their combined shipments drop 18% on month in October, while the top-3 notebook ODMs together also saw an on-month shipment drop of 14%.

Taiwan-based makers shipped a total of 21.039 million LCD monitors in third-quarter 2013, decreasing 4.1% sequentially and 15.8% on year to take a global market share of 61.4%, according to Digitimes Research.

Taiwan-based makers will ship a total of 365.985 million small- to medium-size TFT-LCD panels in the fourth quarter of 2013, a decrease of 3.2% on quarter and 0.5% on year, according to Digitimes Research.