The wearables market is a growing focal point for many vendors and players in the display panel supply chain. This Digitimes Research Special Report looks at developments in panel applications in the wearable industry, with a specific focus on panel makers in Greater China. The report also covers the investments being made moving forward (through 2017) in order to meet end-market demand, including capacity expansion for small- to medium-size TFT LCD and AMOLED panels.

This Digitimes Research Special Report details Intel's mobile AP strategies, status, advantages, partnerships and operating system support for different smart mobile device markets. It analyzes the CPU giant's operation progress in different industries in 2014 and forecasts Intel's development and direction for 2015 and beyond.

Most of Taiwan's handset makers felt strong seasonal effects in the first quarter. Foxconn suffered particularly as a result of drastic drops in orders from Sony Mobile and Microsoft Mobile.

DSCs continue to be cannibalized by smartphones with increasingly better camera functions. Taiwan's DSC makers saw a short-lived rebound in shipments in fourth-quarter 2014, but slipped back to a downward trend in first-quarter 2015.

The retail market was unable to digest the massive inventory of inexpensive notebooks in first-quarter 2015. The result was drastic drops in orders from vendors for their Taiwan-based ODMs, who were hit by the worst-ever sequential decline in shipments they had ever seen.

The server market did not perform well in 2014 though rising demand from Internet data centers (IDCs) and China brands helped global shipments (measured by motherboards) grow 7.1% to 10.4 million. Using this as the base for growth, in 2015 the market is expected to see shipment growth of 13.5%, with Taiwan makers accounting for 88%. With Taiwan playing a major role in the global supply chain, this Digitimes Research Special Report focuses on shipment data and customer relationships between Taiwan makers and global OEMs and major data centers.

Digitimes Research estimates that the global LTE market doubled in size to 445 million users in 2014 and we further forecast that annual growth in the number of LTE users will remain above 70% between 2015-2016, with the overall market reaching 1.466 billion users by 2016, representing 70% of the total number of global mobile broadband (including 3G+4G) users. Driving that growth is the Asia-Pacific region, especially China, and the region will surpass North America to become the world's largest consumer LTE market in the first half of 2015.

Digitimes Research forecasts that in 2015, the global high-brightness (HB) LED industry will have annual growth of 7.5% in terms of output, reaching US$13.7 billion. The total number of LEDs used will reach 186 billion units, representing annual growth of 32.6%, out of which lighting applications will have the highest annual growth rate in terms of usage, reaching 65%. This Digitimes Research Special Report analyzes the various applications, technologies and market trends that will drive demand in 2015.

Smartphone shipments from Taiwan's brand vendors and manufacturers broke the 20-million mark in the fourth quarter of 2014, buoyed by strong demand from the end market and OEM clients.

Taiwan makers saw an on-year rise in DSC shipments during the fourth quarter of 2014, as driver IC shortages that had hampered their shipments in the previous quarter eased. But shipments for the entire 2014 continued to fall, and the trend of decline does not show any sign of stopping in 2015.

Digitimes Research estimates that total 2014 AP shipments will reach 1.52 billion units worldwide, up 19.6% from 2013, and in 2015 the global market will see shipments of 1.65 billion units, growing 8.5% on year. The slowdown is mainly due to a shrinking tablet market. Qualcomm is still expected to lead the market with MediaTek closely trailing thanks to its mature 4G solutions. Intel, assisted by Rockchip and Spreadtrum, will show significant growth in 2015 with global shipments.

The notebook market saw significant demand for entry-level devices whose pricing levels were comparable to those of tablets in the fourth quarter of 2014, which maintained Taiwan ODMs' overall shipments at a level comparable to that of the previous quarter. But the on-year drop in shipments is a clear indication of the notebook market's persisting woes.