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.

In terms of demand in the China market, non-Apple vendors saw weak sales for their high-end models in China's smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2014 as Apple's newly launched iPhone 6 series smartphones took a large portion of their high-end devices' demand away.

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.

This Digitimes Research Special Report analyzes the strategies of key China-based major panel makers BOE, Tianma and IVO for attacking the different market segments through technology and pricing, and their relationship to local vendors Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE, Xiaomi and Coolpad.

Looking at smartphone sales in the local China market, under the influence of stagnating sales of international brands, a lack of differentiating features in high-end and high-cost/performance ratio products marketed by China-based makers, and ultra-low-cost 4G phones yet to be launched, the third quarter China smartphone market only saw heightened demand during summer promotion periods, and shipments reached 90.6 million units, down three million units, or 3.1% on quarter.

As of 2013, the 10 ASEAN nations had a total of over 700 million mobile subscriptions, with the CAGR from 2003-2013 reaching 24%, and the share of the global user base rising from 4.9% to a high of 10.6%. This Digitimes Research Special Report analyzes the various mobile broadband markets in ASEAN and looks at the respective trends in 4G LTE development for those markets.

A delay in the launch schedule for low-cost 4G smartphones resulted in a mere 4.8% increase in second quarter shipments in the China market. However, with telecom operators planning on increasing their subsidies in the second half of the year, demand will be stimulated.

This report is divided into two sections; the first covers the China smartphone market, including shipments from international players and China-based players. The second section covers the China smartphone industry and covers shipments from local makers in the domestic market and export shipments.

China first-tier smartphone players - Lenovo, Huawei, CoolPad and ZTE - started releasing new smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2013 because their entry-level model inventories, accumulated over the first three quarters of 2013, were mostly digested by October 2013. The new models' larger screen sizes and better application processors also increased China consumers' demand.

This Digitimes Research Special Report examines two aspects of the China smartphone market. The first part covers the China smartphone market, measuring local shipments in China from both China-based vendors and international vendors such as Samsung and Apple. The second portion of the Special Report covers the China smartphone industry and measures shipments from China-based makers and vendors in the local China market as well as their shipments to overseas markets.

This Digitimes Research Special Report provides a market forecast of the 2014 application processor market (AP). In addition to shipment forecasts for each major vendor, Digitimes Research presents the various development trends in AP design, including the decision to implement 64-bit architecture, the development direction of eight core applications, the evolution of the bigLITTLE core designs, the advancements of GPU architecture, and overall software developments for supporting new processor architecture.