Samsung Electronics had talks with MediaTek over cooperation in the second half of 2014 and MediaTek is expected to become an application processor (AP) supplier of Samsung's smartphones in the second half of 2015 at the soonest to help fill up the gap in the Korea-based vendor's product lineup

China's second-tier and white-box players have recently turned their focuses to dual-OS (operating system) tablets and are aggressively preparing to ship these products to overseas markets

More China-based smartphone vendors, including second-tier Gionee, Zopo and Haier, appear to have geared up efforts to promote sales of their smartphones in overseas markets, according to Digitimes Research.

Taiwan's top-three IC foundries will see their combined revenues increase 38.6% from a year earlier in the first quarter of 2015, according to Digitimes Research

South Korea recorded production value of KWR2.42 trillion (US$2.3 billion) for robots mainly used in the industrial segment during 2013, growing on year by 6.5%, while KWR737.6 billion was for exports to China and emerging economies, up 23.9%,according to Digitimes Research, citing sources form the Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement

With 4G service subscribers accounting for 13% of Taiwan's overall telecom service users and the number of smartphone users in the country surpassing 13.5 million in 2014, Taiwan's environment is already mature enough to develop a payment system using near-field communication (NFC) technology on smartphones. To promote tourism, the Taiwan government has accelerated a reviewof related regulations, and business opportunities from Taiwan's mobile payment services are expected to start popping up in 2015

China's smartphone application processor (AP) shipments enjoyed strong growth in the second half of 2014 as the country's 4G ecosystem gradually matured. However, the 4G growth came at the expense of 3G AP sales. Currently, the China market's 3G AP inventory has already piled up to tens of millions and even Spreadtrum, who sees the lowest inventory globally, also has a few million units in excess of demand

The launch of Google's Nova project and Cablevision's Freewheel services will help push the deployment of Cable Wi-Fi as well as the implementation of Wi-Fi Only Phone and Wi-Fi First telecom services, according to Digitimes Research

In light of slowing sales of high-end smartphones, vendors including LG Electronics, Sony Mobile Communications and Acer all highlighted their new entry-level and mid-range models at the recently concluded MWC 2015 targeting emerging markets, according to Digitimes Research

The February 2015 home electronics market witnessed several developments, including GE Appliances further integrating into the smart home market coupled with the launch of new high-end high dynamic range (HDR) TVs, according to Digitimes Research

Apple is set to ship its new 12-inch MacBook on April 10 and has also upgraded the specifications of its MacBook Pro/Air notebooks. At the same time, Apple is reducing the inventory of previous-generation products that are expected to be cannalized by the new offerings. During this transition period, Apple will see a shipment drop over 25% sequentially for its MacBook series products in the first quarter, higher than the notebook industry's overall decline of 20%, Digitimes Research estimates

Notebook shipments (excluding detachable models) by the world's top-five brands and top-three ODMs declined 13% and 18%, respectively, in February, affected by reduced work days in the month, high inventory levels of consumer models left over from the previous year, as well as the impact caused by the sharp fluctuation of the Russian ruble, according to Digitimes Research