According to Digitimes Research, global notebook shipments will decline by 2.7% in 2014 to 170 million units and shipment totals in 2015 will continue to show a decline. While the business notebook market benefited from the expiration of support by Microsoft for Windows XP early in 2014, this trend will not maintain momentum into 2015.

Taiwan's top handset ODM Foxconn Electronics lost a significant amount of feature phone orders from Microsoft Mobile in the third quarter, while the biggest brand vendor HTC also saw a sharp decline in its shipments. But for others in Taiwan's handset sector, the third quarter was a quarter of growth.

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.

Digitimes Research estimates China smartphone application processor (AP) shipments will see a 33.8% yearly growth in the fourth quarter of 2014, up 8.7 percentage points from previous quarter. Quarterly growth however will be 9.5%, down 2.2 percentage points from previous quarter.

The global digital still camera (DSC) market continued to decline in the third quarter of 2014, a trend reflected by Taiwan makers' significant on-year shipment drops. Worldwide DSC shipments are expected to drop almost 30% in 2014.

US notebook brand vendors' stronger-than-expected sales fueled their Taiwan-based ODM partners' shipment growth in the third quarter. In general, the enterprise segment saw better shipment momentum than the consumer segment, as Microsoft's termination of support for Windows XP continued to prompt companies to replace their PCs.

With China being the world's IT production center and a country with some of the strongest consumer demand, along with benefits on custom tax, funding, loans, and subsidies provided by the government, China's FPD industry continues to show strong growth. Local firms such as BOE, CSOT, Tianma Microelectronics, and CEC Panda have been aggressive in developing 6G and above LCD panel production lines. This Digitimes Research Special Report analyzes the current FPD players in China and forecast how China's industry will progress through 2017.

Taiwan makers have successfully entered the supply chain of the Internet data center (IDC) industry and may contribute over 90% of the global server shipments in 2014. Combined revenues from related product lines such as motherboards, back-end assembly, storage and telecommunication devices, are expected to reach NT$450 billion (US$14.94 billion) in the year, up 8.8% from 2013.

This Digitimes Research Special Report focuses on the 2014-2015 sapphire application market and industry outlook. Sapphire has been a key component in the LED industry in recent years, but demand is increasingly coming from lens cover applications in market segments including digital cameras, Home buttons on smartphones and most recently the Apple Watch. Digitimes Research estimates that in 2015 annual growth for sapphire demand will hit 22.3% in the LED industry and 110.6% in the cover lens segment.

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.

The LTE market does not perform as expected in the China market while the TD-SCDMA market declines. Smartphone APs experience quarterly growth of 13.2% in China In the second quarter of 2014, with MediaTek's 3G products achieving nearly a 50% market share. In the second half of 2014, the LTE standard will rapidly replace 3G, 64-bit products will enter the mainstream market but overall shipment growth will be limited.