Of the various devices developed by ICT makers to increase car safety, ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) are expected to become the mainstream driver-safety system, with global production value for ADAS and devices/components estimated to increase to US$12.54 billion in 2020, according to Digitimes Research

Following the liberalization of Japan's low-voltage electricity market beginning April 1, 2016, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank, the three largest Japan-based mobile telecom carriers, have become retailers of electricity for households and small businesses in a bid to promote sales of value-added services using their ICT capabilities, according to Digitimes Research

Shipments of smartphone-use application processors in China are expected to decline 15.9% sequentially to 145 million units in the first quarter of 2017, according to Digitimes Research. Shipments on an annual basis will grow about 7.6% from the 134.8 million units shipped in first-quarter 2016

Wintel notebooks shipped by the global top-five vendors: HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Asustek Computer, in January 2017 decreased 35% on month but increased 10% on year, while shipments by the three largest Taiwan-based ODMs: Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics and Wistron, also slipped 30% on month but grew 20% on year, according to Digitimes Research

Exhibitors focused LED and optoelectronics devices at Lighting Japan 2017 in Tokyo during January 18-20 on automotive applications, according to Digitimes Research

Due to fast development in robots, drones, AGVs (automated guided vehicles) and self-driving technologies, infrared (IR) LED, laser LED, ultrasonic and radio frequency applications are used to support obstacle-avoiding range-finding features, and IR LED and laser LED have been particularly widely used, according to Digitimes Research

Because of weak demand for all-in-one PCs, worldwide all-in-one ((AIO) PC shipments fell 4.8% on year to total only 12.11 million units in 2016, the third consecutive year of on-year declines. However, the shipment volume is expected to return to growth in 2017, up 1.5% on year, as the market starts to stabilize after a three-year decline, according to Digitimes Research

Taiwan-based makers together shipped 33.555 million notebooks on an ODM/OEM basis in the fourth quarter of 2016, increasing 5.2% on quarter and 0.8% on year and taking up 82.9% of the global total, according to Digitimes Research

Various types of robots were exhibited at RoboDEX 2017 in Tokyo, Japan, during January 18-20, including collaborative, humanoid, assistant and receptionist robots, according to Digitimes Research

The number of FTTx subscribers increased to 228 million and 3G/4G mobile broadband Internet-access subscribers grew to 941 million in China as of the end of 2016, accounting for 76.8% of all fixed-line broadband Internet-access subscribers, and 71.2% of all mobile communications respectively, Digitimes Research cited statistics by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) as indicating

There were 124.2 million smartphones shipped in the China market in the fourth quarter of 2016, increasing 8.0% on quarter and 5.3% on year and accounting for 29.6% of the global total, according to Digitimes Research

Panasonic has been developing smart towns in Japan using in-house-developed technologies and products. Panasonic sees the development of smart towns as a new long-term business, according to Digitimes Research