Taiwan-based TFT-LCD makers shipped 309.749 million small- to medium-size panels in the third quarter of 2016, increasing 15.0% on quarter and 0.8% on year, according to Digitimes Research

SK Telecom, the largest mobile telecom carrier in South Korea, began to provide nationwide IoT (Internet of Things) services in July 2016 through adopting LoRaWAN (long range wide area network), a non-cellular LPWA (lower-power wide area) technology, on unlicensed frequency band units instead of Narrow Band-IoT (NB-IoT) on licensed band units released by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in June 2016, and this signals mobile telecom carriers' preference for non-cellular mobile communication standards using unlicensed band units for IoT business operations, according to Digitimes Research

Global shipments of large-size (9-inch and above) TFT-LCD panels will increase from 673.37 million panels in 2016 to 684.60 million units in 2021, with a CAGR of 0.3% for the 5-year period, according to Digitimes Research

Worldwide notebook shipments (not including 2-in-1 devices) increased 8.6% sequentially in the third quarter thanks to growing demand from the enterprise sector, vendors preparing for the year-end holidays, and increasing Chromebook shipments. The third-quarter shipments were down 4.1% on year

Worldwide notebook shipments are expected to drop 7.2% on year to reach less than 150 million units in 2016 because Microsoft's free Windows 10 upgrade program caused many consumers to postpone their new PC purchasing plans, while Apple's late releases of its new MacBooks will be another reason for the decline. But in 2017, Digitimes Research expects the decline to be much smaller at only 0.2% with shipments coming to around 146 million units

Combined revenues of Taiwan's top-3 foundries - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), United Microelectronics (UMC) and Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) - are estimated to be US$9.36 billion in the third quarter of 2016, up 14.3% sequentially and 18.5% on year, according to Digitimes Research

Viewing that 82.5% of large hospitals with 400 or more beds in Japan have adopted electronic medical records, leading vendors of digital medical systems including NEC, Fujitsu and Hitachi have focused promotions on small- to medium-size hospitals, and consequently, Japan's electronic medical records market will increase to a total value of JPY259.4 billion (US$2.49 billion) in 2018, increasing 20.0% from 2015, according to Digitimes Research

Among LED packaging service providers around the world, Japan-based Nichia ranked first in LED revenues for the first half of 2016 with JPY126.58 billion (US$1.248 billion), followed by Taiwan-based Everlight Electronics with US$449.6 million, Germany-based Osram Opto Semiconductors with US$442.9 million, South Korea-based Seoul Semiconductor with US$423.1 million and LG Innotek with US$320.3 million, US-based Cree with US$309.3 million and China-based MLS with US$259.5 million, according to Digitimes Research

Taiwan-based ODMs, OEMs and OBMs (own-brand manufacturers) will ship 37.65 million LCD TVs in 2017, increasing 6.4% on year and taking up 17.2% of global total, according to Digitimes Research

Global shipments of large-size (9-inch and above) TFT-LCD panels will slightly increase from 673.37 million units in 2016 to 684.60 million units in 2021, equivalent to an annual CAGR of 0.3%, according to Digitimes Research

Global smartphone shipments are expected to grow 7.2% on year to 1.42 billion in 2016 and another 7% to 1.52 billion units in 2017, according to the latest estimate by Digitimes Research

With a series of battery fires reported with Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 and its latest announcement telling customers to turn off the smartphones immediately to prevent further incidents, Digitimes Research senior analyst Luke Lin expects the move to seriously impact Samsung's overall smartphone production for the second half of 2016 and allow Apple, the number-two smartphone vendor worldwide since 2011, to regain the number-one crown in the fourth quarter