IDC's preliminary results show that the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market grew 11% for the full year 2011 to reach 119 million units. While weaker than previous years, the growth remained healthy, especially considering the weak global economic cues that persisted throughout the year, highlighting the resilience in these Asian markets.

The global BTS antenna market declined by 16.3 % in 2010, according to the latest report titled "Global BTS Antenna Market Analysis and Forecast". The decline in 2010 was partly due to the Indian telecom embargo and subsequent freezing of all wireless network deployments in mid 2010 within the country. The market continues to shift away from single band sectorized panel antennas to multi band antennas. As a result, multi-band antennas reached nearly 28% of the overall mix, compared with 10% in 2009.

Backed by Japanese government fund, Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi will set up a joint venture for small- and medium-sized flat panel displays (FPD), which aims to become the market leader, posing a major threat to other market players, including Chimei-Innolux in Taiwan.

Asian stock markets rose Monday as data showed the economy of earthquake-battered Japan shrank less than expected. Global markets fluctuated wildly last week as investors already concerned over Europe's worsening debt crisis were further rattled by signs the U.S. might be headed toward recession. The U.S. Federal Reserve last week signalled that it would keep interest rates super-low for two more years because of expectations that unemployment will remain high and economic growth slow.

In view of the surging interest in green energy following Japan's nuclear power plant incident, Taiwan's green energy industry is poised to experience a round of vigorous growth in the coming years, with its output value expected to top NT$1 trillion by 2015, inducing NT$200 billion of private investment and creating 110,000 job vacancies, said Jerry J.R. Ou, director general of the Bureau of Energy, under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

In an investment-solicitation trip to Japan last week, Yiin Chii-min, minister without portfolio, successfully won the pledge of two Japanese firms to set up plants in Taiwan as their overseas backup production bases. The two Japanese firms, one a semiconductor-equipment maker and the other an electronic chemical material supplier, plan o make investments totaling NT$600 million in value. One major motive for their investments is to escape power rationing plaguing Japanese plants in the wake of the March 11 earthquake devastating northeastern Japan. To speed up their production, the two firms will lease plant buildings for operation first before constructing their own plants. Executives of the two firms will come to Taiwan to visit related government agencies for their investment plans by the end of this month.

N Screen Services and Multi-Device Services are often used in the same meaning. Technically speaking, however, Multi-Device Service is a broader concept that encompasses N Screen Service. Multi-Device Service is, literally, to provide the same content or services on a variety of devices. Along with the evolution of the ICT environment, Multi-Device Services have been evolving as well.To begin with, thanks to the extension of internet-enabled devices, online content and online service channels have expanded. On top of this, more recently, the environment where consumers use multiple devices according to time and place is being created. In this situation, multi-device platforms are gaining attention for enabling users to enjoy the same content or services seamlessly, irrespective of which device / medium is used.

IDC's preliminary results show that the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market grew 1% sequentially and 7% year-on-year in 2011 Q1 to reach 26.8 million units. Consumers remained distracted by inflation and competing product categories like Media Tablets. Fortunately, countries like Indonesia and Korea were stronger than expected, but the weight of China and India kept the whole region from exceeding IDC's forecasts.

According to Chinese press reports, the Chinese government has decided to slow development of nuclear power in response to the recent nuclear radiation problem in Japan, and, instead, will build more solar power plants nationwide as part of its 12th Five- Year Development Plan to accelerate replacement for nuclear power. The plan to increase solar power generation in China is expected to make Taiwan's suppliers of solar cells more easily tap the huge Chinese solar power market.

The massive Japanese earthquake will drive down Taiwan's economic growth rate by 0.11-0.2 of a percentage point, decreasing the gross domestic output by NT$15-20 billion, this year, said Christina Liu, minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) yesterday (March 29).