Smart home company Brilliant Home Technology added August smart locks to the portfolio of products compatible with its light switch-based home control system, it said Thursday. Brilliant users can lock and unlock their door from a wall switch controller, by voice or from a mobile app, it said. Lock control also can be part of a scene. Brilliant has support for some 35 smart locks through integration with a SmartThings hub, it said.
Biometric technology company Zwipe teamed with Tappy Technologies to develop and launch biometric wearable payment, access and digital authentication devices, they said Monday. Tappy will license Zwipe’s intellectual property, enabling biometric authentication in wearables and payment cards, the companies said. Tappy CEO Wayne Leung said brand partners, largely watch companies, sold more than 85 million units in 2017, and the company expects to see biometric authentication as part of this portfolio next year with its wearable payment and tokenization platform deployed in “millions of units” in coming years. The companies plan to demonstrate a prototype this year. Tappy brand partners include Guess, Timex, Nuband, Kronaby and TapStrap.
Eleven percent of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a smart speaker in the next 12 months, Parks Associates blogged Monday. Voice control for security systems “promises to be a UX differentiator,” said analyst Dina Abdelrazik. Voice control of TV and lights also appeal to consumers for convenience and simple operation, she said.
Innovation is ahead for a “stuttering” virtual reality market, Futuresource reports, predicting 220 percent growth this year for game content to $1.3 billion. “Mass market uptake is going to be gradual, but it is going to happen” as content evolves, user experience improves and entry-prices drop, said Michael Boreham Thursday. Full game sales and downloads are expected to dominate, led by Steam and Oculus, first in the “PC VR” and then “building out a presence in mobile VR,” which the analyst sees as the best hope for establishing a market foothold. Boreham predicts mobile VR will divide into Google’s Cardboard platform at the entry level and second-generation all-in-one devices.
The iPhone XS and XS Max each had 8 percent of U.S. iPhone sales for the quarter ended Sept. 29, reported Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. The iPhone X had 14 percent of sales, while the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus were the best-selling models at 16 and 17 percent in the quarter, which tracked an “unprecedented” 10 models, CIRP said Thursday. The analytics firm calculated U.S. weighted average retail price (reflecting wholesale discounts and promotional pricing Apple offers to retailers and carriers but not including international results) at $796, vs. $751 in the June quarter and $705 in the year-ago quarter. The increase in U.S.-WARP suggests a similar rise for average selling prices, said analyst Mike Levin. The most expensive iPhone XS and XS Max models captured early premium demand, while other upgraders may wait a month for the less expensive iPhone XR, which could moderate U.S.-WARP this quarter, Levin said. CIRP surveyed 500 U.S. Apple customers who bought an iPhone, iPad, Mac computer or Apple Watch.
Flagship smartphones in 5- and 5.5-inch screen sizes are preferred by most consumers, especially in China and India, where a 5.5-inch screen is considered “ideal” vs. the preferred 5-inch last year, Strategy Analytics reported. SA Wednesday cited better productivity and entertainment capabilities, thinner designs, higher quality screen resolution and quality as features driving consumers to larger screens. Improving “one-handed usability” and adding voice assistants will reduce user friction with larger screens, pushing preferences for larger devices further, said analyst Chris Schreiner.
Twelve percent of U.S. broadband households reported unresolved technical problems this year vs. 5 percent in the previous three years, with issues becoming more complicated and difficult to diagnose, Parks Associates blogged Wednesday. “Strong value is achieved from the smart home when devices communicate with each other,” analyst Patrice Samuels said, but diversity in device technology and communication protocols is making seamless communication difficult. Wi-Fi connectivity is the most persistent issue across all device types, Samuels said. A support solution that can warn about potential or impending connectivity problems on a network would be valuable in a smart home, she said. Among findings: 79 percent of smart home device owners set up at least one device by themselves or with the help of friends and family; 16 percent of consumers who set up computing and entertainment devices themselves reported the process difficult; 14 percent of smart home device owners said they had problems with a device in 2018; and the 72 percent of consumers who paid one-time fees for support of smart home, computing or entertainment devices paid $50 or more for the service.
Samsung said it bought artificial intelligence-based network and service analytics company Zhilabs, part of a $22 billion strategy to boost investment in companies to drive growth in AI, 5G, automotive electronic components and biopharmaceuticals. The acquisition lays the foundation for 5G offerings in automation and network analytics, it said Wednesday. AI-based automation will enable new services in connected cars and industrial IoT to analyze user traffic, classify applications and improve service quality, Samsung said. “5G technology will disrupt the communications landscape for the better, but it will only be successful if the quality of the networks transferring the information can be measured and improved," said Joan Raventos, CEO at Barcelona-based Zhilabs, which will operate under its own management.
Effects of 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, which the Trump administration imposed last month, aren’t likely to be felt at retail this holiday season, said CTA President Gary Shapiro Monday at the association's conference in Boston. Shapiro’s bigger concern is what happens after Jan. 1, when tariffs will rise to 25 percent. He left open the possibility of a domino effect involving other events -- the stock market, elections and the overall economic mood -- that could affect the holiday season. Responding to our question whether CTA will sue over the levies, he said “there’s definitely a reason to question the legality of what the president has done because the Constitution lays out our laws, the Constitution gives Congress the authority to raise taxes, the tariff is a tax, and there’s a very serious question of whether Congress has given the president the authority to raise tariffs because of retaliation.” Meantime, LG will deliver its first-ever keynote address at CES, CTA Executive Vice President Karen Chupka announced. Chief Technology Officer I.P. Park will discuss artificial intelligence and its future impact on consumers, said a company spokesperson.
Mobile shopping activity gained 6 percentage points over the past two years, with 45 percent of smartphone users reporting they shop online via their device, NPD reported Monday, through Aug 31. The activity is being driven by smartphone owners ages 18-34, as shopping via tablet declined 3 percentage points over the past year, with just over a third of consumers saying they use a tablet for e-commerce, said NPD. Larger smartphone screen sizes are partly responsible for the increase in mobile commerce, along with market penetration: Some 100 million consumers shop online via smartphone, said analyst John Buffone. Online CE sales grew 13 percent in the 12 months ending August 2018 vs. the prior year, said NPD, with shoppers making nearly one additional tech purchase in the period. The U.S. online buying population making at least one CE purchase reached 45 percent, led by mobile phone accessories, portable audio and mobile power products, NPD said. “Consumers are leveraging their smartphones to purchase ‘grab and go’ items, as these purchases can be made conveniently, without investing the time to examine product reviews or visit multiple sites for price comparisons,” analyst Stephen Baker said. PCs remain the leading source for e-commerce: Sixty-five percent used a computer for some online shopping, down 2 percentage points from the year before.