July online retail sales at electronics and appliance stores rose 19.3 percent from July 2018, said the National Retail Federation Thursday. They rose 2.8 percent sequentially from June, “likely boosted by Amazon’s Prime Day promotion,” said NRF. Retail sales across the board were up 5.6 percent year over year and 0.9 percent from June, it said.
Smart speaker manufacturers shipped 30.3 million units worldwide in Q2, nearly doubling shipments from the year-ago quarter, said Strategy Analytics Wednesday. Amazon’s share fell from 29.1 percent in Q2 2018 to 21.9 percent on shipments of 6.6 million vs. Google’s 5.6 million shipments, which grew 74 percent for 18.5 percent Q2 share, SA said. Apple’s HomePod sales grew 81 percent, but its share fell to 4.7 percent from 5.1 percent, behind Baidu, Alibaba and Xiaomi. Smart speaker demand “shows little sign of plateauing, even in more mature markets like the US where ownership has now reached 30% of households,” said analyst David Mercer. The arrival of language-localized devices in large markets including Russia, Mexico and Brazil will support further demand growth in coming years, Mercer said. The continued surge in demand for smart speakers in China led SA to boost its 2019 forecast to 148.8 million units; it upped its forecast for the global installed base of smart speakers to 260 million units, said analyst David Watkins.
Rising demand for home automation and smart hubs is expected to boost demand for smart digital photo frames, a category forecast to grow by $47 million 2018-2023, said Technavio Tuesday. Artificial intelligence-enabled smart home controllers and smart hubs use Wi-Fi and near-field communication to control smart digital photo frames remotely, it said, citing voice-controllable connected smart digital photo frames from Nixplay that are Alexa-compatible. With rising popularity of smart homes, demand for smart home decor products, such as digital photo frames, will also grow, it said.
A set-top box energy conservation agreement among MVPDs, manufacturers, energy efficiency advocates, NCTA and CTA saved consumers about $1.6 billion in energy costs last year, said CTA Tuesday. Over six years, it saved $5 billion in energy costs and avoided 28.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, said an independent audit by D+R International. D+R said 97.8 percent of service providers’ set-top purchases in 2018 met the agreement’s tier 2 levels that became applicable in 2017, exceeding each party’s commitment to have 90 percent of its purchases meet those levels. Some 78 percent of the signatories’ 2018 purchases met tier three levels scheduled to take effect in 2020, two years ahead of schedule, D+R said. The new-unit average power usage of the most energy-intensive type of set-top, the DVR, has fallen by 48 percent since 2012, it said. Participants bought half as many new set-tops in 2018 than in 2014, likely attributable to subscriber losses and consumers’ growing use of apps vs. an operator-supplied set-top box, said the auditor. Consumers used more than 36 million customer-owned devices such as smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, personal computers, and streaming players -- Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV -- to watch video services via app last year, up 33 percent year on year, it said. “With the increasing shift toward apps for streaming, the savings will grow even more because many consumers will no longer need a set top box to watch their shows,” said Noah Horowitz, Natural Resources Defense Council senior scientist. NCTA General Counsel Neal Goldberg said the agreement’s flexibility enabled signatories to “save even more energy than initially projected while still adapting to changing technology and services.” Signatories include AT&T/DirecTV, Comcast, Charter, Dish, Verizon, Altice, Cox, Frontier, CenturyLink, Arris, Technicolor, NRDC and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy; CableLabs also played a role. An energy report on home broadband gear was released Monday (see 1908120051).
Panasonic introduced the HomeHawk Floor home monitoring camera integrated in a floor lamp design. The camera includes mic and speaker and is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, the company said Monday.
Nordic Semiconductor is developing integrated front-end solutions with its multi-protocol SoC for Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth 5 applications using Skyworks Solutions connectivity engines, said Skyworks Monday. The combined platform’s efficiency positions it for battery-powered IoT devices, delivering a quadruple range advantage in home automation, automotive, industrial, medical, wearables and mobile applications, Skyworks said. Bluetooth LE devices are forecast to reach over 1.6 billion annual shipments by 2023, it said.
With Apple’s AirPower wireless charging mat teased in front of enthusiastic followers two years ago -- and then pulled from product planning (see 1903290062) in the spring -- accessory maker mophie hopes to fill in with two wireless charging pads designed to work with different Apple products. Both charging pads “safely deliver” up to 7.5 watts power to any Qi-enabled iPhone or AirPods, said mophie. The chargers became available Friday at apple.com and will go on sale this week at select Apple stores and mophie.com, it said. The dual wireless charging pad ($79) has an extra USB-A port for simultaneously charging a third USB device. The 3-in-1 pad wirelessly charges an iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch from one central location, it said, with a dedicated cavity for AirPods and an integrated charging stand for Apple Watch that’s said to hold it at an “ideal angle” for "nightstand mode." Mophie also introduced a $24 USB-C car charger and a dual USB car charger ($29) with one USB-C 18-watt port and a USB-A 12-watt port.
Energous shares fell Friday after the company’s Q2 earnings report showing revenue of $48,000 vs. $206,000 in the year-ago quarter, despite commercial availability of the first product to incorporate Energous wireless charging technology. SK Telesys’ long-promised Delight Oasis-RC personal sound amplification product with WattUp wireless charging from Energous ($349) began selling on Amazon last week after missing its promised delivery schedule early this year. Energous CEO Steve Rizzone said on a Thursday earnings call the company expects additional chip orders during the second half. Target categories for the company’s contact-based charging also include hearing aids, fitness bands, smart glasses and wearables, he said. The company secured regulatory approvals for its RF-based wireless charging technology in the U.S. and Europe but awaits approvals in China, Japan and Korea, where they've “taken longer than we originally anticipated.” Rizzone maintained Energous has “a number of top-tier consumer opportunities, both contact and distance-based that we're actively engaged in.” Shares closed 5.3 percent lower Friday to $3.79.
Huawei tablet shipments grew 4 percent in Q2 from the 2018 quarter, despite Commerce Department placing Huawei on the entity list in May (see 1907050003), said a Strategy Analytics tablet report Friday. But an intensifying trade war could foreshadow a shift in Android demand “from a bruised Huawei brand to its fiercest competitors, Samsung and Lenovo,” said analyst Eric Smith. Samsung and Lenovo shipments were ahead of the industry but showed declines of minus-1 percent and minus-6 percent in a category down 7 percent year on year, said Smith. In a widening trade war, “Lenovo could be among a group of Chinese companies that are targeted by the Trump administration,” he said. Apple iPad shipments dropped 7 percent year on year in Q2 to 10.7 million units, to 29 percent market share. New iPad Air and iPad mini tablets pushed average selling prices higher alongside continued strong demand for iPad Pro; ASPs grew year on year from $410 to $469, SA said. Bucking the trend, Amazon had 38 percent higher tablet shipments in Q2 to 2 million units, behind Apple (10.7 million), Samsung (4.9 million) and Huawei (3.9 million), it said. Trailing Apple’s 29 percent market share were Samsung (13 percent), Huawei (10 percent), Amazon (5.4 percent) and Lenovo (5 percent).
Apple’s $299 HomePod continues to lag the smart speaker market leaders, holding 5 percent market share in Q2, behind Amazon, 70 percent, and Google Home, 25 percent, blogged Consumer Intelligence Research Partners Thursday. Continued “aggressive pricing” of entry-level models appears to encourage new customers to try a smart speaker and lure existing owners to consider adding more devices,” said CIRP analyst Josh Lowitz. Amazon and Google are trying to capture households that will be loyal to the Alexa or Google Assistant platforms, said analyst Mike Levin: “The next frontier is monetizing those platforms.” The smart speaker category grew by 9 percent sequentially in Q2 to 76 million units and by more than 50 percent year on year, CIRP said. Findings were based on a survey of 500 U.S consumers July 1-10 who owned a smart speaker as of June 30.