Global semiconductor revenue will decline 9.6 percent this year to $429 billion, said Gartner Monday. A weaker pricing environment for memory chips types, plus fallout from the U.S.-China trade dispute and sluggishness in smartphone, servers and PC sales “is driving the global semiconductor market to its lowest growth since 2009,” said Gartner. The U.S.-China trade war “is causing uncertainty over trade rates,” it said. U.S.-imposed restrictions on sales to Huawei “will have a longer-term impact on semiconductor supply and demand,” it said. “We expect that high smartphone inventory and sluggish solid-state array demand will last for a few more quarters,” said Gartner.
The iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR models generated 67 percent of U.S. iPhone sales in Apple’s June quarter, said Consumer Intelligence Research Partners Monday. The lowest-priced model of the trio, the XR, had 48 percent of U.S. iPhone sales in the quarter, the highest CIRP has seen for an individual Apple phone model since the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2015, it said. With the XR, Apple set out to create a price-competitive model to take on Android phones, offering a large screen on a midsize handset, said analyst Josh Lowitz: “It is easy to choose the mid-point between the expensive XS and XS Max models, and the older 7 and 8 models.” Services penetration among iPhone buyers has had varied success according to time in market, CIRP said: 47 percent pay for iCloud storage, 3-6 percent bought an AppleCare warranty, 35 percent use Apple Music and 15-29 percent use Apple TV, Apple Podcasts and Apple News, it said. Apple had a head start on competitors with a podcast app, giving it the highest penetration for iPhone buyers, but Apple TV has lower penetration due to competition against Netflix and other streaming video services. Apple competes against Best Buy for extended warranties, where it has lower penetration, said analyst Mike Levin. After Apple discontinued iTunes, Apple Music became its unified music service, but its 35 percent share trails Spotify and Pandora, Levin said. Findings were based on an April-June survey of 500 U.S. Apple customers that bought an iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch.
Growing awareness of unlocked smartphones is widening the market for the devices beyond initial users who were typically “frugal consumers looking for lower priced devices," reported NPD Monday. Noticeable shifts in unlocked smartphone adoption occurred among women and consumers ages 35-54, said an NPD report, which estimates 46.5 million active unlocked smartphones are running on U.S. mobile networks, up 22 percent from the end of Q1 2018 to Q1 2019. Most consumers are aware of the advantages of an unlocked phone, including lower cost and freedom to choose carriers, said NPD analyst Brad Akyuz. Carriers are helping to educate them about advantages through “aggressive BYOD (bring your own device) offers, which give consumers yet another opportunity to bring their device to a new network to take advantage of a discounted rate.” Unlocked devices used to fall mostly in the sub-$400 category, but now $500-$700 phones account for nearly a quarter of the installed base of unlocked phones, mirroring the overall rise in average selling prices, he said. Big box retailers’ financing programs are also enabling price-sensitive shoppers to buy expensive unlocked “hero devices,” he said.
Virtual assistant analysts predicted continued robust momentum through 2023 based on strong consumer demand and improvements in enabling technologies. Virtual assistants are on course to penetrate one in two devices sold annually by 2023, said Futuresource Monday, pegging global shipments at more than 2.3 billion units, up from 1.1 billion units in 2019. Canalys forecast the installed base of smart assistant devices -- either built-in or compatible -- in China alone will reach 5.8 billion devices by 2023, doubling that of the U.S. market. It estimated the installed base of devices with smart assistants built-in will reach 2.2 billion units in China during the forecast period, led by the smartphone. Some 3.6 billion devices such as air conditioners, door locks, TVs and refrigerators will be voice assistant-compatible, controllable by a smart assistant over a network via a smart speaker or similar device, it said Monday. In China, smart appliances will play a major role in the vision of the ideal home, as the growing middle class continues to pursue a higher standard of living, said analyst Cynthia Chen, highlighting Haier, TCL and Hisense as companies that identified the trend early on. Leading smart assistants in China are Xiaodu, Tmall Genie and XiaoAI.
CEDIA Expo's new program for 2019, TechStarter, will allow Innovation Alley exhibitors to pitch their business models to C-suite executives in a Shark Tank-type format where they'll compete to be one of five winners. The TechStarter Five winners, to be announced during the show, will receive dedicated promotion from CEDIA Expo channels, booth signage, interviews with three media outlets and participation in a Q&A panel at the expo. Winners will be chosen from Innovation Alley exhibitors representing all areas of the custom electronics industry and will show “the most promise” for a successful business model. TechStarter judges will look for companies with a strong business approach and future vision for their product or service, it said. Judges are CEDIA CEO Tabatha O’Connor, Josh.AI CEO Alex Capecelatro and Access Networks CEO Hagai Feiner.
Sprint's Boost Mobile’s new data-only plan has 50 GB for $50 monthly, compatible with any 4G LTE broadband device, said the carrier. It also bowed the $49 Coolpad Surf hot spot, said to support up to 10 Wi-Fi devices. Based on a Qualcomm MDM9207 processor, it has 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity.
About 45 million PCs and tablets incorporating 5G connectivity will be in use globally by 2023, based on a 216 percent compound annual growth rate in sales the next five years, reported Strategy Analytics. The 5G era will give mobile operators “a fresh chance to communicate the advantages and new use cases of high-speed cellular connectivity with consumers, a much needed conversation to bring more devices onto these more efficient networks and to make good on the massive 5G investment,” said SA. Most 5G computing devices in use by 2023 will be tablets and detachable 2-in-1s, it said. Asia-Pacific will have more than 40 percent of the 5G devices in use, followed by North America (29 percent) and Western Europe (21 percent), the researcher said Tuesday.
Como Audio spent months figuring out what went wrong with last year's introduction of a smart speaker, its CEO told reporters. A primary reason for the speaker’s poor market performance was due to not having Google approval "to go into stereo,” said CEO Tom DeVesto at a New York news conference Tuesday. To get certified with Google, speaker makers have to meet compliance provisions, including Google Assistant being able to hear a query even when loud music is playing, he said. “That’s hard even with one box,” he said; adding a second stereo speaker makes it more difficult because it adds more ambient noise. After Como worked during the year to improve response, Google approved Como’s “real stereo system” three weeks ago, he said. Como is touting SpeakEasy as the only true stereo music system with built-in Assistant, but it's not putting voice control features in the spotlight. Giving another reason for the product’s failure the first time around, DeVesto said: “We spent too much time talking about technical aspects of Google Assistant and not enough time talking about listening to music on it.” He encouraged anyone looking only for a smart speaker to spend $30 on a Google Home mini: “You don’t need to spend $300 to know where to get a pizza, or know what the temperature is.”
Rakuten OverDrive’s Libby reading app is now compatible with Apple CarPlay, said the company Tuesday. The Libby app lets users with a library card listen to audiobooks for free. Once an audiobook is borrowed and on Libby’s shelf, users can access and control the title through CarPlay for play through the vehicle's speakers. The app is also available for Android Auto.
Over-the-top and pay-TV providers will lose $9.1 billion this year to piracy and account sharing, growing to $12.5 billion in 2024, blogged Parks Associates Tuesday. Currently, 27 percent of U.S. broadband households engage in some form of piracy or account sharing, it said. “Piracy is a complex issue that cannot be addressed with a single solution or by targeting a single use case,” said analyst Brett Sappington, noting that most video pirates subscribe to at least one OTT service. “They are not simply thieves looking to steal content but are video enthusiasts who engage with many different services,” Sappington said, suggesting OTT services could better reach those consumers through ad-based content, “which also aligns with these users’ general belief that ‘movies/music should be given away for free.’” Consumers who report viewing an OTT video service for free but without ads are 22 percent more likely than average broadband households to subscribe to OTT services, three times as likely to use ad-supported services, and twice as likely to use transactional online video services, said Parks. Growth in connected device ownership has shifted the focus of pirates toward the online video ecosystem; 20 percent of households are using a piracy app, website or jailbroken device, it said. “Growing subscriber numbers and an increased number of services signal a very healthy OTT market, but more services and aggressively promoted content could incite more piracy over time,” Sappington said, saying eventually consumers will hit an upper limit to spending. “When that happens, they will resort to pirate tactics to get the content that they want, particularly for sports and other content where trials are not available.” The demographic groups most often subscribing to OTT services -- men under 35 and households with low annual incomes -- pirate content at a disproportionate rate, he said.