With tech industry eyes trained on the fate of the Jan. 6-9 CES 2021 in Las Vegas amid COVID-19, CTA with little fanfare announced Monday it was canceling all CES Asia shows. The pandemic forced the mid-March cancellation of the 2020 CES Asia that was set for June 10-12 in Shanghai (see 2003110036). “We evaluate our events in light of the changing needs of our industry and the priorities of our members and exhibitors,” said CTA. “Given the pandemic, the economy, and our visible role as an American trade association, we have decided to focus on other CES related programs.” The State Department issued a "China -- Level 4: Do Not Travel" advisory June 4 for U.S. nationals. The Shanghai government mandates a 14-day quarantine for foreign visitors.
The vast majority of “company leaders” surveyed plan to let employees work remotely at least “some of the time” after the pandemic, reported Gartner Tuesday. It canvassed 127 human resources executives June 5, finding 82% intend to continue with telework policies at least part time. Forty-seven percent said they plan to let employees work remotely “full time,” it said. “Flex time” will be the new normal for many organizations, it said. Forty-three percent versus 42% plan to grant employees flex days or flex hours. “The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a huge experiment in widespread remote working,” said Gartner. “As business leaders plan and execute reopening of their workplaces, they are evaluating more permanent remote working arrangements.”
App use by U.S. smartphone owners during Q2 grew 20 minutes a day year-over-year, led by mobile browsing and social networking apps Facebook and TikTok, said Strategy Analytics Tuesday. Games had the biggest share of smartphone minutes, though usage was largely flat. Social media app usage rose 21% and business and finance, including videoconferencing, grew 68%, as users largely worked from home during the pandemic. Browsing app minutes were up 13%, lifestyle 12% and productivity 7%. Time spent using video entertainment apps including YouTube and Netflix declined 12% and 33% “as customers defaulted to other devices with bigger displays” and better user experiences, said the researcher. Smartphone behaviors are shifting as users observe stay-at-home orders and "adapt to new norms as a consequence of COVID-19,” said analyst Nitesh Patel. Apps having strong declines were in transport (44%) and travel and location (35%). Consumers also are meeting communication and entertainment needs with tablets, PCs, games consoles and smart TVs, said analyst Barry Gilbert.
New video delivery technologies and smart content management solutions are bolstering enterprise video, said ABI Research Tuesday. It forecasts the market will reach $18.7 billion this year due to work-at-home mandates. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are enabling enterprise video applications to be more efficient, while facial and object recognition, scene detection and speech-to-text capabilities are making video indexing and search functions easier, faster and more accurate, said analyst Khin Sandi Lynn. Low latency video allows livestreaming of corporate events to internal and external viewers. Enterprise video deployments are increasingly cloud based, she said: The expansion of fiber networks and 5G infrastructure will improve the content delivery process further.
Nine in 10 respondents in a June Mojo Vision survey say their use and reliance on technology increased or remained the same during sheltering-in-place restrictions. Half the 2,000 U.S. consumer respondents said the onset of COVID-19 caused them to use and depend on technology more. Maintaining communication and improving quality of life were the top factors, said the research company. Some 60% of early adopters and 40% of later adopters bought and tried new and different devices, apps or tech-driven services. Some 44% of early adopters and 59% of later adopters said they started using virtual communications tools and services. Forty-one percent of first adopters and 44% of later adopters said they started using grocery delivery options. About 30% of first adopters and 32% of later adopters were most interested in trying or continuing to use online delivery services in a post-COVID-19 era. Early adopters see themselves continuing to adopt new technology at a pace that’s almost 30% faster than before the pandemic, Mojo Vision said.
Advertisers that remained on TV during COVID-19 had 23% more website engagement in subsequent weeks, Comcast’s Effectv and TVSquared reported. Brands with direct-to-consumer offerings had the highest rates of TV-attributed response, including e-commerce retail (+100%), online food delivery (+84%) and education (+41%). Automotive and insurance showed signs of recovery, but travel was still experiencing weakened traffic, said Monday's report. In March-April, brands that ran COVID-19-related creatives had an average lift of 37%, vs. 13% for those that didn’t. TV ads drive "consumer action online and also provide insights into how data-driven strategies can maximize engagement,” said James Rooke, Effectv general manager.
Global information technology spending will decline 7.3% this year to $3.5 trillion but recover “in a faster and smoother manner than the economy,” reported Gartner Monday. Devices will be the hardest hit segment because “cost containment will continue to reduce spending significantly through 2020,” it said. It’s forecasting a 16.1% decline in spending on IT devices this year. “Working from home caused a temporary spike in device buying as businesses implemented business continuity plans for COVID-19 response.” Increased device spending won’t be sustained for the rest of 2020 and “is not expected to return to 2019 levels soon,” said Gartner.
After “extensive consideration and mindful planning,” CEDIA is resuming in-person training beginning next month at its Fishers, Indiana, headquarters, it said Monday. The organization will host courses with “safety-focused measures,” it said. Before arriving on-site for the program, learners will need to complete a questionnaire detailing any COVID-19 exposure or symptoms. While on-site, COVID-19 safety measures will include: required mask-wearing by learners and instructors at all times in the building, daily temperature checks before entering the building and reduced class sizes allowing for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-recommended social distancing. The first training, covering cabling and infrastructure, is a hybrid course being offered for the first time with a self-paced online learning course that will complement hands-on learning at the CEDIA training facility Aug. 17-19. Other courses will include Home Theater Boot Camp and Advanced Networking Boot Camp, CEDIA said.
COVID-19 forced the National Retail Federation to cancel its Jan. 17-19 NRF 2021 expo and conference as a physical show at New York’s Javits Convention Center, said the association Thursday. It’s the first known major trade show in 2021 to fall to the pandemic. NRF 2021 was scheduled to open as an in-person show about a week after CES 2021 closes Jan. 9. NRF will move the physical show to June 6-8, and host a virtual event over five days in January. The online event and the physical show in June will be themed “Forward Together,” said NRF. “Given the understandable concerns among all of our stakeholders regarding the availability and effectiveness of treatments or a vaccine for the coronavirus, we have concluded it is not feasible to maintain our original schedule of an in-person January 2021 trade show,” said NRF CEO Matthew Shay. Another complication is the use of Javits as a 2,500-bed COVID-19 Army field hospital. Those circumstances forced the cancellation last month of the Oct. 21-22 NAB Show New York as a physical event (see 2006090058)
Households with children in the 6-11 age group lead technology product and entertainment service purchasing in the U.S., blogged Parks Associates Thursday. About 30% of broadband households have children at home, some 32 million households, and identify as “innovators” who like to buy a new product early in its lifecycle. Possible inhibitors to future tech adoption are the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting financial impact, with 61% of households with children feeling more cost-conscious because of the pandemic, Parks said. Device makers and service providers should emphasize their solution’s value, such as safety and security; entertainment is also important to keep children engaged, said analyst Jennifer Kent.