The number of U.S. households that bought consumer tech during the 12th week of the COVID-19 pandemic was down slightly from June 12-14, said CTA’s COVID-19 tracker Wednesday. Use of streaming video services (52% of U.S. households), live TV services (22%) and gaming livestream services (13%) fell. “With the start of summer, the dip we are seeing in tech purchase and content consumption is likely due to people getting outside more and families” vacationing, said CTA. “Households with people under the age of 35 are driving purchases of tech.” More than half had bought at least one device in the past week, it said after asking 1,000 homes online, June 26-28.
B&H reopened its midtown Manhattan retail store Wednesday after shutting down for more than three months during New York state’s COVID-19 lockdown orders. New York City's phase 2 reopening began June 22 and allows retail openings with store capacity limits and other restrictions, including masks and social distancing mandates. B&H added plastic partitions to minimize contact and installed more than 30 hand sanitizer dispensers. B&H continues to offer a curbside pickup option. Online and phone orders will be ready within a half hour of confirmation, it said.
LED lighting company Brightline joined a Logitech collaboration, combining Brightline professional LED lighting with Logitech videoconferencing for Zoom Rooms, Microsoft Teams Rooms and Google Meet. As businesses embrace videoconferencing as employees shelter in place, “many of them have realized employees are unprepared for presenting a professional appearance on video,” said Sudeep Trivedi, Logitech Video Collaboration head-global alliance and go-to-market.
COVID-19's “pandemic recession” may have ended with May’s rebound “as fast as it started," but there’s “plenty of uncertainty” about the “shape of the reopening of the economy," said National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz Wednesday. The recovery “will be slow even if we are no longer in recessionary territory,” he said. Sustained economic recovery will depend on “whether efforts to end the pandemic are successful,” he said. “Before we prematurely celebrate the return of the consumer, the wave of new coronavirus outbreaks spreading throughout the country are a major threat to the recovery,” said Kleinhenz. “These outbreaks are alarming.”
Microsoft is pledging to bring “more digital skills” needed for the “COVID-19 economy” to 25 million people globally by year-end, said the company Tuesday. “Expanded access to digital skills is an important step in accelerating economic recovery, especially for the people hardest hit by job losses.” The initiative will include “immediate steps to help those looking to reskill and pursue an in-demand job,” it said. It’s backing the effort with $20 million in cash grants to nonprofits to help the people “who need it most,” it said. A quarter of the funds will go to U.S. nonprofits that serve communities of color, it said.
Joy introduced a COVID-19 “wedding calculator” to help adjust marriage plans. It gives couples an “overview” of adjustments to consider, including possible scheduling, guest count and venue changes, said the wedding tech company Tuesday. The company estimates nearly half of 2020 U.S. weddings were postponed to next year, it said: "We expect that by the end of July, 75 percent of 2020 weddings will be postponed to 2021."
A humongous wave of retail store closures will be the big “unfortunate outcome” of the COVID-19 pandemic, Matt Powell, NPD vice president-senior industry adviser, told a Sports & Fitness Industry Association webinar Tuesday. The U.S. retail industry lost about 9,000 “doors” in 2019, he said. It’s on pace this year to lose another 20,000-25,000, of which about 4,000 have been “announced,” he said. “I think we will continue to see over-leveraged retailers and brands in trouble.” Retailers that are “heavily reliant on malls” also are going to “struggle a bit,” because malls are also in danger, said Powell, a 46-year retail veteran. Estimates circulating in the retail industry predict a third of all U.S. malls will fail this year, he said. “We are up against a significant amount of closures. It’s going to be painful, but I think at the end of the day, it’s going to make us a much healthier industry as we come out of this."
Most of Micron Technology’s fab and assembly sites operated at full production throughout Q3 ended May 28, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, said CEO Sanjay Mehrotra on a Monday evening investors call. Its Singapore and Taiwan assembly and test facilities achieved “record production” in the quarter, he said. COVID-19's impact on Micron’s production early in Q3 was limited to two “back-end assembly and test sites” in Malaysia, he said. “We quickly offset this impact with production adjustments at our other facilities. All our production facilities are operating normally.” The pandemic’s economic impact is causing “stronger demand in some segments and weaker demand in others,” said Mehrotra. “Market segments driven primarily by consumer demand have seen a negative impact.” Calendar 2020 estimates for “end-unit” sales of cars, smartphones and PCs are “meaningfully lower” than pre-COVID-19 levels, “even though estimates for enterprise laptops and Chromebooks have increased,” he said. “The reduced level of global economic activity has also curtailed near-term demand.”
Despite concerns networks might buckle under the strain of a sustained spike in internet traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic, Comcast’s network averaged “above-advertised speeds," blogged Chief Network Officer Jan Hofmeyr Monday. As part of a $12 billion investment, Comcast has doubled capacity every 2.5 years, said the executive. In March and April, Comcast added more than 35 terabits per second peak capacity to regional network facilities and 1,700 100-gigabit links to the core network vs. 500 in the year-ago period. It invested in pushing fiber to customers’ homes, Hofmeyr said.
Enhanced connected car “functionalities” are one of four categories of technologies automakers can incorporate into vehicles to help fight the spread of COVID-19, reported Gartner Monday. Automated door locks and engine start/stop actions using a smartphone app “can reduce surface contact inside the vehicle,” it said. Using an “effective” voice assistant can also reduce contact with cabin surfaces, it said. “The new normal set by COVID-19 will clearly influence how people travel,” said Gartner. “The fear of infection is starting to drive some travelers away from public transport, placing a greater emphasis on private cars and shared mobility services.” The public will seek additional “reassurance against contagion and several technologies are being put in place in response to that need,” it said.