PC shipments, including desktops, notebooks and workstations, continued to decline in Q3, falling 15% year on year to 74.3 million, reported IDC Monday, citing “cooling demand and uneven supply.” Though volumes remain “well above” pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels when PC shipments were driven mostly by commercial refreshes, "consumer demand has remained muted,” said IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani.
October promotions from Amazon and Target will “jump-start the holiday shopping season and boost the lagging fall season,” blogged NPD analyst Marshal Cohen Thursday. Target’s Deal Days (see 2210030007) already came and went, with the three-day sale event ending Saturday; Amazon’s Prime Early Access sale runs Tuesday-Wednesday.
CTA expects CES 2023 Jan. 5-8 at the Las Vegas Convention Center to be the largest in-person, audited business event to take place in the U.S. since early 2020, it said Thursday. CTA has an attendance goal of 100,000, far lower than the pre-pandemic 171,268 posted from CES 2020 but well above the 40,000-plus (see 2201100001) at CES 2022. The show was canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19.
Amazon continued tweeting troubleshooting steps to viewers complaining of poor quality streaming on Thursday Night Football during the Indianapolis Colts-Denver Broncos NFL game in Week 5. It was the fourth exclusive TNF broadcast for Amazon Prime Video, after its week two debut Sept. 15. Viewers complained of issues with delay, resolution, frame rate, audio and streaming artifacts.
Dish Network’s “baseless” demand to “claw back” license fees it paid the Pac-12 Network to carry a full slate of games for the 2018 and 2019 college football seasons to compensate for the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season runs “contrary to the plain language” of the parties’ license agreement, alleged the network in a breach of contract complaint Thursday (docket 1:22-cv-02620) in U.S. District Court in Denver.
A White House official called for more predictability in how spectrum decisions are made, at a Silicon Flatirons spectrum conference Friday. Austin Bonner, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy assistant director-spectrum and telecom policy, said she has had meetings with “dozens” of spectrum stakeholders about how policy could change. The administration is moving toward release of a national spectrum strategy, which the Trump administration promised but never delivered (see 2209190061).
Google highlighted advanced Pixel camera features, the first Pixel smartwatch -- integrating Google and Fitbit technologies -- and a unified Pixel ecosystem design theme on the company’s hybrid in-person, virtual Made by Google launch event from Brooklyn, New York, Thursday.
YouTube “unlawfully retains information” that identifies consumers “as having requested or obtained specific video materials or services from Google,” in violation of the New York Video Consumer Privacy Act, alleged a class action Tuesday (docket 5:22-cv-05713) in U.S. District Court in San Jose. Google maintains the digital records in violation of New York law, which requires video rental companies to destroy personally identifiable information (PII) “as soon as practicable” but no later than one year from the date the information is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, said the complaint.
Cowen expects Netflix to report 1 million paid net subscriber additions, in line with company guidance, when it reports Q3 earnings Oct. 18, analyst John Blackledge wrote investors Wednesday. Guidance reflects macroeconomic and near-term challenges, said the analyst, saying investors are “looking ahead to the ad tier rollout” and password-sharing solution, which could be implemented as early as November.
Wireless carriers remain hopeful on the outlook for the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, despite recent comments by John Sherman, DOD chief information officer, about the high costs and long time frame for clearing the spectrum (see 2209190061). Industry experts note spectrum in recent FCC auctions has come with some protection for incumbent users, which will likely also be the case for 3.1 GHz.