TCL's Signa smartphone began selling on Verizon Thursday. The prepaid $79 Android 10 device has a 5.5-inch 18:9 HD+ display, 8-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel selfie camera and 3000 mAh battery. The 32-GB phone has a dedicated Google Assistant button and supports a microSD card up to 256 GB.

The Alcatel Apprise, made by TCL, is available on the Cricket Wireless network for $69, TCL said Friday. The Android Go edition phone has a dedicated Google Assistant button, face unlock, 5-megapixel front and rear cameras and a 3000-mAh battery with battery saver mode. There's a two-year warranty.

Ultra-wideband-enabled smartphone shipments will increase from 42 million handsets in 2019 to nearly 514 million in 2025, about a third of the global smartphone market, reported ABI Research Wednesday. It forecasts shipments of more than 2 billion between 2019 and 2025. “Smartphones will see an increase in the integration of UWB, providing users with the ability to accurately locate other UWB-enabled devices, unlock doors or vehicles, and automatically wireless pay for products,” said ABI. “While other devices will also have the ability to provide these use cases and others, the vast shipment numbers associated with smartphones will allow the devices to lead the UWB market.” UWB has the long-term potential to become as “ubiquitous as Bluetooth within smartphones,” it said. Challenges abound, including the complex integration of antennas, the current high cost of components and infrastructure and “the limited awareness around what the technology provides over others,” said ABI.

Smartphones aren’t sharing in the successful run on COVID-19 connectivity tech tools, as global shipments declined 20.4% to 295 million units in the second quarter, reported Gartner Tuesday. Samsung experienced the largest decline among the top brands, with shipments down 27.1% from the 2019 quarter, said Gartner: "“The COVID-19 pandemic continued to negatively affect Samsung’s performance in the second quarter of 2020. Demand for its flagship S Series smartphones did little to revive its smartphone sales globally.” IPhone sales were down 0.4% year over year, it said. Though Huawei shipments fell nearly 7% from a year earlier, its 27.4% increase sequentially from Q1 pushed it into a virtual tie with Samsung for top share.

Microsoft announced opening of preorders for its Android Surface Duo smartphone, slated for Sept. 10 availability at MicrosoftStore.com, AT&T and Best Buy. Prices are $1,399 and $1,499 for 128 GB and 256 GB versions. The device's 360-degree hinge allows users to view each of two displays individually or combine them into an 8.1-inch screen. Microsoft gave as use cases the ability to see participants on one screen in a Microsoft Teams meeting, while presenting PowerPoint slides on another, or opening the Amazon Kindle app and reading an e-book “like a book.” Microsoft is working with Google "to make additions to the Android operating system, paving the way for more apps to take advantage of the full productivity power of two screens," blogged the company Wednesday.

California earthquake detection and warnings will be baked into all Android phones, said Google and the California Office of Emergency Services Tuesday. The system uses alert data from the state’s earthquake early warning system, OES said. Each smartphone will act as a “mini seismometer” using accelerometers that can sense possible quakes, Google blogged. “If the phone detects something that it thinks may be an earthquake, it sends a signal to our earthquake detection server, along with a coarse location of where the shaking occurred. The server then combines information from many phones to figure out if an earthquake is happening.” Google expects to expand to other states and countries over the coming year, it said.

Pixelworks hopes to save $3.2 million annually through a restructuring that includes a 14% head-count reduction, said the tech company Monday. Q2 revenue declined 48.3% from a year earlier, despite a 24% increase in mobile revenue from higher shipments of Iris-brand visual processors to six smartphone OEMs. “Our second quarter results reflected the anticipated headwinds associated with the broad impact from the COVID-19 pandemic on our target end markets,” said CEO Todd DeBonis on a quarterly call Monday. The stock plunged 25.6% Tuesday to close at $2.54. Pixelworks began seeing the “green shoots of the recovery in mobile demand in the current quarter,” he said. “We continue to believe there will be a high correlation between OEMs’ adoption of 5G technology and high-performance displays and smartphones, as video remains the most single compelling use case for 5G with consumers.” The smartphone industry is “still in the early innings” of the 5G transition, said DeBonis. “We are seeing a more rapid introduction of high-frame-rate displays into mid-tier phones than we previously anticipated, which is positive and increases the Pixelworks value proposition in mid-tier devices.”

Groups urged the FCC to reject requests for a waiver of the June 30 deadline to offer real-time text instead of traditional text technology filed by the Competitive Carriers Association, U.S. Cellular and East Kentucky Network (see 2007010045). Comments were due Friday in docket 16-145. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, National Association of the Deaf, Hearing Loss Association of America and others filed joint comments, posted Monday. “When the Commission issued the RTT Order in 2016, it may have anticipated some deviation from the estimated transition timeline, and we acknowledge that the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced additional complexity,” they said: “But the Commission did not condone, and should not now permit, a poorly executed transition that risks Americans losing access to 9-1-1 services for an indefinite period of time.” As carriers retire TTY “without RTT access to 9-1-1, people will die,” they said. The groups filed the only comment.

Foldable smartphones are the “optimum product” to satisfy customer “needs” for larger screens and “multitasking,” said Samsung Display Vice President Kwonyoung Choi Wednesday on a Q2 investor call. “It also enables a differentiated design” that appeals to consumers, he said. “The wider adoption of 5G technology is expected to be a catalyst that accelerates the growth of the foldable market.” Samsung is working on “differentiated form factors for our foldable products,” using ultra-thin glass with transparent polyimide-film “cover window technology” (see 1912120004), he said. “We will be introducing foldable displays that meet even a higher standard” of performance, the executive said. “Investments will be considered according to market needs and technology advancements. But as of yet, we have not decided on any specific investment plans.”

Despite being locked out of the U.S. market due to government restrictions, Huawei became the leading global smartphone vendor in Q2, the first quarter in nine years that a company other than Samsung or Apple led, reported Canalys Thursday. The Chinese tech manufacturer shipped 55.8 million devices, down 5% year on year, overtaking second-place Samsung, whose 53.7 million smartphone shipments plummeted 30%. China has “emerged strongest from the coronavirus pandemic, with factories reopened, economic development continuing and tight controls on new outbreaks,” said the research firm. Analyst Ben Stanton attributed results to COVID-19, saying Huawei took “full advantage of the Chinese economic recovery to reignite its smartphone business.” Samsung has less than 1% share in China, while its core markets -- Brazil, India, the U.S. and Europe -- were hit by the coronavirus. It will be hard for Huawei to maintain its lead long term, said analyst Mo Jia, because major channel partners in key regions, such as Europe, are “increasingly wary” of carrying Huawei devices; they're taking on fewer models and bringing in new brands “to reduce risk.” Strength in China alone “will not be enough to sustain Huawei at the top.”