The Supreme Court won't hear a CTIA challenge of an RF disclosure law by Berkeley, California, denying petition for writ of certiorari Monday, it said in docket 19-439. CTIA said it's disappointed. "We encourage consumers to listen to the FDA, the American Cancer Society, and the international scientific community when it comes to radiofrequency (RF) exposure," it said. It noted last week's FCC order saying there's no evidence of a causal link between wireless device use and cancer (see 1912040036). Berkeley didn't comment. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July upheld for a second time Berkeley’s law that requires the wireless industry to provide a warning about possible dangers of overexposure to wireless frequencies (see 1907020059).

The global smartphone market will stay on a downward trajectory in 2020, blogged Strategy Analytics Thursday. Shipments “under the worst case” will decline 3 percent from 2019 before rebounding in 2021, it said. The 2021 forecast assumes “the likelihood of global economic recession remains low,” the U.S. and China will sign a trade deal and that the U.S. will lift its trade restrictions on Huawei, it said. Samsung will remain 2020's market leader, followed by Huawei and Apple, it said. “We expect Huawei will see a big fall in overseas markets,” but a “resurgence” in China will help offset those declines, said SA: “Huawei will survive.”

The Bark app is pitching a 30-percent-off holiday code, active on its website through Monday, for new subscribers to its smartphone app. Bark bills itself as an essential tool for parents considering a smartphone for kids, saying it helps keep children safe online without infringing their privacy. The company issued safety tips for parents including: (1) caution kids on sending or posting images/videos online; (2) know who your child is talking to online; (3) have kids choose non-identifying screen names; (4) regulate daily screen time; (5) make room for non-digital family time; (6) avoid having phones in bedrooms after a designated time; (7) don’t allow unsupervised YouTube time; (8) join a parent tech education and community group; (9) require approval for every app download; and (10) talk openly about cyberbullying. Standard subscription fee is $6.30 per month.

French technology company Hap2U will bow a sensory intelligent touch screen for smartphones at CES, the first haptics touch screen that allows users to feel and sense objects viewed in photos, it emailed Wednesday. Backed by $4.4 million in funding from Daimler AG, Hap2U has filed some 20 patents on its haptics technology with the goal of making tactile surfaces more intuitive by integrating tangible touch sensations. The technology can also be used in wood, metal and plastic, it said.

DOJ “presently has no intention” to mount an antitrust challenge to the GSM Association’s newly “promulgated” Remote SIM Provisioning (RSP) specification for embedded SIMs (eSIMs), as long as they're based on revised and improved standard-setting procedures, it told GSMA in a business review letter Wednesday. GSMA requested the letter in July. GSMA's new standards practices, called AA.35, are "meant to allay competition concerns by yielding standards that limit the design of RSP and eSIMs only to the extent it would be beneficial to the diverse group of interested parties in the mobile wireless industry,” said DOJ. The department over a two-year investigation "developed significant concerns" that GSMA’s process for fashioning the previous RSP spec was “deeply flawed and enabled competitors to coordinate anticompetitively,” it said. GSMA practices gave its mobile network operator members “certain privileges not available to other members and participants, “allowing that single interest group to exercise undue influence in the standard-setting process,” said DOJ. Those practices amounted to “an agreement among competitors to limit options available in the market in such a way as to benefit the incumbent operator members by reducing their competitive pressures,” it said. The department believes AA.35 has “sufficient protections to minimize the chances of anticompetitive self-dealing inside the GSMA, it said. DOJ will “closely observe” how the new procedures are “applied,” and whether they succeed “in promoting interoperability without marginalizing non-operators’ ability to represent their interests in preserving the maximum freedom to respond to consumer demand for innovation,” it said. DOJ's letter "agreed" that AA.35 industry standards "benefit consumers by helping technologies work together at lower costs," said the association Wednesday. "GSMA standards are always voluntary and reflect an industry consensus." DOJ's investigation "reviewed millions of documents covering a multi-year and complex process to establish common standards for eSIM technologies," it said. Wednesday's letter is "conclusive that the agency found no violation of antitrust laws,” it said. GSMA will release the new eSIM standards "within months, it said.

Xfinity Mobile is the exclusive carrier for the Samsung Galaxy A70, launched Monday. Customers switching to Xfinity Mobile, or adding a line, through early December, will receive $250 off any new Samsung device, Comcast said Monday. With a 6.7-inch AMOLED display, the A70 has 128 GB storage and a 4,500 mAh battery. Plan options start at $12 for 1 GB going up to $45 monthly for unlimited.

The FCC will require by Dec. 13 precise delivery of wireless emergency alerts to 100 percent of the geotargeted area specified by alert originators, with no more than a one-tenth of a mile overshoot, for both new mobile devices offered for sale and existing devices capable of being upgraded to support the new standard, said a public notice Monday for docket 15-94. The rules were adopted in 2016, and the deadline was Nov. 30 (see 1907010036), but formal testing procedures weren't available until Nov. 15. In addition to giving providers time to test their networks and make adjustments accordingly, this extension lets participating commercial mobile service providers "avoid implementing network changes during high-traffic periods, including Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday," the Public Safety Bureau said.

With implementation of secure handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) and secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) call authentication not where it should be, rules to require it could be coming, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday at the Robocall Symposium of the New England States, per prepared remarks. He's "generally been pleased" with progress, but it's not enough. He said staff "is actively working on developing regulations to make this happen" and there could be a vote on the new rules if the deadline isn't met. Pai previously warned of a mandate in 2020 if Shaken/Stir deployment isn't voluntarily completed this year (see 1907110023).

There’s a positive outlook for foldable “clamshell” smartphones, typified by the Motorola Razr handset that goes on sale in January through Verizon at $1,499, blogged Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. Clamshells have lower costs and prices, increased portability and increased ruggedness compared with other foldable form factors, said DSSC. Samsung's first clamshell smartphone will be available in Q1 with ultra-thin glass (UTG), and additional foldable clamshells are expected in 2020 from Huawei and others, it said: “The combination of UTG, confidence they will last a long time, larger sizes, better cameras and larger batteries will boost this segment.” DSCC expects clamshell form factors to be 69 percent of the foldable smartphones sold globally in 2023, compared with 20 percent for “in-folding” models and 11 percent for “outfolding” handsets, it said.

Q3 smartphone shipments increased 0.8 percent globally, reversing seven straight declines, reported IDC. All vendors shipped 358.3 million smartphones, up 8.1 percent sequentially, it said Thursday. The top five OEMs collectively controlled more than 70 percent share for the first time, said IDC: “The industry and vendor landscape is still changing but the trend of consolidation is ramping along with it."