The FTC approved its final order against retail location tracker Nomi Technologies, after the close of the public comment period, the agency said in a news release Thursday. Nomi was accused of misleading consumers about the available choices to opt out of the company’s mobile device tracking program (see 1504230036) and will now be “prohibited from misrepresenting consumers’ options for controlling whether information is collected, used, disclosed or shared about them or their computers or other devices, as well as the extent to which consumers will be notified about information practices,” the release said. The commission vote to approve the final order was 3-1, with Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen dissenting. Commissioner Julie Brill issued a statement saying “this order provides companies with an incentive to periodically review the statements they make to consumers, and make sure their practices line up with those statements.” Brill said Ohlhausen “expresses concern that our order will deter companies from offering privacy choices in the marketplace,” but it’s because of the order that Nomi no longer offers a deceptive choice. In her dissenting statement, Ohlhausen said the enforcement action may “undermine the FTC’s own established privacy goals,” saying commenters (see 1505270012) generally agreed the order would “diminish companies’ incentives to be transparent about their privacy practices,” and would “discourage companies from offering privacy choices to consumers.” Brill tweeted Thursday that the order makes the point that “basic consumer protection principles apply to new technologies.” Nomi had no comment.

ZTE had $252 million net profit during the first half of 2015 on $7.1 billion in total revenue, the company said in a news release Wednesday. The net is up 43 percent from the same period in 2014 and can be attributed to increased sales of 4G LTE network equipment, ZTE said. Networks division revenue increased 30 percent, while telecom software division revenue rose 36 percent, the company said. ZTE said it plans to launch several new Axon smartphone products during the second half of 2015.

American consumers spent, on average, 3 hours and 40 minutes per day in Q2 on mobile devices, a 35 percent increase from one year ago and 24 percent increase from Q4 2014, wrote Yahoo Senior Vice President-Publishing Products Simon Khalaf in a blog post Wednesday. Mobile users spend 10 percent of their time in a browser, down from 14 percent a year ago. Ninety percent of users' time is spent in apps, Khalaf said. “This has major implications on the digital industry in general and the content and media industry in particular.” Social, messaging and entertainment apps accounted for 51 percent of time spent on mobile, Khalaf said. Mobile users spend most of their time in social apps consuming news, whether that's reading an article or watching a video, he said. “This is a big trend and one that will be watched very carefully.” An unexpected result found in the analysis of mobile use was that time spent on mobile gaming declined from 52 minutes per day to 33 minutes per day, Khalaf said.

IDC downgraded its 2015 forecast on global smartphone shipments and now expects shipments to climb 10.4 percent this year to 1.44 billion units, the research firm said in a Tuesday report. IDC previously forecast 11.3 percent growth for 2015, but now expects to see “a noticeable slowdown” in smartphone shipments “as China joins North America and Western Europe in a more mature growth pattern,” it said. “However, steadily falling average selling prices will fuel steady growth through the end of the forecast period, with global shipments reaching 1.9 billion units in 2019.” Though China “remains the focal point of the global smartphone market,” its performance hasn’t been “as positive as in previous years,” IDC said. Shipments there are projected to grow only 1.2 percent this year, compared with nearly 20 percent growth in 2014, it said. Though China will remain the world’s largest smartphone market through 2019, its share of the overall market is expected to drop to 23.1 percent in 2019 from 32.3 percent in 2014, it said.

A notice on Apple’s website said the company is offering replacement cameras for a “small percentage” of iPhone 6 Plus smartphones after deciding a component in the iSight camera may fail, causing photos to appear blurry. The affected units are in a limited serial number range and were sold primarily between September and January. Apple will replace the cameras of affected devices for free, it said. To determine eligibility, iPhone 6 Plus users are to input their phone’s serial number in a box on the website. Service options include authorized Apple service providers, Apple retail stores and Apple technical support, but wireless carrier partners aren't participating in the program, said Apple. Phones will be examined before any service to verify eligibility, said the company. Among the disclaimers: Any damage to a iPhone 6 Plus, such as a cracked screen, that impairs camera replacement has to be resolved before repair; Apple may restrict or limit repair to the original country of purchase; the program doesn’t extend the phone's standard warranty coverage; and the program covers the camera for three years after the first retail sale of the unit.

ZTE applied for more than 50 new “core patents” for its “global flagship” Axon smartphone, it said in a Thursday announcement. “Axon is ZTE’s first global flagship smartphone series, and is our key to becoming a top smartphone vendor in our focus markets across the globe.” Patents it applied for cover the Axon’s audio, camera, antenna, security and touch technologies, it said. The U.S. version of the smartphone, the ZTE Axon Pro, launched last month at just under $450.

The rise of the corporate mobile application is the real “value proposition” of mobile apps over recent years, Timothy Bresnahan, an economics professor at Stanford University, told the Technology Policy Institute conference in Aspen, Colorado. Bresnahan, a former chief economist at the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, slammed a common model that has developed for apps designed to be entertaining to consumers: “I sell their attention to advertisers, I become just like Google or Facebook,” he said. “Overwhelmingly that’s been a fizzle. It’s true, it’s absolutely true.” Facebook and Google sell a lot of mobile ads, but the big entrepreneurs of the mobile era “did not have a lot of advertising revenue,” he said Monday. “This is not where the money was. What’s not been a fizzle is ... the invention of the corporate app.” The real value is “in consumer products and services companies that are trying to maintain high-value relationships with their customers over the whole selling life cycle,” he said.

Nearly six in 10 smartphones sold to consumers in Q2 were 4G-enabled, GfK said Monday in a report. GfK said it forecasts 4G smartphone penetration to continue to grow at the expense of 3G, which is currently at 38 percent of smartphone units and forecast to decline by another percentage point by Q4. It cited “significant regional differences” in global 4G smartphone adoption, including “price polarization” in North America and saturation in Western European markets. “The underlying trend of consumers optimizing their digital consumption by screen size, within affordability constraints, continues in all regions,” it said. In North America, smartphone unit sales climbed 10 percent from the same quarter a year earlier in Q2, to 44.4 million, GfK said. Q2 sales of high-end smartphones in North America priced $500 and up and low-end devices priced under $250 grew at the expense of mid-ranged devices, it said. Smartphones in the high end captured 43 percent of smartphone unit share in Q2, up from 38 percent share in Q2 a year earlier. North America and China “were the only regions to see an increase in high-end smartphone unit share on a year-on-year basis,” it said. Globally, smartphone unit volume grew 5 percent in Q2 to 302.1 million from 288.3 million a year earlier, it said.

T-Mobile became the third wireless carrier to support FM chip activations in its smartphones, NextRadio said Friday. Activating the FM chip, already built into every smartphone sold in America, “allows users to download the NextRadio app and engage in a visually compelling, interactive experience with local radio stations, without the data charges and battery drain of streaming,” NextRadio said. Word of T-Mobile’s endorsement for FM chip activations came in a tweet from CEO John Legere that NextRadio publicized, in which he said the carrier “will push our OEM partners to support” the move. Sprint has supported FM chip activations in smartphones for years, while AT&T added its support for FM chip activations last month (see 1507280054). Virtually all the FM chip activations to date have come in Android smartphones. Apple has remained the biggest holdout on FM chip activations in its iPhones, but through no "lack of effort" from Sprint to win Apple over, NextRadio told us at the NAB Show in April (see 1504140047). As for any possible change since in Apple's resistance, "Apple does what they want but the more carriers asking, the more Android phones supporting FM radio and the more consumers asking for NextRadio can only help get Apple’s attention," NextRadio President Paul Brenner emailed us Friday. "We are ready to talk to them any time about the power of local radio." Apple representatives didn't comment.

Citing growing demand for high-quality music, LG is launching a high-res music service with 24-bit/192kHz playback for its smartphone customers. The service will be introduced via the LG SmartWorld app on LG G4, G3, G2 and G Flex 2 smartphones, said the company. Qualifying customers will receive two free hi-res tracks with the option to buy additional songs at up to 50 percent off the regular price, said the company. The Thursday announcement didn’t include pricing details or the size of the music library, which will launch later this month.