Energizer customers continue buying batteries en masse “for immediate use,” said CEO Mark LaVigne on a fiscal Q1 call Monday. “Consumers have increased the number of devices they own, as well as their usage of those devices.” Pandemic-driven demand “for the foreseeable future will continue to be the main story,” he said. Duracell “has always been a strong competitor,” but the “promotional environment” in batteries “has been flat” for the past 13 weeks, said LaVigne. It’s “stable, benign,” he said. “What you've seen with our largest competitor is they've emphasized innovation and investing in their brands. We've done the same and we've had success with distribution as well.” He expects that “healthy competitive environment for us and our biggest competitor” to continue in the U.S. and around the world, he said.

Global consumer tech trade revenue topped $358 billion last year, led by strong demand for home computers, tablets and games consoles, said Strategy Analytics Wednesday. They totaled $334 billion in 2019, it said. TV sales slipped 2% but were considerably better than industry expectations before the pandemic, said SA. Wireless speaker sales dropped 3% to 240 million units. Game console revenue rose 18% to $11.9 billion, driven by lockdowns and new product releases. Supply chains were in "disarray," but "recovered remarkably well to meet stronger-than-expected demand,” said analyst Eric Smith. Some supply constraints remained at year-end, suggesting work- and learn-from-home trends are still providing demand impetus, he said.

Global revenue from action cameras and accessories is expected to reach $6.58 billion by 2027, based on a 13.5% compound annual growth rate, reported Meticulous Research Monday. Unit volume will rise at a 12.1% CAGR, reaching nearly 30 million units by the end of 2027, it said. Tech innovation will drive action-camera adoption with the integration of biometric sensors, waterproof and shockproof features, and embedded artificial intelligence capabilities, it said. Action-cam miniaturization is also fueling the industry’s “rapid growth,” it said.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets declined slightly in the January runup to the Feb. 7 Super Bowl, according to preliminary Conference Board data Tuesday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes through Jan. 14, finding 10.8% plan to buy a new TV in the next six months, down from 11% in December and 11.4% in January 2019, said the board. Consumer confidence improved “moderately” in January after declines in November and December, it said. “Consumers’ appraisal of present-day conditions weakened further in January, with COVID-19 still the major suppressor,” said the board. But public expectations for the economy and jobs turned more optimistic, “suggesting that consumers foresee conditions improving in the not-too-distant future,” it said.

The “unprecedented speed” of digital transformation for remote work and learning will cause global IT spending to rise 6.2% this year, to $3.92 trillion, after declining 3.2% in 2020, reported Gartner Monday. It’s forecasting additional 4.6% growth in 2022 to $4.1 trillion. Communications services will be the biggest IT sector, with spending expected to rise 4.5% to $1.4 trillion this year. Spending on IT devices declined 8.2% in 2020 but is expected to increase 8% in 2021 to $705.4 billion. Chief information officers “have a balancing act to perform in 2021 -- saving cash and expanding IT,” said Gartner. “With the economy returning to a level of certainty, companies are investing in IT in a manner consistent with their expectations for growth.”

Holiday spending on e-gift cards jumped more than 80% from a year earlier, reported Blackhawk Network Thursday. "Digital adoption will continue and is here to stay,” said the payment solutions provider. “This stream of digital shoppers will benefit retail sales in" Q1. Nearly half of consumers it surveyed plan to spend at least $25 more than their gift cards' value, on average. Consumers report doing 68% of their holiday shopping online, and 41% say the payment methods they used to buy gifts in 2020 were different from previous years. Nearly a quarter reported using a mobile wallet for the first time, and of those, 37% plan to stick with that method.

Roughly half of corporate tech decision-makers expect companies lagging in digital transformation a year into the COVID-19 pandemic will go under within three years, Kong found. The cloud services provider canvassed 400 chief information officers and other tech executives in the U.S. and Europe in December and January, finding the proportion who think digital laggards are doomed by 2024 rising 14 percentage points from a year earlier. “A shocking 84% predict this dire outcome within six years,” said Kong. Two-thirds say they deserved to be fired, lose out on a promotion or denied a bonus for failing to pursue prudent “modernization initiatives,” it said. And 89% agree “creating new digital experiences to address COVID-19 business challenges is a business-critical endeavor.”

Growing use of biometrics in smartphones and tablets for authentication will help drive about 11% annual growth in the global biometric market to $11 billion in 2026, said Valuates Reports Friday. Other drivers are a growing need for surveillance amid heightened threats of terrorist attacks and increased automotive adoption of biometrics.

PC sales were “on fire" in Q4, rising 26.1% globally from Q4 2019 to reach 91.6 million units, reported IDC Monday. Sales grew 13.1% for the full year, with remote work and learning the main “catalysts,” it said. “Every segment of the supply chain was stretched to its limits as production once again lagged behind demand during the quarter." The last time the market had such big annual growth was 2010, when sales rose 13.7% year over year, it said. The time since has had six years of PC market decline, it said: All signs indicate the surge “has a way to go." Lenovo, HP and Dell remain the top three brands, followed by Apple and Acer.

Consumer “anxiety” amid the pandemic is shifting automotive preferences toward “familiarity and affordability,” with three-quarters of U.S. consumers seeking a traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) in their next new car purchase instead of an electric vehicle, a Deloitte survey found. The firm canvassed more than 24,000 consumers in two dozen countries, finding that before the “transportation torch is officially passed” from ICEs to EVs, many in the buying public seek “greater assurance around mileage, robust charging infrastructure rollouts and affordability” of the EV segment, it said. Consumers across the globe “are showing a near-term reluctance to switching away from ICE technology,” said Deloitte. Just a quarter (26%) of U.S. consumers “are considering alternative engine solutions for their next vehicle,” down 15 points year over year. The top concern about EVs in the U.S. and Germany is battery range (28%), it said. Though the majority of consumers in the U.S. (71%), Japan (71%), Germany (64%) and India (63%) expect to charge their vehicles at home, more than half (51%) of respondents in China intended to make use of available charging stations at their place of work or on the street instead, it said.