After shrinking since 2012, global PC sales are expected to rise 5 percent in 2015 on replacement sales, said a report by Strategy Analytics (http://bit.ly/1sfD1Ah). Sales for this year are projected to fall 4 percent, it said. PCs remain “essential computing devices” despite the rise of tablets, Strategy Analytics said. Frequent tablet usage has grown by 22 percentage points from 2011 to Q4 2013, to 32 percent of all households, while frequent mobile PC usage has remained flat during the period, it said. Some 63 percent of all households said they frequently used mobile PCs, while frequent usage of all PCs, not including tablets, slipped by 3 percent but remained above the 90 percent level, it said. “Multiple PC ownership is falling as tablet sales supplant replacement demand for secondary PCs mainly used for casual tasks,” said Eric Smith, analyst. But PCs will remain essential devices as households replace primary PCs used for productivity tasks including spreadsheets, video editing and personal banking, he said. The tablet experience is extending to the PC through affordable 2-in-1 convertible PCs and new operating systems that “blend traditional PC and tablet user experiences,” said David Watkins, analyst.

Failing to address the overreach of U.S. government surveillance will create long-lasting damage for the digital economy, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and tech executives from Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Facebook and Microsoft during a Wednesday discussion at Palo Alto High School, where Wyden went to high school in Palo Alto, California. “The cost,” said Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, “is huge in terms of knowledge, discovery, science, growth, jobs.” Countries around the world will start implementing data localization requirements, said Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith. In the last few months alone, 20 governments have either proposed or discussed such laws, said Dropbox General Counsel Ramsey Homsany. Cloud storage services like Dropbox rely on the ability to store data anywhere, the industry officials said. Requirements to keep individuals’ data stored locally would kill cloud-based storage, they said. In turn, the Internet slows down, becomes less personalized and costs are driven up as companies are required to put data centers in each country, said Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch. Data localization also is a threat to civil liberties, he said. Insisting on local data storage could “result in quite possibly more access by state sponsored surveillance,” he said. Governments have been able to sell data localization as a consumer protection measure, Schmidt said, when in fact localization erodes “the architecture that all these companies and all the startups really need to have.” Wyden touted his industry-supported Digital Trade Act (S-1788), which would prevent cross-border data flow restrictions and prohibit localization requirements, as a first step toward ensuring the continued health of the digital economy. But it’s no fix for the “reckless broad surveillance,” which “hampers our ability” to convince countries to accept the free flow of data, Wyden said.

DTS announced a worldwide strategic alliance with LG to incorporate the DTS-HD decoder in LG home entertainment products including 4K TVs, sound bars, AV receivers and digital media players. DTS emphasized support for streaming in its Tuesday announcement, saying the DTS-HD decoder was designed “from the ground up” to support streaming media and over-the-top content delivered in multiple profiles of the DTS-HD codec. It also said the decoder was designed to be compatible with disc-based media, including Blu-ray and DVD. The agreement marks a “significant expansion in delivering DTS’ premium audio to more LG products and more customers worldwide,” said Jea Yoo, president, DTS Korea. Yoo said DTS looks forward to “working together in bringing to market next-generation products.” The announcement didn’t reference DTS’s Play-Fi multiroom wireless audio technology. LG is part of the Qualcomm AllSeen Alliance whose AllPlay platform allows for interoperability with compatible products, including the Monster SoundStage wireless multiroom audio speakers that will begin shipping this month (see separate report in this issue). DTS didn’t immediately respond to questions.

The National Retail Federation forecasts that holiday selling season sales will jump 4.1 percent to $616.9 billion, higher than 2013’s actual 3.1 percent increase during that same time frame, the group said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1uwJRlv). The forecast includes retail sales in the months of November and December, excluding car, gas and restaurant sales, it said. Holiday sales on average have grown 2.9 percent annually over the past 10 years, including 2014’s estimates, and are expected to be about 19.2 percent of the retail industry’s annual sales of $3.2 trillion, NRF said. This would be the first time since 2011 that holiday sales jumped higher than 4 percent, it said. It gave no projected breakout of CE sales, but said electronics and appliance stores drew 22.5 percent of their total 2013 revenue from sales in November and December. Total tech spending during the holidays will increase 2.5 percent, up from 0.9 percent growth in 2013, to a record $33.76 billion for the season, CEA has said (CED Oct 7 p4). “While expectations for sales growth are upbeat, it goes without saying there still remains some uneasiness and anxiety among consumers when it comes to their purchase decisions,” NRF said. “The lagging economic recovery, though improving, is still top of mind for many Americans.”

The International Trade Commission voted to open an investigation into a complaint that Samsung smartphones and tablets and the Samsung and Qualcomm processors built into those devices infringe Nvidia patents, the ITC said Monday (http://1.usa.gov/ZPS8Wk). Nvidia filed the complaint Sept. 4, seeking an exclusion order and a cease and desist order, the commission said. The complaint named Samsung Electronics America and its Korean parent as respondents, along with Samsung Telecommunications America, of Richardson, Texas; Samsung Semiconductor, of San Jose; and Qualcomm. Samsung corporate declined comment Tuesday. The opening of the investigation “is just the next step in the ITC procedure,” Qualcomm spokeswoman Yelena Tebcherani said in a Tuesday email, without commenting on the merits of the Nvidia complaint.

With surveys showing that three out of four drivers believe hands-free technology is safe to use, “Americans may be surprised to learn that these popular new vehicle features may actually increase mental distraction,” the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1nc22fb). New research it commissioned suggests developers “can improve the safety of their products by making them less complicated, more accurate and generally easier to use,” it said. “While manufacturers continue their efforts to develop and refine systems that reduce distractions, AAA encourages drivers to minimize cognitive distraction by limiting the use of most voice-based technologies.” Using specialized equipment designed to measure reaction times, University of Utah researchers “evaluated and ranked common voice-activated interactions based on the level of cognitive distraction generated,” it said. The research team used a five-category rating system, similar to the scale used for ranking hurricanes’ strength, it said. It found the accuracy of voice recognition software “significantly influences the rate of distraction,” it said. Systems with low accuracy and reliability generated a high level (category 3) of distraction, it said. Composing text messages and emails using in-vehicle technologies (category 3) was more distracting than using these systems to listen to messages (category 2), it said. “The quality of the systems’ voice had no impact on distraction levels -- listening to a natural or synthetic voice both rated as a category 2 level of distraction."

Headphones, earbuds and tablets are expected to be the most popular CE devices consumers give during the upcoming holiday season, said CEA’s “21st Annual CE Holiday Purchase Patterns Study.” Twenty-seven percent of respondents planned to give headphones, followed closely at 26 percent each for earbuds and tablets, notebook computers at 25 percent, TVs at 24 percent and smartphones at 23 percent, said CEA, which predicts the 2014 holiday season will post the highest levels of CE spending since tracking began in 1994. Total tech spending during the holidays will increase 2.5 percent, up from 0.9 percent growth in 2013, to a record $33.76 billion for the season, CEA said. Consumers are “decidedly more optimistic about holiday spending on tech this year versus last year,” said Shawn DuBravac, CEA senior director-research, citing a stronger macroeconomic environment leading consumers to show a “strong inclination to shop.” Expected growth in CE spending corresponds with projected growth in overall spending for the season, he said. Top tech wish list items are tablets, notebook PCs, TVs, smartphones and videogame consoles, CEA said. One in five consumers planned to buy a gift from emerging product categories including fitness devices (10 percent), smart home devices (9 percent) or a smart watch (8 percent), CEA said. For the first time, more than half of consumers are expected to buy CE products online this holiday season, up from 45 percent last year, although 77 percent of consumers said they're likely to buy tech gifts from a brick-and-mortar location, it said. Some 67 percent of consumers who plan to buy CE products are likely to use a mobile device to help them shop, CEA said. More consumers plan to shop early this year, but most will still wait to finish shopping later in the season, when they feel the best deals are available, CEA said. The study was done by telephone with 1,008 U.S. adults, Sept. 5-9, by Opinion Research Corp. The margin of sampling error at 95 percent confidence for aggregate results is +/- 3.1 percent, CEA said.

Facing heated competition in the worldwide smartphone market, Samsung said Monday it’s building a new 8.5 million-square-foot semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Construction will begin in first half 2015, at a projected cost of roughly $14.6 billion, Samsung said, with operations to begin during second half 2017. The plant will help meet “growing demand for advanced semiconductor products,” it said.

Hewlett-Packard plans to break into two separate publicly traded companies, splitting its PC and printer businesses from the enterprise segment, it said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/Z915ZF). Under the plan, HP President Meg Whitman will be CEO of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, which will comprise servers, storage, networking, converged systems, services and software, along with the OpenStack Helion cloud platform. Dion Weisler will be president and CEO of HP Inc., overseeing the personal systems and printing businesses, it said. The split is expected to be final by the end of fiscal 2015 -- Oct. 30 2015, and current HP shareholders will own shares of both companies, said the release. HP Inc. will invest in growth markets including 3D printing and “new computing experiences,” HP said. Weisler called the announcement “a defining moment in our industry as customers are looking for innovation to enable workforces that are more mobile, connected and productive while at the same time allowing a seamless experience across work and play."

Lexar memory products were the Deal of the Day at Amazon Monday at discounts of up to 89 percent off the suggested retail price. The deeper discounts applied to USB flash drives including the 64 GB Lexar JumpDrive TwistTurn drive, down to $19 from $99, and the 32 GB version to $9 from $89. Prices for the JumpDrive S73 line were $8 (down from $39) for a 16 GB version, $11 (down from $79) for 32 GB and $21 (down from $149) for 64 GB. In microSD cards, prices ranged from $7 for 16 GB (down from $13) to $29 (down from $44) for 64 GB, we found. SD cards ranged from $9 for 16 GB to $24 for 64 GB, down from $15 and $56.