The global PC market had a 23% year-on-year bump in shipments to 124.5 million, said Canalys Thursday. Lenovo led, shipping 23.5 million tablets, notebooks and desktops, followed by Apple with 22.1 million Macs and iPads, HP with 18.7 million PCs and Dell with 12 million PCs. Tablets grew 43% to 44.3 million, with Apple taking the top position, growing 47% to 15.2 million. Samsung tablet sales spiked 80%, topping the 9 million mark for the first time since 2015. “Tablets are a natural choice for first-time PC users who want something uncomplicated and affordable,” said analyst Victoria Li, citing the “natural extension of Android and iOS" from phones to tablets, which made it simple for those “who dabbled with extended remote learning for the first time.” Chromebook shipments jumped 122% to a record 9.4 million. Detachables grew 88%, and all-in-ones advanced 7%, while the overall desktop category slid 32%.
Amazon may have violated EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in online retail markets, the European Commission said Tuesday. It's concerned that large quantities of nonpublic seller data are being made available to employees of Amazon's retail business, allowing the data to be aggregated and used to calibrate detail offers and strategic business decisions to the detriment of rivals. The EC's preliminary view is that use of nonpublic marketplace seller data lets Amazon avoid the normal risks of retail competition and leverage its market dominance in France and Germany, the two biggest EU markets. The EC began a second investigation into business practices it said might artificially favor Amazon's own retail offers and those of sellers who use its logistics and delivery services. It's looking at whether criteria for enabling sellers to offer products to Prime users under the Prime loyalty program leads to preferential treatment of Amazon's or those sellers' retail businesses. Amazon "disagrees with the preliminary assertions of the European Commission and will continue to make every effort to ensure it has an accurate understanding of the facts, a spokesperson said. "No company cares more about small businesses or has done more to support them over the past two decades" Public Knowledge Policy Counsel Alex Petros urged U.S. policymakers to "look to the Commission as a model for aggressively working to address these serious concerns" and to create a digital regulator for oversight of platform markets. The antitrust case is "trade protectionism by another name," said Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Ryan Young. "Amazon has made retail more competitive," with third-party seller services giving smaller businesses access to a global market they didn't previously have. Meanwhile, traditional large retailers such as Walmart and grocery stores have expanded their online options to compete against Amazon, he said.
Microchip Technology halted all Huawei shipments in mid-September in compliance with the further Commerce Department export restrictions on the Chinese tech giant that were imposed in August (see 2008170043), said President-Chief Operating Officer Ganesh Moorthy on a Thursday investor call for fiscal Q2, ended Sept. 30. Huawei generated about 2% of Microchip’s Q2 revenue, down sequentially from Q1, said Moorthy, who will succeed Steve Sanghi as CEO March 1 as Sanghi transitions to executive chairman. Microchip is working with Commerce “to apply for licenses for products and technologies that we believe have no impact” on U.S. national security, he said. “We do not know if or when such licenses may be granted,” so Microchip assumes no Huawei revenue in the fiscal third quarter ending Dec. 31, he said. Huawei's push to complete manufacturing of all products before the shipment ban took effect caused wide-scale supply chain "constraints" during the September quarter, he said. The rush of Huawei’s competitors to replace the business Huawei lost “further stressed the supply chain,” he said. The “ongoing shift” of semiconductor manufacturing out of China to avoid the Section 301 tariffs also pressured “the capacity in other Asian countries where we manufacture through our partners,” he said. The supply chain disruptions "are continuing into the December quarter,” he said.
Walmart announced an agreement to sell its retail operations in Argentina. The company will record a noncash loss of about $1 billion, after tax, in Q3 FY 2021, primarily due to cumulative foreign currency translation losses, it said Friday in an SEC filing.
Revenue in Alibaba’s fiscal Q2, ended Sept. 30, jumped 30% from a year earlier on “deeper adoption” of the platform, accelerated by COVID-19 and “the rapid economic recovery in China,” said CEO Daniel Zhang on a Thursday investor call. “Digitalization is now universally recognized as a way forward in the post-pandemic world.” Global Shopping Festival, Alibaba’s equivalent of Amazon Prime Day, used to be a 24-hour event but this year was expanded into an 11-day marathon in two “shopping windows,” he said. The first ran Nov. 1-3; the second starts Nov. 11 and runs for eight days, he said. “We want to give consumers more time to browse and get the deal while easing pressure on the logistic infrastructure. This helps consumers receive their package sooner and enjoy a better shopping experience. Our merchants will also benefit from more exposure and selling opportunities.” On the festival's first day, more than 100 brands each surpassed sales of 100 million Chinese yuan ($15.1 million) “within the first 111 minutes,” and 357 new brands “on our platform became the top sellers in their respective subcategories,” he said.
Huawei never caused “a single cybersecurity incident” in the 30 years it has been building networks globally, said a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Wednesday when asked about the U.S. pressuring other countries not to cooperate with the company on 5G. “Not a single country can prove this company is prone to hidden risks or security threats,” he said. “We hope countries will continue upholding an objective and unbiased position and make independent decisions that serve their national interests.” Imposing restrictions on Huawei under the “pretext” of national security concerns is “unfounded and inconsistent with international economic and trade rules,” he said. The U.K. said in July that it wasn't “strong-armed” by the U.S. into recent actions against Huawei (see 2007220026). The White House didn’t respond to questions.
ABI Research expects COVID-19 will curb 8K TV consumer adoption through 2021, when 8K sets will still be only 1% of global flat-panel TV shipments. “There had been much anticipation of 8K TV market growth” amid broadcast content scheduled for the Tokyo Olympics, it reported Tuesday. The event’s postponement, plus the economic downturn, “has resulted in low 8K TV unit shipments in 2020,” it said: Though 8K TV price points declined in the past year, most are still expensive, and that will combine with lack of content to delay 8K TV adoption.
Eighty percent of the global industrial IoT market, worth $216 billion, will be attributable to software spending by 2025, emailed Juniper Monday. IIoT connections will rise from 17.7 billion this year to 36.8 billion, led by 22 billion smart manufacturing connections, said the research firm. 5G networks will be key to growth, used to transmit large volumes of data in areas with high connection density. 5G and low-power wide-area networks will help enable the smart factory concept, in which real-time data transmission and high connection densities allow autonomous operations for manufacturers, it said.
China as a policy won't comment on Tuesday's U.S. election because it's an "internal affair," said a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Friday when asked about remarks by a Joe Biden aide that the Democratic nominee, if elected president, would consult with allies on what to do about the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports. “China's policy on the United States remains highly stable and consistent,” said the spokesperson. “We are committed to developing a China-U.S. relationship featuring non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.” Biden would seek “collective leverage” against China by bonding with allies to curb Beijing's allegedly unfair trade practices, campaign foreign policy adviser Jeffrey Prescott told Reuters Wednesday. Biden won’t “lock into any premature position before we see exactly what we’re inheriting,” said Prescott when asked if Biden would lift the tariffs unilaterally if elected.
International Trade Commission Administrative Law Judge MaryJoan McNamara set an April 2022 target date for completing the Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations that LG, Samsung and TCL smart TVs and MediaTek, MStar and Realtek video processors infringe four DivX patents on adaptive bit rate streaming (see 2010140042), said her order (login required) posted Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1222. Under the ITC’s “pandemic evacuation” plan, ALJs won’t accept filings on paper, CDs or other physical media, she said. Hearings will be on Webex until the ITC issues notice that its headquarters “will once more be open” to the public, she said. Her order scheduled the first evidentiary hearing for July 7 “at a location to be announced closer to the Hearing date.”