Six tech companies completed the first successful interoperability test of the latest super-fast broadband specification, said CableLabs, developer of the DOCSIS 3.1 spec. Such products can deliver up to 10 Gbps on hybrid fiber-coax networks, CableLabs said in a Tuesday news release. The interop event included providers of cable modems, it said. "To keep up with the rate of development and accelerate product maturity, CableLabs will be facilitating a series of interop events building up to the certification program that will be open for submissions in 2015." Names of participating companies weren't disclosed. "Since this was CableLabs first interop for DOCSIS 3.1," emailed a spokesman Tuesday, "we wanted to respect vendor neutrality and so have not named the companies which participated."
The Thread Group is expected to have product certification in place in the first half of 2015 for its IP-based low-power wireless networking protocol, the alliance said Tuesday. UL will manage the product certification process for Thread with support from Granite River Labs, which will work with UL to develop the “test harness” developers will use in building, testing and certifying Thread-enabled products. Recent high-profile additions to membership, now at 50 companies, include Energizer, Kwikset, PG&E and Whirlpool. Other Thread Group member companies are Atmel, California Eastern Laboratories, Inc., CamPoint, GainSpan, Granite River Labs, Grid Connect, Imagination Technologies, Insteon, Intellihot Green Technologies Inc., iOT Tech, Jasco, Keen Home, Kwikset, leakSMART, Linx Technologies, LUX Technology Group, Marvell Technology Group, Midea Group, Nanoleaf, Net2grid, Pacific Gas & Electric, Proximetry, Salto Systems, Sansa Security, Shenzhen Rakwireless Technology, Skyley Networks, Stack Lighting, Telegesis, TÜV Rheinland Group, Tyco, UL, WigWag and Zonefirst. Three tiers of membership to Thread are available: sponsor, contributor and affiliate, it said.
Sprint will launch the Lumia 635 smartphone through its no-contract Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile prepaid services Dec. 23, marking the first time Windows Phone 8.1 smartphones will be available from the Sprint carrier family. The phone will be available Jan. 16 to Sprint postpaid customers with pricing to be announced later, Sprint said. Boost Mobile plans start at $35 a month for unlimited voice and text and 1 GB of data, the company said. Virgin Mobile plans start at $20 month for 300 voice minutes, unlimited text and Wi-Fi-only data access, Sprint said.
DTS subsidiary Phorus said it began shipping the PS5 wireless speaker that offers Play-Fi, Bluetooth and AirPlay streaming. The $229 speaker supports files with resolution up to 24 bit/192 kHz directly from a mobile device or via a connected DLNA server, DTS said Monday. The PS5 supports multizone streaming and can be configured with another PS5 for stereo playback, DTS said. The speaker is available from Phorus.com, plus Amazon and Crutchfield.
Samsung’s share of the worldwide smartphone market fell to 24 percent in Q3, from 32 percent in the year-ago quarter, according to Gartner Group. Samsung’s deepest decline was in feature phones, shipment of which decreased by 10.8 percent year over year. Demand for Samsung’s smartphones weakened mostly in Western Europe and Asia, Gartner said, with smartphone sales tumbling 29 percent in China, its biggest market. Emerging markets continued to drive smartphone sales in Q3, with Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa showing growth of 50 percent year over year, Gartner said. The U.S. led mature markets with 20 percent growth in the quarter, fueled by Apple’s debut of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, said the report. Smartphone sales in Western Europe dropped 5 percent, the third consecutive quarterly decline of the year, it said. Following 26 percent year-over-year growth for Apple worldwide in Q3, Gartner expects record sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in the holiday quarter, “but we should not underestimate the Chinese vendors and local brands,” said Annette Zimmermann, Gartner research director. Chinese smartphone companies will continue efforts to penetrate overseas emerging markets, while prepaid markets in Europe and low-cost LTE phones will also offer “key opportunities” for Chinese brands, she said. Huawei moved into the No. 3 position worldwide among smartphone vendors, although fewer than 1 million units separate the number three, four and five players, all Chinese brands, Gartner said. Xiaomi cracked the top five for the first time on a 336 percent sales increase, driven by a “strong performance in China” where it became the leading brand, Gartner said. Lenovo filled out the top five for the quarter with market share of 5 percent. Gartner expects 2014 sales of smartphones to reach 1.2 billion units worldwide.
Martian will use its CES exhibit at the Sands Expo Center to showcase "the crossroads of fashion and functionality" through its 2015 line of smart watches, the company emailed us Friday. Martian smart watches "allow you to stay connected with hands-free convenience via voice command control and customized vibration patterns that let you know what type of notification is coming in without even looking," the company said. At CES, the company will expand the line with "new rugged, classic, simple and elegant designs for men and women with lots of new features thrown in," it said. CES also will be the first public demonstrations of its co-branded "Guess powered by Martian" smart watch, it said.
Shipments of smartphones with near-field communications capability built in will jump at a 55.8 percent compound annual growth rate through 2019, said a report available for sale from the research firm TechNavio. NFC technology "has revolutionized the ways in which people access and use data and information," the report said. "NFC-enabled devices can be used for applications such as mobile payment, loyalty programs, interactive advertising, ID authentication, and transit fare collection."
United Airlines will distribute iPhone 6 Plus smartphones to its more than 23,000 "mainline" flight attendants during 2015's second quarter, giving them the ability to handle most onboard retail transactions and access to company emails and internal policies and procedures manuals, the airline said Wednesday. Future enhancements will include the ability to replace flight attendants' printed safety manuals with an electronic version on the iPhone 6 Plus and providing real-time reporting capability on aircraft cabin issues and repairs, it said.
"Don’t risk being the next AT&T," reads a marketing message headlined, "AT&T fined $52 million for dumping their electronics," that was emailed to us Thursday by 4th Bin, a New York-based recycler that collects and processes e-waste from corporate clients. The email references AT&T’s settlement agreement last month with the California attorney general to resolve allegations that AT&T facilities in California unlawfully dumped hazardous e-waste into landfills over a nine-year period. In the agreement, AT&T technically wasn't fined $52 million as the 4th Bin email suggests, but agreed to pay $23.8 million in civil penalties and spend $28 million the next five years to bring the company into "environmental compliance." In its email, 4th Bin, which is e-Stewards-certified by the Basel Action Network, describes itself as "an advocate for responsible, sustainable and smart decisions in all phases of our client’s technology lifecycle." On California’s finding that AT&T "was not properly recycling their e-waste and was fined $52 million for their actions," AT&T was "hardly alone in their practices," 4th Bin says. "On a daily basis, we are approached by companies who seek free or low cost solutions to the disposal of their e-waste. The companies come in all shapes and sizes, are often well-known brands and many have internal sustainability initiatives and goals. Why are these companies willing to risk data security, financial repercussions and, equally important, their reputation is a question we constantly ask ourselves." The message warns prospective clients that "the next time some e-waste company tries to provide you and your company with a free or low-cost solution, think about AT&T." In "AT&T’s defense," 4th Bin said, the company publicly has committed itself "to spend $28 million dollars to right the ship. AT&T will choose a path of ethical recycling and we agree with this decision." AT&T declined to comment on the 4th Bin campaign.
It likely will take longer to reach 100 million 5G subscribers than it did to reach that many 4G subscribers, an ABI Research study said. It will take more than five years for 5G to hit that mark, which is two years longer than for 4G, ABI said Thursday in a news release. The growth of 4G was fueled by the capabilities of “increasingly powerful smartphones and the availability of 4G devices,” it said. Subscriber growth of 5G likely will be a bit more muted at first due to the increased complexity of 5G cells and networks, but will pick up in 2023, it said. The countries that will lead 5G subscriber volumes are the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and the U.K., it said. A 5G network will be a network of small cells and it will be practical in urban and industrialized environments “for the population density and the reflections in urban canyons,” it said. But “expect a scaled down version of 5G to use existing spectrum for macrocells as well in the longer term,” ABI said.