Mobile Future released a video Thursday on the wireless year in review, saying worldwide mobile data traffic grew 81 percent in 2014. Another sign of the explosion of wireless is that 19 million connected wearable devices are expected to ship by the end of the year, the group said. Carriers invested a record $33 billion in wireless infrastructure in 2014 and the Brazil vs. Germany World Cup game was the most tweeted sports event in history, Mobile Future said.
Toshiba bowed a wireless hard drive designed to work with a Chromecast streaming media stick. The one-terabyte Canvio AeroCast ($219) enables consumers to “cast” video to an HDTV using Toshiba’s Google Cast Ready app, Toshiba said Thursday. Users upload and back up content from their mobile devices to the Canvio AeroCast for “secure, centralized storage,” the company said. Access to stored files is via the hard drive's Wi-Fi connection, the company said. Battery life is five hours and the AeroCast can connect simultaneously with up to six devices, the company said. Toshiba is also shipping the Canvio Cast wireless adapter ($79), which enables users to wirelessly upload, share, download and stream a hard drive video library to a connected mobile device.
Netflix reached 5 million subscribers in Latin America, MoffettNathanson analysts said. It took 36 months to reach about 9 percent penetration of the broadband population, they said Wednesday in a research note. Despite the higher level of penetration, that market was "spooked" by the low number of Q3 international subscribers and Q4 guidance, they said. Netflix previously said Latin America has been the slowest region to penetrate due to several issues specific to the region, including lower broadband Internet penetration, the analysts said. Netflix's difficulties could come from their most recent market entrances, like Germany, they said. "As Netflix expands into Australia, we see similarities to the German market as competition in Australia is already in place before its March launch."
Ford launched Sync 3 in-vehicle entertainment and communications system Thursday, promising faster performance, more “conversational” voice recognition, an intuitive touch screen similar to that of a smartphone and a simplified graphical interface. The company said it drew from 22,000 customer comments and suggestions in creating the third-generation platform, along with information from focus groups, surveys and competitive analysis. The system is optimized for hands-free operation, but the new touch screen delivers an experience similar to using a smartphone or tablet with gestures including pinch-to-zoom and swipe, it said. The display offers a bright background and large buttons with “high-contrast fonts” for daytime use, and at night it switches automatically to a dark background to help reduce eye fatigue and minimize reflections, Ford said. To reduce on-screen complexity, the home screen offers a choice of zones, navigation, audio and phone, and the system prioritizes the control options customers use most, the company said. Phone contacts are searchable via a finger swipe, and users can look up points of interest or addresses with a search box. The new voice recognition system cuts down on the number of steps required to carry out a command, Ford said. A user can name a song, artist, album or genre to bring up a song from a connected smartphone, no longer having to identify a category, the company said, and to switch to SiriusXM or terrestrial radio, users say the name of the station or station number. New features in AppLink enable users to control compatible apps using voice commands or buttons on screen, and AppLink automatically discovers streaming music service apps such as iHeartRadio Auto, NPR One, Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM and Stitcher, Ford said. In the case of a "significant' accident, a Bluetooth-connected phone is used to dial 911, alerting first-responders to the vehicle’s location. With Sync 3, additional information is relayed, including if airbags were deployed, where damage occurred to the vehicle and the number of safety belts detected in use to help emergency call takers dispatch the appropriate resources to the scene, Ford said.
NAD said it added Rhapsody to its BluOS platform for Bluesound wireless music systems. Bluesound’s U.S. customers will be offered a two-month trial subscription for Rhapsody Premier, which they can sign up for through the NAD BluOS controller app, the company said Wednesday. Rhapsody boasts a library of 32 million songs. The premier subscription is $9.99 per month for unlimited access to music, personalized radio suggestions, song-skipping capability and the ability to play music on mobile devices, PCs and home audio gear.
Ownership of connected TV devices, including smart TVs, smart Blu-ray players, connected game consoles and digital media streamers, grew 5 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q3 and 28 percent year-on-year to reach 168 million units, Strategy Analytics said Wednesday in a report. Spurred by the "desire to watch video content delivered via the open Internet," the average U.S. home owned 1.9 connected TV devices Q3, compared with 1.5 per home in Q3 last year, the firm said. Other findings: (1) Sony led the U.S. market for connected game consoles for the third straight quarter, with just under half of unit shipments in Q3. (2) Samsung is the "dominant" U.S. vendor in smart TVs, with 35 percent of units shipped Q3. Vizio was second, followed by Sony and LG.
GreenPeak Technologies, a supplier of chipsets for ZigBee and other platforms, will use a CES exhibit at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas to showcase various smart home applications under the banner, "The Heart of the Smart Home," the company said in a Wednesday announcement. CES will be GreenPeak’s first public demo of its "Family Lifestyle Systems" platform for service providers and system integrators, the company said. "Family Lifestyle Systems learn how a person or a family lives in their home, what they like to do and when, and then monitors their movements via unobtrusive sensors to send alerts if something happens out of the ordinary." At CES, GreenPeak also will announce new partnerships and new ZigBee radio chips for various smart home applications, it said. "The Internet of Things is exploding," it said. "New devices, new technologies, new ways of connecting devices to each other and to people, all require solutions that are reliable, robust and simple to use."
After a disappointing Samsung Q3 earnings report, which saw mobile division sales plummet 74 percent (see 1410300033), the company announced Wednesday that effective Jan. 1 it's combining Samsung Electronics America and Samsung Telecommunications America into a single U.S. organization comprising consumer electronics, mobile and enterprise business. According to a statement, integrating the two organizations into a single Samsung Electronics America “will give customers and partners the advantage of a single point of contact.” In the new organization, Gregory Lee will continue as president and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America, and Tim Baxter has been named president and chief operating officer of the new, integrated Samsung Electronics America, Samsung said. The new organization will focus on “aggressive growth in new strategic initiatives,” Samsung said, and by bringing together all of the company’s branded consumer and enterprise business operations, it will “better serve” U.S. customers through “strengthened business operations and collaboration across market segments.” A single organization will provide “expanded career development and mobility programs for Samsung’s growing workforce,” the company said. U.S. offices in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey; Richardson, Texas; and San Jose, California, will continue to operate, it said. Questions to Samsung on possible layoffs, areas of focus for the new organization and any changes to Samsung's smartphone business weren’t immediately answered.
Though there are no "tablets of stone" in today’s marketplace, big tablets are apt to be "far more breakable than smaller ones," SquareTrade, the global supplier of insurance protection plans for tech devices, said in a report Wednesday. SquareTrade subjected 10 of the most popular tablets on the market to a series of "drop and dunk" tests, and declared the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 the winner for robustness. On a 1-10 scale, with the highest values reflecting the highest risk of breakability, the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 scored a 3.3, while the most fragile of the lot, the Tmax 9 HD, scored an 8.2, the company said. "Overall, compact tablets performed above expectations, faring better in drop and dunk tests than larger models like the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 or Tmax 9 HD." Moreover, "larger tablets proved to be far more breakable than smaller ones, as well as the least water resistant," it said.
Smart home devices are moving "closer to mass-market adoption," pushed in large part by retailer "initiatives" this holiday selling season, Parks Associates said Wednesday in a report. Parks research shows 37 percent of U.S. broadband homes planning to buy a smart home device in the next 12 months, the company said, and "multiple retailers are expanding the shelf space devoted to these devices, with Best Buy in particular devoting over 800 square feet in some locations to its connected home initiative," it said. The entry into the smart home category of big brands like Apple, Google and Honeywell "is also increasing consumer awareness and making smart home devices popular as gifts," it said. Parks surveys found that 15 percent of the connected devices purchased in 2014's first nine months were given as gifts, with the proportions as high as 27 percent for smart thermostats, it said. On average, about a third of smart devices acquired in 2013 were given as gifts, and Parks "expects the final numbers in 2014 to top that," it said: "Purchase intentions for smart devices are increasing, and this rise speaks to the marketing and brand power of manufacturers like Google, which acquired Nest, and Honeywell. The brand recognition combined with the unique quality of these products makes them attractive gifts, so 2014 holiday shopping is going to help push the smart home out of the early adopter phase." For 2015, Parks expects adoption of smart devices will "increase dramatically," it said.