CES 2020 is expecting 4,500 exhibitors, including 1,200 startups, a CTA event in New York Thursday was told. CES Executive Vice President Karen Chupka highlighted trends for the Jan. 7-10 show including privacy, the 5G ecosystem, artificial intelligence and digital health. She referenced growth areas of smart cities and resilience that influence policy, transportation, municipalities, industry "and the planet." The association is piloting facial recognition for the upcoming show, Chupka said. Attendees can look at a camera and then have their badges printed at badge pickup locations, she said. The program is optional. The group also is working through which exhibitors will set up in the new hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center that’s expected to debut at CES 2021, Chupka told us.
Energous closed down 18 percent Friday to $2.32 after more disappointing results. “We are not where we expected to be from a revenue standpoint,” said CEO Stephen Rizzone on a Thursday call, citing lack of regulatory approvals in Asia as the cause of product delays for its wireless charging technology. The company, which received FCC approval for its WattUp midfield transmitter in 2017, posted Q3 revenue of $40,500, down from $228,000 in the year-ago quarter. Rizzone said it's possible a certification in China, Japan or Korea could open opportunities to some tier 1 global requirements that have been “put on hold” until certification. The company is now targeting medical sensors, smart glasses and wearables.
Target is joining the holiday rush for smartphone deals. It's dealing on select Apple products on Black Friday weekend, giving away a $200 store gift card with the purchase and activation of iPhone 11 and X series phones on AT&T or Verizon beginning Friday at 7 a.m. Samsung mobile deals include a $400 Target gift card with the purchase of a Galaxy S10, S10 Plus or Note10 Plus with qualified activation from Thanksgiving through the following Sunday, said Target's advertisement. The Samsung Galaxy smartwatch is a Black Friday doorbuster at $80 off to $249. Google smartphones will be a Target deal from Thanksgiving when doors open at 5 p.m. through Sunday, netting customers who buy the Pixel 4 or 4 XL smartphones a $300 gift card with activation; they can get a $550 Target gift card buying the Pixel 3 or 3 XL. Carriers are getting into the mix. Sprint is leveraging its monthly phone plans to amortize the cost of an Apple Watch, taking the sting out of the $499 sticker price. The wireless carrier is rolling in the cost of a Series 5 Apple Watch for as little as $10.42 monthly on a 24-month contract, knocking half off the overall price. Samsung pitched customers by email Monday with the subject line: “Early holiday deals are almost here.” Customers were encouraged to “let us know what you're looking for this season” so they will be among the first to know when holiday deals drop. Within minutes of replying, we had an email from Samsung pitching free Galaxy Buds and a Galaxy Fit tracker with the purchase of a 512 GB Galaxy S10 smartphone. We could get $100 in Samsung credit, along with four months free of a YouTube Premium subscription by buying a Galaxy Tab S6 tablet. We were offered $600 on a Note10 or S10 with an eligible trade-in of an iPhone, Galaxy or Pixel smartphone. The iPhone XS Max and Galaxy S10 plus showed highest trade-in value, $600, for a limited time, at the Samsung website.
Underwriters Labs seeks industry participation on a “technical panel” for augmented-, virtual- and mixed-reality devices. A safety standard will address “areas of key concern,” including neck strain, optical radiation, eye heat exposure and headset “motion-to-photon latency,” it said Monday: Developing UL 8400 “is concurrent with and in response to predicted AR/VR/MR market growth.” Advances including in 5G and Wi-Fi 6 have “made this area ripe for growth,” it said. Forecasts are consumers will use more than 100 million AR/VR/MR headsets and smart glasses by 2023.
It would “make sense” for Google to buy Fitbit “rather than create its own devices and collect years of data,” Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter wrote investors Tuesday. Their partnership, announced in April 2018 (see 1804300010), lets them compete with Apple in health, said Pachter: “If Google wants to expand in MedTech and go head-to-head with Apple, it would make eminent sense to purchase Fitbit," said the analyst. It's taking Fitbit longer than expected to expand services that could return the company to profitability, while device sales “are stagnating as both the novelty wears off and competition increases,” said Pachter. The companies didn't comment Monday (see 1910280043). Fitbit shares closed up a second day, gaining 7.3 percent Tuesday to $6.05.
Apple propped up the AirPod line with a flagship active noise cancellation model with wireless charging case, it said Monday. When users first place AirPods Pro in each ear, algorithms work with the mics to measure the sound level in the ear and compare it with what's coming from the speaker driver. The algorithm detects whether the ear tip is the right size and has a good fit, or should be adjusted to create a better seal, Apple said.
IPhone weighted average retail prices continue falling, reported Consumer Intelligence Research Partners analyst Mike Levin Thursday. CIRP pegged the U.S. WARP at $783, down from $808 in the June quarter and off a peak $839 in the December quarter. The $699 iPhone 11 accounted for half the sales of the trio of 11 series iPhones launched in Apple’s fiscal Q4 ended Sept. 28. Combined with the iPhone XR (36 percent of quarterly sales) -- similarly positioned a year ago in the X series lineup, but at $749 -- the two accounted for almost half of U.S. iPhone sales, CIRP said. The $999 iPhone 11 Pro and $1,099 11 Pro Max (10 percent), and their 2018 X series counterparts XS and XS Max were 21 percent of sales. The XR and 11 dominated sales “at the expense of the more costly XS and XS Max, and 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max models,” said Levin, noting the lower $50 starting price for this year’s lineup is “a change for Apple.” CIRP surveyed 500 U.S. Apple customers July-September.
Low-cost 4G smartphones and “smart feature phones” will be “key” in the “global drive to connect the unconnected,” said Strategy Analytics Thursday: “One of the most important trends ... in the handset industry today is the rapidly falling price of 4G smartphones and feature phones.” It estimates 4G handsets will be a third of feature phones and 75 percent of “ultra-low-cost” smartphones sold in 2024. Speeding 4G "migration and adoption" in developing markets will benefit operators "in terms of network efficiencies and spectrum re-farming," while also benefiting societies in bridging "the digital divide," said SA.
Vizio will release a software update next month designed to speed startup time for its SmartCast TV operating system, said Amanda Cross, Vizio senior manager-product marketing, at a Tuesday media walk-through in New York. The performance improvements of SmartCast 3.5, rolling out mid-November and expected to be complete by year-end, will cut the boot time from cold start to powering on the TV in half. The update will refresh all Vizio SmartCast TVs back to 2016 models, Cross said, fitting Vizio’s marketing message that its TVs bring value to new customers and to the existing user base. The update also accelerates load time of apps that “used to take a bit of time” by five times, Cross said. Users will be able to return to the SmartCast homepage quickly from other apps, improving the search and browse experience, she said, including from AirPlay. For the holidays, Vizio will push added value from the SmartCast performance update, which it says eliminates the need for an external streaming stick. It will also spotlight “really competitive holiday pricing" including some prices exclusive to specific retailers, she said.
Samsung's 5G new radio access unit (AU) supports 28 GHz. Combining a radio, antenna and digital unit, it's the first integrated radio for millimeter-wave spectrum, compliant with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project NR standard, Samsung said Tuesday at Mobile World Congress Los Angeles. The AU can be installed on streetlights and building walls, for a faster way to build out 5G networks with 10 Gbps, Samsung said.