Global smartphone shipments rose in recent quarters though “the supply chain situation hasn't drastically improved,” reported IDC. It forecast 7.4% growth to 1.37 billion in 2021 and 3.4% growth in 2022. Those were slight downgrades from a May 26 forecast. Monday, IDC attributed this year’s anticipated increase to “healthy 13.8% growth from iOS devices combined with 6.2% growth from Android.” U.S importers sourced 89.23 million smartphones from all countries in 2021's first half, up 17% from the 2020 period and down 9.7% from 2019's first six months, per Census Bureau data we accessed through the International Trade Commission.
Paul Gluckman
Paul Gluckman, Executive Senior Editor, is a 30-year Warren Communications News veteran having joined the company in May 1989 to launch its Audio Week publication. In his long career, Paul has chronicled the rise and fall of physical entertainment media like the CD, DVD and Blu-ray and the advent of ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology from its rudimentary standardization roots to its anticipated 2020 commercial launch.
Pearl TV stations have “started to look" at doing over-the-air ATSC 3.0 transmissions in 4K, Managing Director Anne Schelle told the ATSC NextGen Broadcast Conference Thursday. “We had an almost opportunity -- I can’t really talk about it -- where a network was looking at it, but for rights issues and others, we didn’t do it,” she said. She foresees stations in 2022 will begin doing events-based broadcasts in 4K for live sports, she said. “Some of the stations are talking about production in 4K” for some of the “shoulder content they’re producing around sports,” she said.
Semiconductor company Marvell Technology “nearly tripled” its revenue from wireless carriers the past two years by “growing our overall market share” in 5G infrastructure, said CEO Matt Murphy on an earnings call Thursday for fiscal Q2 ended July 31. “We expect a sustained period of strong revenue growth from this end market driven by an increase in 5G deployments, which are still in the early stage of worldwide adoption.” Growth from 5G is expected to “significantly accelerate” in calendar Q4, he said. Marvell has substantially reduced its “dependence” on the consumer market, “which tends to be more volatile with shorter product life cycles” than the enterprise sector, he said. Its consumer operations now generate only 15% of Marvell revenue through its “de-emphasis” on PC components and the December 2019 sale of its Wi-Fi connectivity business to NXP, he said. “We have significantly increased our exposure to the data center and carrier end markets, which are characterized by long product life cycles, sticky design wins and multi-generational engagements.”
The Patent and Trademark Office accepted CTA’s statement of use on the NextGenTV logo as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs, clearing its final hurdle toward a trademark registration certificate, said an agency notice Tuesday. The certificate “will issue in due course barring any extraordinary circumstances,” said PTO. CTA’s July 1 statement of use said the logo was first deployed commercially “at least as early” as March 2020 (see 2107260021).
The ransomware threat “continues to rise,” and the average ransom demand in 2021's first half grew 518% from a year earlier, said Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora on an earnings call Monday for fiscal Q4 ended July 31. “Ransomware readiness” is one of Palo Alto’s “key engagements,” he said. It did 39 readiness “assessments” in the quarter and has 300 more in the “pipeline,” he said. Quarterly billings of $1.87 billion were up 24% year over year, "well ahead of our guided 22% to 23% growth," said Chief Financial Officer Dipak Golechha. Revenue growth of 28% "was above the high end of our guidance range," he said. "Growth was driven by strong demand across all geographies and major product areas." The stock closed 18.6% higher Tuesday at $441.87.
Disney+ ended fiscal Q3 July 3 with 116.6 million paid subscribers, up 12.4 million from fiscal Q2, Disney announced Thursday. Hotstar in India generated about 80% of the Q3 subscriber net adds, Cowen told investors Friday. Disney+ Day, scheduled for Nov. 12, will be “an unprecedented company-wide cross-promotional campaign” to boost consumer adoption among holdouts to the service, said CEO Bob Chapek on a Thursday investor call. The event will feature a “balanced approach” to global and local content, he said. Disney is sticking with the “three-pronged strategy” it adopted last year to distribute feature films amid the COVID-19 pandemic, said Chapek. Some films went direct to theaters, others direct to Disney+, still others as hybrids with theatrical showings and as $29.99 Premier Access options on Disney+. Distribution decisions will continue to be made film by film, “based on global marketplace conditions and consumer behavior,” said Chapek.
McAfee’s closing on the sale of its enterprise business to Symphony Technology Group for $4 billion cash on July 27 began McAfee’s “journey” as a “pure-play consumer cybersecurity company,” said CEO Peter Leav on an earnings call Tuesday for fiscal Q2 ended June 26. McAfee added 556,000 “net new core” direct-to-consumer subscribers, closing the quarter with 19.4 million subs, compared with 16.6 million in Q2 a year earlier. “It's very clear that the behavior for consumers is forever changing,” said Leav. “We've seen that again and again in the digitization of all of our lives, and that's not a one-off,” he said. There’s also “a greater degree of focus from those who are trying to exploit that,” he said. “It's unfortunate, but the world of cyber-criminal behavior continues to expand as well.”
Lionsgate had a “strong financial quarter” for Starz streaming, “but like the rest of the industry, we were impacted by a reduction in at-home viewership, and importantly a light content quarter, due to COVID-driven production delays,” said CEO Jon Feltheimer on a call Thursday on fiscal Q1 ended June 30. Starz continued growing its base of international subscribers, but U.S. sub numbers took a “temporary” hit that “we have already reversed,” he said. He expects Starz global subscriber growth to “outpace” last year’s, “buttressed by a very strong slate” of content. Starz plans 12 original programs this FY compared with seven last, plus “five tentpole films in the next three quarters will drive a large, large growth of subscriber acquisition,” said Starz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch. “We also saw churn at a historic low.”
Vizio smart TV shipments fell 31% in Q2 to 1.1 million sets, driving device revenue 9% lower than a year earlier to $335.6 million even as the Platform+ business had 146% revenue growth to $65.5 million. Vizio generated more advertising revenue in first-half 2021 than 2020 total, said Chief Financial Officer Adam Townsend on a call Wednesday (see Q2 materials here). Industrywide “supply and logistical challenges” contributed to shipment decline, as did tough comparisons with Q2 a year earlier as the COVID-19 took hold in the U.S., said Townsend. “The good news is, consumer demand remains robust and average unit prices continue to shift higher.” Amid the pandemic, it’s hard to predict “what will happen next” in the supply chain, said CEO William Wang. The semiconductor and components shortage situation is “getting better,” he said. With the delta variant “unpredictable, we don’t really know what’s going to happen,” he said.
Semiconductor demand “continues to outpace supply,” and Himax Technologies believes the “imbalance” could last “well into 2022,” said CEO Jordan Wu on a Q2 call Thursday. Himax supplies display-driver chips to TV, laptop, tablet and smartphone panel makers. Foundries are running at “more than full capacity,” but demand “shows no indication of abating,” said Wu. “We have entered into strategic agreements with foundry partners to cover both our short-term and long-term needs. We are in the process of entering into further such agreements as we speak, with some of them involving new foundry partners, leaving nothing untried to expand our capacity pool.” Himax projects Q3 revenue from large display-driver chips will increase more than 30% sequentially, said Wu. The monitor and notebook display businesses are expected to post double-digit growth, “benefiting from remote work and online schooling trends,” he said. For the TV segment, “we expect over 20% sequential growth in Q3, anchored by higher-end and larger-sized TVs, despite the slight dip in worldwide TV shipments anticipated for the second half,” he said.