Paul Gluckman

MediaTek’s mobile phone business was 57% of Q2 revenue and grew 143% year over year mainly through increasing adoption of its 5G high-end SoCs “among our customer base,” said CEO Rick Tsai on a quarterly call Tuesday. The first high-end smartphone model built on MediaTek’s 5G “open resource architecture” is shipping, said Tsai: “More models for multiple customers will come in the next few months.” MediaTek is standing by projections that 5G smartphone shipments will exceed 500 million units globally this year, more than double the 2020 volume, he said: “We expect the 5G migration to accelerate and penetrate into more regions next year.” Also Tuesday, Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said 5G subscriptions are nearly 300 million, “on track to double that by the end of 2021” (see separate report in this issue).

Global 5G subscriptions are nearly 300 million, “on track to double that by the end of 2021,” Corning CEO Wendell Weeks told a Q2 call Tuesday. “We’re in the early innings of a large capital deployment cycle across 5G, fiber to the home and hyperscale data centers.” Q2 sales in Corning’s optical communications business were $1.08 billion, up 21% year over year. “Momentum ... is building” in its optical communications business, said Weeks. “Demand on the network has only been increasing.” June broadband usage gained 33% from pre-pandemic levels, 10% above June 2020, “a peak quarantine period,” he said.

The NextGenTV certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs was “first used in commerce by persons authorized” by applicant CTA “at least as early as March 1, 2020, and is now in use in such commerce,” said the association’s statement of use (SOU), dated July 1 and newly posted at the Patent and Trademark Office. “Applicant is exercising legitimate control over the use of the certification mark in connection with the identified goods” but is “not engaged in the production or marketing of the goods to which the mark is applied,” it said. PTO requires the SOU as the last step in the trademark application process before issuing a registration certificate, and does so to prevent applicants from hoarding trademarks. “CTA have set up a Test Repository for ATSC 3.0 Test Material, to facilitate the upload of test materials representing ‘typical’ emissions from current trials, and the subsequent download for use to test and certify consumer devices,” says a redacted Eurofins test specification document accompanying the SOU. Eurofins developed the 3.0 receiver conformance test suite under contract with CTA and showcased it at the April 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas (see 1903270038). Only test suite licensee and “contributor” users have access to the repository, says the document. Contributor access “is afforded to CTA, NAB and ATSC members and their appointed representatives” for searching, but not for downloading, interoperability and documentation materials, it said. Manufacturers aren't required under the NextGenTV logo license “to retrospectively test previously certified devices” against later releases of the test suite, says the document. It's the manufacturer’s “sole responsibility to establish its own testing specifications and program to ensure interoperability” with compliant NextGenTV services, it says. “Company shall be solely responsible for all testing results.”

The Information Technology Industry Council hailed the reprieve for U.S. importers from the threat of tariffs on goods from Vietnam. “ITI welcomes the U.S. government’s bilateral engagement -- rather than consideration of tariffs that harm U.S. competitiveness and jobs -- to address concerns with Vietnam’s currency valuation practices,” emailed Senior Policy Director Sam Rizzo Monday. The agreement the U.S. Treasury reached last week with the State Bank of Vietnam to address U.S. allegations that Hanoi was devaluing the dong against the dollar was a “satisfactory resolution” of the investigation launched in October, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Friday. Vietnam plays a large and growing role in the consumer tech supply chain.

NAB estimates 85% of NAB Show participants are vaccinated against COVID-19 or “intend to be” by opening day Oct. 9 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, emailed the association Sunday. The coronavirus is “the elephant in the room” as planning progresses for NAB’s first in-person Las Vegas show in 30 months, it said. “So many of us are ready to get back to seeing products in 3D and not 2D, back to face-to-face interactions, back to NAB Show,” it said. “The excitement is palpable. But, after a global pandemic, it can also be a little scary.” The World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, the same day NAB canceled its Las Vegas show for that following month (see 2003110036). The WHO status remains. NAB Show will continue to follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Clark County, Nevada, authorities on masks and other protocols, its website said. For those fully vaccinated, it’s “your choice” to wear a mask, it said. If not fully vaccinated, “please mask up.” The show is setting meeting rooms and "floor theaters" at 75% capacity, and is recommending exhibitors enforce 3-feet of social distancing in their booths. The level of COVID-19 "community transmission" was "high" for the week ended Friday, said the CDC. It reported that 40.6% of the county's population were fully vaccinated, compared with 49.1% nationally.

Global time spent watching content on Snap grew year over year, “while lapping the boost in engagement we saw at the onset" of COVID-19, CEO Evan Spiegel told a Q2 call Thursday. “We have also observed a year-over-year decrease in daily time spent” watching user-generated content created by friends, “even as the number of daily viewers of that content has grown,” he said. Snap attributes this partly to declining daily posting activity “coinciding with mobility restrictions and behaviors" due to the pandemic, "which reduces the amount of content created by friends,” he said. The stock closed 23.8% higher Friday at $77.97 after Snap significantly exceeded revenue and profit forecasts for the quarter.

Deployment of 5G will be impeded “if we don’t get privacy right,” GSMA Director-Privacy Boris Wojtan told an Omdia webinar Wednesday. “It’s no wonder that there’s an explosion of data protection laws around the world,” he said. “It’s a good 150 now and counting.” The U.S. has had privacy laws in place since the 1970s but is now “perhaps on the verge of adopting something that’s federal and general -- a bit like the California law, but at the federal level,” said Wojtan. “There will always be new regulations and fines to avoid, but the real driver here is trust.” That law is the California Consumer Privacy Act. More “robust” data privacy “programs” are needed that “are broad and more comprehensive and really look at where the risk is,” Wojtan said.

CTA President Gary Shapiro doesn’t lose sleep over "innovation taking over the world or robotics replacing human masses,” he told C-SPAN’s The Communicators, to be televised this weekend. “I worry every day that our government is going to choke off new avenues of innovation” through antitrust crackdowns on Big Tech, he said. “Look what we did during COVID. Look how the tech industry basically saved, in a sense, the white-collar environment for those lucky enough to work at home and fundamentally changed the world.” Shapiro can live with some of the six antitrust bills that cleared the House Judiciary Committee last month (see 2106230063), he said. “It’s reasonable to look at merger filing fees, as long as they’re not discouraging mergers,” he said. “The government should have a shot” to review transactions “on an objective basis, but it should be time-constrained so it’s not sitting around there for two or three years.” Other measures, including shifting the burden of proof on purchases or giving states more leeway in antitrust reviews, “I just don’t understand,” he said. “I think you’re going to see consumers so upset when they figure out that their politicians are trying to screw up the things they love. I mean, consumers love these services.” There’s “no question” that some things Huawei has done to become “a force around the world” involved intellectual property theft from American companies, which “I find pretty difficult to swallow,” he said. “We lost some revenue” due to Commerce Department export restrictions on Huawei, “but that’s life,” said Shapiro. “We follow the law.” Huawei didn't comment Thursday. CES will return to Las Vegas as a physical show in early January with “wider aisles” and “very strong participation,” said Shapiro. The show has signed on 1,000 exhibitors so far, he said. CES 2020, CTA’s last in-person Las Vegas show, drew 4,400 exhibitors. As “great” as CES 2021 was as a virtual show, Shapiro said, “we have all learned that it’s not the same as being there.”

The push into games is in “the early stages,” said Netflix's Q2 shareholder letter. Games will be included free in subscriptions at no additional cost, with initial focus on mobile, it said Tuesday. “Since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games,” it said. Mobile is “a great platform for games,” said Greg Peters, chief operating officer and chief product officer. “It’s very mature. It’s got great enabling technology, tools, a great developer community, and the vast majority of our members have phones that are capable of great gameplay experiences.” The video streamer beat its global net subscriber additions target by 54% in Q2 (see 2107200068), and it’s forecasting 59% year-over-year net adds growth in Q3.

About a week before the July 28 one-year anniversary of the cancellation of the in-person Consumer Electronics Show 2021 due to COVID-19, CTA says it’s committed to returning CES 2022 as a physical show to the Las Vegas Convention Center in early January but is releasing few details about pre-show preparations.