Paul Gluckman

Amid “all aspects of modern life” converting to the use of "digital channels" during the COVID-19 pandemic, “the need to establish trust in the digital identities of customers, citizens, partners and employees is rising rapidly,” said Mitek Systems CEO Max Carnecchia on a fiscal Q1 call Thursday. Digital identity verification, Mitek’s core business, “has never been more relevant,” he said. “Rapid advances in artificial intelligence are enabling novel forms of fraud," said Carnecchia. "Increased scale and frequency of data breaches are all adding heightened pressure on organizations to protect their customers’ data and access.” Cyber thieves and “their methods of crime continued to evolve” in 2020, “so even the best anti-fraud programs need to be continually assessed and refined,” he said. “Organizations no longer have the luxury to simply verify access at the point of onboarding. Instead, they need to continuously authenticate and know exactly who their customers are across all channels and throughout the customer lifecycle.”

5G “is increasingly gaining momentum around the world,” said Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm on a Q4 call Friday. But the executive worries that Europe risks falling woefully behind other global regions in 5G deployments and subscription activations, he said.

Kaleidescape communicated to dealers this week a new movie rental option on its Strato devices for viewing feature films at the same full resolution as purchased titles, we learned. Once customers download a rental movie, Kaleidescape will give them 30 days to start watching it, with a 48-hour viewing window. A rented movie can be downloaded to only one home at a time and watched on only one player at a time, dealers were told. If a customer decides to buy the rented movie within 30 days of the rental transaction, half the rental price will be applied toward the purchase. Kaleidescape didn't comment.

Samsung Electronics for 2021 “will continue to strengthen” its Z Fold and Z Flip foldable smartphone lineup “with the aim of popularizing the foldable form factor” as it looks to more such designs, said President Yoon-Ho Cho on a Q4 call Wednesday. Samsung will work to “solidify” the Z Fold’s “positioning in the super premium segment, especially highlighting the usability it offers with a large screen” for viewing entertainment content and as a “productivity” tool for remote work and learning, he said: Z Flip's goal is “to satisfy and target the needs of the millennials, as well as female users."

MediaTek gained “meaningful share” globally last year in 5G and Wi-Fi 6 “in the first year of the end-market takeoff” of those technologies, said CEO Rick Tsai on a Q4 call Wednesday. “We are seeing increasing Wi-Fi 6 demand in high-end routers, broadband and TV.” Laptop and Chromebook brands are adopting “MediaTek Wi-Fi 6 solutions,” he said. The first high-end Wi-Fi 6 gaming laptop “will hit the market in the first quarter with more to come,” he said. MediaTek is “on the test bed” for Wi-Fi 6E development and already has “started Wi-Fi 7 investments,” he said. For 2021, MediaTek forecasts global 5G smartphone shipments will exceed 500 million, a 250% increase over 2019, said Tsai. He estimates “at least” 60% of that growth will come from China. MediaTek launched a complete 5G “product portfolio” last year and “engaged with all global major Android smartphone brands,” he said. “Our 5G market share has already exceeded 40% in markets we serve.”

Intel invested $475 million in its Vietnamese subsidiary, in addition to the $1 billion it spent more than a decade ago to build a chip assembly and test manufacturing facility in Ho Chi Minh City, it blogged Tuesday. Intel Products Vietnam shipped more than 2 billion units of components to customers globally through the end of 2020, it said. It’s the largest U.S. tech investment in Vietnam, it said. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative under the Trump administration found Vietnam’s allegedly improper devaluation of the dong against the dollar actionable under the Trade Act Section 301, leaving it to the next USTR to decide whether to impose tariffs on Hanoi (see 2101150052).

Home entertainment content spending topped $30 billion in 2020, driven by the huge shift toward digital consumption amid COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, Redhill Group President Judith McCourt told a Digital Entertainment Group webinar Wednesday. Digital content spending jumped 32.6% to $26.53 billion, but physical media sales declined 25.6% to $2.45 billion, and content rentals fell 26.8% to $1.04 billion, she said. Streaming generated 80% of the digital spending in 2020, rising 37.2% to $21.22 billion, she said. Total 2020 home entertainment spending jumped 21% for the year, peaking at a 34% increase in Q2, when COVID-19 lockdowns began in full force, said McCourt. Spending increased 19% in Q1, 18% in Q3 and 16% in Q4, she said.

AT&T's chief defended the telco's controversial decision to stream on its own HBO Max its entire 2021 film slate, as analysts reacting to Q4 results were cautious about the carrier's FCC C-band auction spending. Analysts note the company was probably spending many billions of dollars on the auction. The FCC quiet period prevents executives from speaking about the auction.

That the “secular shift” toward streaming video adoption “accelerated heavily” in 2020 amid COVID-19 spurred S&P to upgrade Netflix to BB+ from BB, said the ratings service Tuesday. Consumers “spent more time at home and consumed increasing amounts of in-home entertainment,” said S&P. “All streaming services benefitted from this trend, but Netflix, the leader in the sector, saw an unprecedented shift.” The company ended 2020 with 203.7 million subscribers, compared with S&P’s guidance of 195 million. Netflix had 8.51 million global net subscriber additions in Q4, beating its Oct. 20 forecast by nearly 42% (see 2101190066). S&P doesn’t expect Netflix to “revert” back to pre-2020 “metrics” because the pandemic “accelerated the adoption of streaming video services globally,” it said. “This should mitigate the impact of increasing competition as many new streaming services launched over the past year” or so, including Disney+, HBO Max and Peacock, it said. The analysis didn’t factor in the possible impact of Netflix price increases being phased in over the next 30 days. Netflix emailed subscribers in recent days that it will raise the premium tier by $2 to $17.99 monthly and the standard plan by $1 to $13.99. The increases take effect in late February.

Katherine Tai, President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, built a reputation as being tough on China’s intellectual property abuses when she was House Ways and Means lead trade counsel, said trade expert John Brew of Crowell & Moring. Her confirmation hearings in “a few weeks” likely will provide the first tangible insight into how the new administration will address existing tariffs on China and possible imposition of duties on Vietnam, he told a Sports & Fitness Industry Association webinar Tuesday. Tech groups oppose such levies.