Walter Ji, president of Huawei Europe’s consumer business group, spent the bulk of his 45-minute prerecorded IFA 2020 news conference speech Thursday trumpeting his company’s stature as a good corporate citizen. Independent studies show Huawei supports 223,000 jobs on the continent, said Ji. Huawei will expand its retail presence in Europe, “creating more jobs and economic growth at a critical time,” he said. It will open eight “flagship stores” by year-end across Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. The flagship stores were “designed by Europeans for Europeans,” he said. The expanded “retail footprint will employ hundreds more people,” he said. “We are proud of what we are doing in Europe, and we are committed to doing more.” Ji made no mention in his talk of the U.K.’s July decision banning Huawei from its 5G network (see 2007140023).
Broadcom expects to start "benefiting from the transition to 5G" soon, and new smartphone "product ramps later this year,” said CEO Hock Tan on a fiscal Q3 call Thursday. Wireless revenue in Q3 ended Aug. 2 was down 4% sequentially. Broadcom is a big iPhone supplier. Apple didn’t comment Friday. Broadcom Q4 revenue year on year will be “roughly flat” due to fewer parts shipments “relative to last year,” Tan said. Of the factories that were running under capacity after they emerged from lockdown, “most of that has been resolved,” he said. “Supply chain constraint on wafers and substrates continues.” So “our lead times are still very extended, based on the technology nodes and the particular products that we produce and sell,” Tan said. “Given the kinds of products we do, we see some of the constraint, and I’ll be direct. We could have shipped more in Q3 if such constraints were not as tight.”
The 2021 introduction of 5G functionality in Qualcomm’s 4 Series of Snapdragon processors will speed the mass scaling of entry-level 5G smartphones globally, said Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon in an opening IFA 2020 keynote Thursday. Amon spoke via prerecorded video before a physical audience in a Messe Berlin exhibition hall. The hybrid physical/virtual IFA 2020, the first tech trade show in the COVID-19 era with in-person attendance (see 2008310024), opened with the theme “Tech is Back.”
The COVID-19 pandemic brought “so many people into the online economy, from shopping to working to learning,” creating industry opportunities to innovate for the new shelter-in-place reality, I.P. Park, LG Electronics president-chief technology officer, told an IFA 2020 news conference Thursday. The conference was held before journalists assembled in person at the Messe Berlin fairgrounds. Park spoke via prerecorded holographic video and on a live videoconference feed from Seoul.
Tech is no longer “part of the employee experience,” it’s the “entire employee experience,” said CEO Dean Hager on a Q2 call, Jamf's first as a public company. It manages Apple devices and services, and revenue grew 29% from the 2019 quarter. Connectivity tools are “now a necessity,” said Hager Tuesday. “Even after we work through this difficult period, we do not believe the world will go back to the way things were. These past several months have laid the groundwork for a future where people can work from anywhere, learn anywhere and receive care anywhere.” When COVID-19 hit, schools that were more “digitally advanced were able to continue classes” remotely, others weren't, said Hager. “But in Q2, all schools knew they needed to prepare learning strategies for the upcoming school year that would effectively support both educators and students whether school was remote, in person, hybrid or a combination over time.” The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (see 2003270058) is giving schools “an avenue to fund the digital initiatives required for distance learning,” he said. The total addressable market for Apple “enterprise management” is expected to rise at a 17.8% compound annual growth rate, reaching $23.4 billion globally by the end of 2024, said Hager. Credit the “consumerization” of information tech, he said. “Employees are less inclined to draw a line between work and personal technology and commonly prefer not to settle for enterprise solutions that are harder to use than what they have in their homes. This is a trend that is seeing even more traction due to the digital transformation happening in response to COVID-19.” Chief Financial Officer Jill Putman said there's “embedded uncertainty around the IT spending environment as renewals, capital spending and new IT projects are subject to more scrutiny across organizations.” The stock closed 6.5% lower Wednesday at $38.50.
"Video is the new voice," said Zoom CEO Eric Yuan on quarterly call Monday. "There's no reason for any business to deploy two separate systems." COVID-19 "completely accelerated" the digital transformation for "every enterprise," said Yuan. "You want to support employees no matter where they are, where the traditional on-prem[ises] system really is not applicable anymore." Demand for remote-work solutions remains high, as organizations “moved beyond addressing immediate business continuity needs” into strategizing for a post-pandemic future, said the corporate chief. Employers are “actively redefining and embracing new approaches to support a future of working anywhere, learning anywhere, and connecting anywhere,” said Yuan. Revenue soared 355% from the year-earlier quarter. New subscriptions were 81% of the growth, said Chief Financial Officer Kelly Steckelberg. “Demand remained at heightened levels, combined with lower than expected churn,” she said. “This demand was broad-based.” But small firms churned at a higher rate, the CFO said. The stock closed 41% higher Tuesday at $457.69.
Despite mounting event cancellations, including that of CES 2021 (see 2007280034), IFA is taking a stab at the world’s first in-person tech show to be held during the pandemic era when it hosts a three-day physical and virtual hybrid event beginning Thursday. IFA 2020 Special Edition as it's called won’t look anything like a typical IFA at the Messe Berlin fairgrounds. The physical portion will limit daily attendance to 4,000 and will keep consumers away (see 2005190035). It’s also three days long compared with the usual six. Promoters claimed more than 250,000 trade and consumer visitors flocked to IFA 2019.
President Donald Trump’s warning that he will remove all U.S. business from China in a second term got a sharp rebuke Friday from the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry. To threaten the “relocation of production capacity” as Trump did is “political manipulation that puts partisan and personal interests above U.S. national interests,” said a ministry spokesperson. “The perverse practice of going against the voluntary will of the vast business community, forcibly scrapping existing cooperation between countries, and coercing companies with regard to their normal investment and operation runs counter to the law of market economy and will eventually lead to self-harm.” China will "own our country” if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is elected, Trump told the Republican National Convention Thursday evening.
“Ongoing” 5G deployments in China drove Marvell Technology’s networking business to 23% year-over-year revenue growth in fiscal Q2 ended Aug. 1, said CEO Matt Murphy on a Thursday investor call. Revenue in the sector jumped 3% from fiscal Q1, Marvell’s fourth straight quarter of sequential revenue growth from the wireless infrastructure market “as we benefited from the start of the 5G transition,” through design wins at four of the world’s top five tier 1 base station OEMs, he said. Marvell is “on track” to start shipping 5G basebands to Nokia and processors “customized” for massive multiple-input and multiple-output applications to Samsung later this year, said Murphy. “We a lot of wind at our back in terms of the 5G business.”
Chipmaker Semtech is forecasting revenue of $145 million-$155 million for its fiscal Q3 ending late October. It assumes “no more direct shipments to Huawei” amid the further Commerce Department export restrictions on the Chinese tech company (see 2008170043), said Chief Financial Officer Emeka Chukwu on a quarterly earnings call Wednesday. Q3 revenue would rise about 10% from a year earlier at the high range of the guidance. “Despite the ongoing geopolitical challenges and the macroeconomic headwinds associated with COVID-19, we believe the underlying secular demand for our key growth platforms remains solid,” said Chukwu. Huawei is “an ongoing dynamic situation,” said CEO Mohan Maheswaran. “They used to be a $80 million to $100 million account for us, so it's much, much lower now.” Semtech went with the zero shipments assumption in the guidance because it wants to “eliminate any risk” for investors, he said. “It's not a question of us not wanting to ship them.” Commerce regulations “are changing quite frequently,” he said. “So we take the approach of let's be conservative and assume no shipments.”