New Sony sets include one to match Netflix content to TV playback, a Master Series launch event was told in New York Tuesday. This is for a “cinema-quality experience,” said Sony Electronics President Mike Fasulo. Scott Mirer, Netflix vice president-device partner ecosystem, said his company wants to give consumers choice and control, and calibrated mode shows programming as meant to be seen: with “precise colors; accurate, dynamic contrast; and true motion.” He contrasted early days of “poor quality” internet video via PC with content today, when “nearly all the latest innovations in visual entertainment are delivered first to your TV through the internet.” Today, “there is no better screen than the one in your living room,” he said, citing 4K and HDR. A third of smart TVs using Netflix support HDR, Mirer said, and the video streamer offers more than 400 hours of HDR and 2,000 hours of 4K content.
Apple is the latest tech interest to decry new U.S. tariffs related to intellectual property disagreements, and those recently proposed by the Trump administration on Chinese goods (see 1807260024 and 1807240031). Tariffs "show up as a tax on the consumer and wind up resulting in lower economic growth” that can sometimes bring about "significant risk of unintended consequences,” said CEO Tim Cook on a quarterly earnings call Tuesday after regular U.S. markets closed.
Pandora shares closed up 15 Wednesday at $7.73 following its earnings report after regular U.S. markets closed Tuesday showed double-digit growth in advertising and subscriptions. Analysts Wednesday hailed the results, still noting a long road to profitability and much competition. “With management struggling to fine-tune the strategy and a highly competitive environment where Spotify and Apple have clear momentum, we believe Pandora remains a long way from sustainable profitability,” said Dougherty & Co.'s Steven Frankel.
Dolby CEO Kevin Yeaman hailed “the combined experience” of Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision on the company’s fiscal Q3 earnings call Wednesday, highlighting the Apple TV 4K as the first digital media adapter (DMA) to support Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision.
Spotify put to rest reports it's becoming a music label Thursday. Responding to questions on its Q2 earnings report, CEO Daniel Ek said the company doesn’t hold any rights to any music. The company finished Q2 with 180 million monthly average users (MAUs) and 83 million premium subscribers. Revenue rose 26 percent to 1.27 billion euros ($1.5 billion) vs. 1 billion euros in the year-ago quarter. The stock closed up 4.4 percent at $196.28.
A 12 percent year-on-year decline in Silicon Labs’ Q2 access business was partially attributable to the U.S. government’s ban on shipments to ZTE, said Chief Financial Officer John Hollister on a Wednesday earnings call. Since the ban's lifting this month (see 1807130048), the company is in talks with the Chinese telecom gearmaker “to determine their resumption of production activity and consumption rates,” said Hollister.
Sonos, whose board includes ex-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, hopes to raise about $264 million in its initial public offering, said the wireless multiroom audio company in an SEC filing Monday. The company is offering 5.6 million shares, and selling stockholders are offering 8.4 million shares, with an offering price between $17 and $19 per share. It will trade on Nasdaq as SONO. The largest stakeholder is KKR, with 25.7 percent on June 30, followed by Index Ventures with 13 percent. Co-founder John MacFarlane owns 9.9 percent, Valdur Koha 7.4 percent, Redpoint Ventures 5.2 percent and CEO Patrick Spence 1.5 percent. Directors include Genachowski (106,422 shares), former Cisco executive and Index Ventures General Partner Mike Volpi (12.1 million shares) and former Microsoft executive Robert Bach (410,152 shares). In FY 2017, revenue rose 10 percent to $992.5 million.
U.S. smart speaker ownership has passed 43 million people, NPR-Edison Research said, with “first adopters” who have owned one for more than a year using it for advanced things including smart home control. Three-quarters of the 909 adult-respondents owned their speakers for less than a year. In first-adopter households, the devices are the primary way those households consume audio, said Tom Webster, Edison senior vice president. Some 29 percent of early mainstream owners said their smart speaker replaced time spent with TV, and 28 percent listened to a podcast within the week, said the study done May 21-June 1 and emailed to us Wednesday. Nineteen percent of newer owners listen to audio most on a speaker connected to a smartphone, 17 percent of new and early adopters to audio most on an AM/FM radio, and around 70 percent of both use it for news. For mornings, traffic, weather and news are leading uses, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., top activities are ordering an item, listening to AM/FM and adding an item to a shopping list.
Amazon acknowledged a “ruff start” to Prime Day Tuesday in an e-mailed statement after it resorted to cute puppy graphics when it was unable to handle the onslaught of traffic at launch Monday afternoon. “Some customers are having difficulty shopping, and we’re working to resolve this issue quickly,” a spokeswoman emailed us. In the first hour and first 10 hours of Prime Day, U.S. customers ordered more items than at the equivalent points in 2017, she said. “We know some customers were temporarily unable to make purchases,” the company said, promising “hundreds of thousands of new deals today.” Amazon tried to reward Prime members with a “special thank you,” sending a Tuesday afternoon email offering a chance to download all six Amazon First Reads Kindle books for free through midnight. When we attempted to order, we encountered an error message akin to the fail messages reported Monday: “We're sorry! We had a problem processing your order. If you don't receive your book, please call our customer service line.” Other Prime users reported ordering glitches. Marist College promoted a June poll with NPR on Prime ownership in a Tuesday tweet: “44% of adults told @NPR/@MaristPoll they use Amazon Prime. They must have been pretty upset yesterday when @amazon site crashed on Prime Day!"
The EPA is encouraging smart home companies to “get in on the ground floor” and consider energy use “from the beginning,” said Abigail Daken, an environmental engineer at the agency. With smart home products gaining popularity, doing such will help manufacturers provide the functions consumers want with the least energy use, she said on an EPA Wednesday webinar. Connectivity within a system is an opportunity for cost savings and better user experience, said Daken. She cited a set-top box that must warm up after a “deep sleep.” In a connected home, it can turn on when the alarm system is disengaged, she said. User experience and energy-saving modes “work better together if occupancy information is shared” in a smart home, she said. The EPA is focusing on occupancy now as the most promising area for savings, and could later add co-optimization of devices, she said. The agency is gathering information from industry on how it would understand the performance of smart home systems. Typically, that process leads to a specification and products could be certified. But Energy Star Lighting Program Manager Taylor Jantz-Sell said the smart home isn't like other Energy Star standard practices for individual product specs because it’s a combination of products, some already Energy Star-certified. It’s a combination of hardware and occupancy data that could be “baked in” to hardware, or located remotely, and automated services working together, she said. “It’s a whole new arena for us,” she said.