Dolby’s win with its Atmos post-processing technology in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones gives the company “an important entrée back into Samsung that can hopefully be expanded over time,” said Dougherty & Co. analyst Steven Frankel in a Monday research note. Lenovo and LG also license Atmos. Samsung had been Dolby’s largest mobile customer until spring 2014 when Samsung stopped licensing Dolby’s codec “in a move designed to lower its bill of materials,” he said.
Pandora challenges include more competition, increased royalties and hardware integration, executives and analysts said as shares closed down 7.2 percent to $4.52 Thursday. Q1 sales projections were lower than expected. On Wednesday’s earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra said Pandora will face many of the same advertising revenue “headwinds” this quarter as in second half 2017, projecting Q1 revenue of $295 million-$305 million. The company cut 5 percent of staff this month (see 1802010055).
Calling 2017 a year of "challenges" after integration of DTS and Tessera, Xperi CEO Jon Kirchner on its fiscal Q1 call Tuesday projected North American HD Radio new car design wins to reach 65 percent penetration by 2022 on deployment in lower-end models, up from 50 percent last year. Globally, Xperi hopes to establish connected radio as a “must have” offering for OEMs. Mobile market trends include 3D face recognition, multi-camera, multi-modal biometric security features, said the top executive. He also cited Xperi’s recently announced partnership with Huawei and Imax for augmented and virtual reality experiences in China. The company is moving its focus beyond IP, where it settled litigation with Broadcom via a multiyear license, and has five trial dates with Samsung 2018-19, Kirchner said.
Amazon is “extremely well placed” within the current smart home voice platform market, but Google and Apple are “awake to the importance of the market and are ramping up their own plays” as cable takes note, ABI analyst Jonathan Collins told us. Amazon hasn’t been able to reach and leverage a smartphone user base in the way Apple and Google have, he said. Voice will increasingly be used where it’s the most convenient human interface instead of a control panel or smartphone app, he said. Players with smart home installed bases -- Comcast, for one with its X1 voice platform -- could populate its technology “to expand and improve the appeal of their smart home offerings,” he said. ABI also reported Tuesday on such challenges to Amazon's Alexa. Its rivals also could include Samsung's Bixby, Collins told us.
Sony announced pricing and availability Thursday for smart TVs it unveiled at CES, and the previous night responded to Consumer Reports finding flaws in such devices (see 1802070046). A Sony Android TV was the only model tested requiring users to agree to a privacy policy and terms of service to complete setup. Consumers have to click "yes" to Google agreements “even if they don’t plan to connect to the internet,” Sony said. The report quoted Sony saying customers concerned about sharing information with Google don’t have to connect their TV to the internet and can use cable or broadcast signals. The company is committed to privacy, security and transparency for collection, use and disclosure of customer data through smart TVs, it told us. “Our commitment is demonstrated by making consumers aware, during the set-up process, of the Terms and Conditions, and Privacy Policies for the Google/Android TV operating system and Samba TV services, as well as the Privacy Policy for Sony smart TVs.” Sony uses an optional opt-in process for acceptance of smart TV privacy policies, it said. The company “does not sell or share any personally identifiable information with third parties in order to allow them to target ads or otherwise market non-Sony products and services to Sony customers,” it said.
Millions of smart TVs can be controlled by hackers exploiting easy-to-find security flaws, said Consumer Reports. Also finding privacy issues with smart TVs’ “substantial data collection,” Wednesday's report was the first test from its Digital Standard. It was developed with cybersecurity and privacy organizations Disconnect, Ranking Digital Rights, The Cyber Independent Testing Lab and nonprofit tech organization Aspiration to help set expectations for how connected product manufacturers should handle privacy and security.
Amazon customers bought “tens of millions” Fire TV Sticks and Echo Dots, said Thursday's Q4 earnings release. Sales jumped 38 percent to $60.5 billion, with net income of $1.9 billion vs. $749 million. The company exceeded “very optimistic” projections and “expect us to double down,” said CEO Jeff Bezos. He said it's “an important point” that other companies and developers are “accelerating adoption of Alexa.” The company is seeing strong response to its new far-field voice kit for manufacturers, he said. Shares Friday closed up 3 percent to $1,429.95.
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s efforts to trumpet iPhone sales records on the company’s Thursday earnings call didn’t sway Wall Street, which expected higher December quarter phone sales and viewed March quarter projections as light. Shares closed down 4.3 percent at $160.50 Friday. Apple sold 77.3 million iPhones in the quarter with revenue totaling $62 billion, it said. Units were down 1 percent, and higher average selling prices of the 8, 8 Plus and X led to a 13 percent revenue bump. “Because iPhone has the largest residual rate on it, it acts as a buffer for the customer to buy a new one, and it winds up with another customer somewhere else who’s perfectly fine with having a previously owned iPhone,” Cook said. “The more people with iPhones, the better.” The X is “setting up the next decade,” he said as before. Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said the company expects iPhone revenue to rise double digits this quarter compared with a year ago and sequential growth from the December to March quarters will exceed the comparable 2017 period.
Pandora will cut 5 percent of its workforce in a $45 million cost restructuring, said an SEC filing Wednesday. Shifting resources to advertising technology and audience development is designed to prioritize growth initiatives, said the company. Pandora cut 7 percent of its workforce a year ago, said an earlier filing. It reported 2,488 employees in its most recent annual report, Dec. 31, 2016; the company wouldn't comment further. Growth initiatives include ad and marketing tech, non-music content and device integration. The audio market soon will reach "a major inflection point,” said CEO Roger Lynch. With the company planning to use its savings in other ways, “there will be no near-term boost to profitability," noted Dougherty & Co. analyst Steven Frankel. Shares closed up 7.4 percent Thursday at $5.13.
Sonos’ closing of its New York flagship store for Sunday to show support for net neutrality on a day the music industry gathered in town for the 60th Annual Grammy Awards was an “opportunity to be bold and make an action-oriented statement that aligns so strongly with our values,” a spokeswoman said Monday. The FCC voted to repeal net neutrality rules in December (see 1712140039). Music “drives everything we do but unfortunately, music faces mounting threats in today’s world,” said the representative. “Too many artists encounter barriers when it comes to free expression and access to information. Communities lack space and resources to ensure all musicians can be heard.” She referenced Sonos’ Listen Better initiative, launched in the fall, committing $1.5 million in grants over three years to fund grassroots organizations working to promote the future of music. A sign on the closed Sonos storefront said: “If we let net neutrality get stripped away, powerful gatekeepers could stifle creativity and hold back tomorrow’s talent.”