Connected cars will continue gaining share of all autos, said Harman's Michael Mauser, president-lifestyle audio, at an investor conference Wednesday webcast from New York. Cybersecurity, over-the-air updates and data analytics are important, he told Wells Fargo attendees. The automotive market’s 27 percent take rate for connected cars will rise to 30 percent in the next three to five years, he predicted. Harman is building out sales channels through InMotion Entertainment stores in airports and through AT&T, Sprint and Verizon stores, he noted. His company got an autonomous driving assist in buying TowerSec earlier this year (see 1601050057), Mauser said.
The ZigBee Alliance is in “continuous communication with its member companies to develop and maintain its suite of market-relevant standards for the IoT,” the alliance emailed us Tuesday following a report last week of researchers using Philips Hue smart light bulbs as the on-ramp for a staged distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The study described adjacent IoT devices infecting each other with a “worm that will spread explosively over large areas in a kind of nuclear chain reaction." An infected bulb could “catastrophically spread” throughout a smart city within minutes, it reported, “in a massive DDoS attack.” The test found a bug in an Atmel circuit. “Like many technology platforms, such as smartphones and our daily computing devices, there’s a constant need to keep software current and check for updates to ensure the security of devices and system solutions." Atmel didn't respond to a request for comment. Last month, DDoS attacks affected many popular websites and led to calls for government action (see 1610260067).
In the next few years, consumers will continue moving to fully embedded connected-car systems from basic AM/FM, Harman CEO Dinesh Paliwal told investors. Shares closed up 3.7 percent to $80.76 Thursday as its automotive business drove an 8 percent hike in total revenue to $1.8 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30. The company reported getting new and follow-on connected car contracts from Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and others in the quarter, and it partnered with AT&T. “If cars are going to be autonomous or semi-autonomous, you can’t run them from a handheld device,” said Paliwal, referring to a “post-device era.”
Qualcomm’s proposed buy of NXP Semiconductors will create “the semiconductor engine for the connected world,” said Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf on an analyst call Thursday. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2017, with Qualcomm buying all outstanding stock of NXP for $110 a share in cash, valued at about $38 billion.
Consumers expect to spend more on electronics this holiday season, said a survey of online shoppers done in August by marketing platform company HookLogic, which Criteo is buying. Eighty-eight percent said they'll spend the same or more as in 2015. Calling 2016 a “leap year,” HookLogic said Tuesday that millennials will invest in interactive virtual reality gaming, primed by the augmented reality phenomenon ushered in by Pokemon Go (see 1609300029). Millennials will get their “first drone,” it forecast. And “Grandma” will upgrade to the iPhone 7, HookLogic said. More product detail web pages are looked at in videogaming and smartphones than in other categories, reflecting competition and the amount of information consumers want, said the study.
The top 20 tech gifts this holiday season include drones, gaming devices and smartphones, Best Buy announced. Apple had four picks including the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch 2. Samsung mentions included the Galaxy S7 smartphone, Sony a PlayStation virtual reality gaming headset and Google the Chromecast Ultra streaming media device. Best Buy cited a CTA forecast saying nearly 70 percent of consumers will buy tech gifts this season (see 1610120044).
Pandora executives limited details of the company’s long-awaited $9.99-per-month Pandora Premium on-demand service on a combined earnings/analyst event webcast Tuesday, citing competitive reasons. It officially will launch Premium -- a competitor to on-demand services from Amazon, Apple and Spotify -- Dec. 6 in New York, with service to begin in Q1, said CEO Tim Westergren.
Friday’s distributed denial of service internet attack that knocked out many websites (see 1610210056) spurred calls to action Monday from IoT stakeholders and by members of Congress (see 1610240038). Privacy and security concerns are on the rise among IoT customers, said a Parks Associates news release. Year-end data show 40 percent of U.S. broadband households had a recent privacy or security problem with a connected device, “primarily a virus, spyware, or a company tracking them," said analyst Brad Russell. The IoT creates opportunities and risks, some of which are an obstacle to advancement of technology, said Anthony Grieco, trust strategy officer at National Cyber Security Alliance founding sponsor Cisco, in a news release. Also Monday, the prpl Foundation said it formed the Trust Continuum working group with the goal of establishing “end-to-end trust in embedded devices, critical to the security of IoT.” Trust is a critical element missing from the IoT, said foundation President Art Swift.
AV retailer Video & Audio Center has a 65 percent attach rate for Ultra HD Blu-ray players with the purchase of 4K TVs, Corporate Director Tom Campbell told us last week at a Home Technology Specialists of America event in Chicago. Campbell credited affordable pricing for Samsung’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, the first to market, and “the way we demo” TVs using 4K Blu-ray rather than 4K streaming content. Video & Audio Center now is selling software to show off 4K resolution and high dynamic range “that you can’t get through streaming,” Campbell said. He noted recent synergy between the electronics industry and studios, with Twentieth Century Fox President and Digital Entertainment Group Chairman Mike Dunn also being a member of the CTA executive board and Starz Chief Strategy Officer John Penney a CTA board trustee: That's leading to a unified effort between the camps, something that hasn't always been the case. About a fifth of the marketing real estate on Ultra HD Blu-ray titles Lucy from Comcast's Universal and Fox’s The Martian is devoted to technology, said Campbell.
CTA President Gary Shapiro, who supported GOP candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election (see 1211080036), is likely to vote this year for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, he said in a Friday Facebook post. “Despite having supported, contributed and advocated for the last few Republican presidential candidates,” Shapiro is “almost ready” to vote for Clinton because “she is experienced, stable and by every measure a better choice,” he said. Shapiro later explained his "almost ready" wording by saying he hadn't yet filled out his absentee ballot, saying he pondered several options about how he would vote.