Hisense sees smart TVs becoming “something to play with” and offering a “new way of shopping,” said General Manager Yu Zhitao during a demonstration at CES Asia in Shanghai Wednesday. In the U.S., Hisense launched ULED 4K TVs Tuesday with Android TV and Google Assistant. The set maker also is bowing smart TVs to coincide with Thursday's opening of the World Cup games in Russia. Owners can use a designated button on a TV remote to engage interactive mode, clicking on any of the 1,000 players from 32 World Cup teams to see statistics, videos and background on a participant using Hisense image recognition technology, Zhitao said. This extends to TV actors and celebrities, he said. During the World Cup, users will be able to order a player’s jersey by scanning a QR code with a mobile device scanner in front of the TV, Yu showed. Users can find restaurants nearby, order beer and find content on TV using voice recognition, Yu said.
The Trump administration's threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports and China's possible retaliatory actions were top of mind for CTA President Gary Shapiro Wednesday at CES Asia. “The challenge with tariffs is that nobody wins, and these threats and the discussion about it causes global economic uncertainty,” he said in Shanghai. The White House announced May 29 that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will release its final tariffs list by Friday and the tariffs will take effect “shortly thereafter” (see 1805290046). The association disagrees with the administration’s position on tariffs, which Shapiro called “a different approach on tariffs than any in my professional life.” He believes Congress would be in opposition, too, “if they took a vote on it,” he said. Making it a point not to criticize President Donald Trump, “especially outside of U.S. soil,” Shapiro said the issue of tariffs is "potentially very dangerous, especially if you go to the next step, which is a trade war.” Meanwhile, government’s “natural reaction is to regulate,” Shapiro said. He described what he called a scary moment in Europe several weeks ago when the European commissioner responsible for privacy set his sights on regulating artificial intelligence. “I shook,” he said, over the idea of “regulating something without understanding it.” Lawmakers should attend shows like CES and CES Asia to better understand how technology helps improve lives, he said.
CTA expects CES Asia to draw 500 exhibitors, 44,000 attendees and 1,200 journalists, including 87 reporters from 33 countries, regions or territories outside China, during its three-day run ending Friday, said Executive Vice President Karen Chupka in a Wednesday media briefing. Exhibit space is 2.5 times larger than season one in 2015 and 24 percent larger than last year, she said. Exhibitors are looking to expand brands and forge new partnerships, she said, and among the latest tech trends represented are 5G, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality and vehicle technologies, among 20 product categories overall. New this year is a dedicated AI space with 35 exhibitors, including Alibaba AI Labs, Arm Accelerator and Baidu. VR and AR exhibit space is up 25 percent over 2017, with 24 exhibitors, and among the 30 companies demonstrating 5G technology are mobile, automotive, telecom and healthcare technology companies, said Chupka. The startup area features more than 100 entities from 15 countries, she said, and vehicle tech, including autonomous driving, has a major presence, including driverless vehicles.
LAS VEGAS -- Though few consumers suffer a direct impact from widely publicized data breaches, their high level of concern over security is legitimate, panelists said at Integrated Life Day (see 1806050067) at Infocomm Tuesday. Worse, panelists said, they can't do anything about their concerns. Parks research says 75 percent of U.S. broadband households say keeping data and communications safe -- and keeping them private -- are important, and for 23 percent polled in Q4, those concerns are a barrier to buying smart home products. “Consumers’ data is regularly being exposed,” said Parks analyst Patrice Samuels. “If consumers cannot trust us to keep their data secure, or to handle it responsibly, then we’re not going to be able to harvest all the valuable potential that data can bring.”
Overall smartphone shipments will slip this year, but the average selling price will rise to $345 from $313 a year ago due to strength in the “ultra-high-end” segment, said IDC analyst Anthony Scarsella. By 2022, the ASP will be $362, he said Wednesday. This year's 0.2 percent decline to 1.462 billion units, on lagging sales in China, will reverse next year, with 3 percent growth, the research firm reported. Smartphone sales dropped 4.9 percent in China last year and “tough times” are expected to continue in 2018 as IDC forecasts consumption in China to decline 7.1 percent before flattening in 2019. China has 30 percent of global smartphone sales, said analyst Ryan Reith. A growth catalyst will be the introduction of 5G smartphones, said IDC, predicting the first commercially ready 5G smartphones (see 1805300034) will arrive in second half 2019, ramping up to most regions in 2020. IDC projects sales of 5G smartphones will reach 212 million in 2020 -- at roughly 7 percent of all category sales -- growing to 18 percent by 2022. Android's share of the global smartphone is expected to remain relatively stable at 85 percent of shipments.
Pandora sealed its AdsWizz purchase (see 1803210027), the acquirer said Tuesday, for $66.3 million in cash and 9.9 million shares of Pandora common stock. An additional $5 million in cash is payable for completion of milestone provisions, it said. AdsWizz will operate as a stand-alone subsidiary, led by AdsWizz CEO Alexis van de Wyer. She said the company will continue to provide its platform to “our publisher partners everywhere” and be "accessible to all.” Reporting on Pandora’s Q1 earnings earlier this month -- after a drop-off in ad revenue from $223 million in Q1 2017 to $215 million this year -- CEO Roger Lynch underscored the streaming music company’s focus on its ad-supported business. He said the company is looking to grab a “significant” portion of the $28 billion global radio advertising market, seeing an opportunity to steal ad dollars from terrestrial radio.
BURLINGAME, Calif. -- Voice control is passé, found an audience poll at the Parks Associates Connections conference Tuesday. Audience members on a panel on future directions of smart home interfaces in a text poll viewed artificial intelligence (59 percent) as the technology that would have the biggest impact, followed by interoperability (20 percent), voice control (11 percent) and robotics (7 percent). Panelists said the industry's focus is moving beyond smart speakers to AI and to interoperability.
Comcast expanded its xFi Pods offering Tuesday -- from tests in Boston, Chicago and Denver -- to its 15 million internet customers nationwide, the latest in an effort trending among networking and security companies to make residential Wi-Fi more robust. Comcast’s xFi internet service had three goals when it launched last year: (1) improve Wi-Fi speed, (2) bring coverage to “every corner of the home” as consumers connected more devices to a network and (3) offer parents control, Patti Loyack, vice president-IP services and home automation, told us. The xFi pods, available in three- and six-packs starting at $119, are configured in a mesh network design with the first pod connecting close to the xFi gateway and others placed as needed to reach more remote areas of the home, Loyack said. When network congestion occurs, a dynamic channel algorithm ensures devices move to the right channel to avoid network slowdowns, she said, and having more pods ensures the Wi-Fi signal reaches all areas. Most homes are covered by three pods, she said. On whether the pods pack security features, too, Loyack said, “Not yet.” The xFi platform has safe browsing as a “first line of defense against phishing and malware,” she said: “Over time, we’ll look to evolve the roadmap.” Comcast will offer features “similar to things that Norton offers today in coming months,” she said, and that includes making sure anything connected to the home network is protected.
BURLINGAME, Calif. -- Consumers in the U.S. will buy more than 485 million connected consumer devices in 2021, including smart home, connected health, mobile and entertainment products, said Parks Associates at the opening of its Connections conference Tuesday. By 2022, that will top 520 million units. Making that possible are 106 million U.S. households, 88 percent, with broadband service, said analyst Tom Kerber.
Cognitive Systems seeks to supplant infrared motion sensors used in many residential home security systems with a Wi-Fi alternative, Monika Gupta, executive vice president-sales, marketing and product, told us. Last week, it announced Cypress Semiconductor will incorporate support so Cypress customers can add “advanced motion technology” to smart home products. Gupta noted a November deal with Qualcomm for access points and routers. The company’s goal is “to target anything that has a Wi-Fi connection in the smart home,” Gupta said. The product is an Alexa skill and works with Google Assistant voice control engines.