The next generation of Bluetooth will have wide-reaching impact on consumer audio and smart home applications, along with beacon location-based technologies, Bluetooth SIG Executive Director Mark Powell told us at the Discover Blue New York media event Tuesday. Bluetooth 5, announced in June, will have double the speed, four times the range and eight times the data broadcasting capacity as the current Bluetooth 4.2.
Gartner forecast worldwide PC, tablet, "ultramobile" and mobile phone device shipments will drop for the second straight year in 2016, 3 percent to 2.4 billion units, led by mobile phone shipments. The global device market contracted 0.75 percent in 2015, the researcher reported Thursday. It's "not on pace to return to single-digit growth soon," said analyst Ranjit Atwal. All product segment shipments are expected to decline in 2016, except for premium “ultramobile” basic and utility tablets and entry-level phones that are expected to show single-digit sales growth this year, said Gartner. Total mobile phone shipments are on pace for a 1.6 percent decline in 2016, said Gartner. The smartphone segment continues to grow, but the rate is lagging, with 1.5 billion units forecast for 2016. It's "reaching global saturation with phones that are increasingly capable and remain good enough for longer," said analyst Roberta Cozza. Premium smartphones will grow 3.5 percent in 2017, she said.
Reactions were mixed on Twitter Tuesday after Google’s launch of its Pixel smartphones, which, despite much anticipation, didn’t generate nearly the social media activity of an Apple event. The phones didn’t rank at the top of a Google search when we plugged in “Where to buy Pixel” Tuesday. The sponsored advertisements section that came up in our search instead featured an L.L. Bean Pixel backpack, Pixel computer glasses, the movie Pixels and satellite radios from Pixel Technologies.
The subscription music market -- heating up with Pandora’s on-demand offering promised before year-end and its new Pandora Plus mid-tier service -- will get another high-profile contender in January. That's when two paid music services launch from iHeartMedia, said the company in a Friday announcement.
Pandora executives detailed changes in its usage and business models (see 1609150046) on an investor call Tuesday and at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia Conference in New York Wednesday. During both events, presenters showed a 10-second Taco Bell commercial that's representative of the video ads designed to help increase advertising revenue in the company’s still-free ad-supported service, the primary breadwinner for Pandora's foreseeable future. Also at the conference, executives from AT&T (see 1609210048), Comcast (see 1609200042) and other companies spoke.
Tessera Technologies’ buy of DTS in a cash deal valued at $850 million will create a “world-class company much stronger than the sum of its parts,” said Tessera CEO Tom Lacey Tuesday on an investor call. Before the open of U.S. markets Tuesday the companies announced a definitive agreement under which Tessera will acquire DTS for $42.50 per share, a 28 percent premium to DTS' 30-day volume weighted average price as of Sept. 19. DTS itself bought HD Radio developer iBiquity for about $170 million last year (see 1510070014).
Autonomic debuted a music streamer, using the company’s eAudioCast audio-over-Ethernet technology, that’s designed to make it easier for integrators to bring streaming capability to wired Autonomic whole-home audio systems. The streamer gives integrators a new entry-level offering in a single- or dual-stream solution that works with any Autonomic eSeries amplifier or as a single-stream music player within a third-party control system, Aaron Chisena, global sales director, told us in Dallas at the CEDIA show.
Control4 will hit CEDIA Expo Thursday with three software announcements: an operating system refresh, dealer remote management tool and voice control integration, starting with Amazon’s Alexa voice engine, said Brad Hintze, senior director-product marketing. New features in the latest Control4 v2.9 operating system give dealers an opportunity to upgrade existing customers, and provide bug fixes and software enhancements, Hintze said. The company also worked with Amazon engineers to expand what was possible within the Alexa smart home skill and is the first company to release Alexa scene capability, Hintze said. Control4 is enabling voice control of lighting, including scenes, thermostats and the ability to add, remove and rename devices without dealer involvement. The Control4 platform supports 9,900 devices, he said, including Sonos speakers and Comcast/Xfinity’s latest set-top boxes.
Pandora didn’t detail its upcoming subscription offerings in a pre-market conference call with analysts Tuesday, but shed more light on the “landmark” direct licensing agreements it notched to make them possible. In an announcement, Pandora said it has direct licensing pacts for recorded music with Sony Music, Universal Music Group, Merlin Network, The Orchard and some 30 other independent labels and distributors, joining American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Broadcast Music Inc. and more than 2,700 music publishers that have licensed their catalogs to Pandora, said CEO Tim Westergren on the call.
Amazon and Pandora are closer to music services (see 1602040052) that will compete against Spotify and Apple Music, said a Monday New York Times article. As early as this week, Pandora is expected to launch an expanded version of its $5 Pandora One subscription platform, the Times said. Pandora One is the company’s commercial-free music streaming service that allows customers to build customized stations around a favorite artist and uses its software algorithm to select tracks with similar characteristics. Users are limited to six song skips per hour and 24 in a 24-hour period, said the Help section. In coming weeks, said the Times, Amazon is expected to introduce its own competing service to Apple and Spotify, a separate music offering from what Amazon offers as a perk to Prime customers. Amazon and Pandora had no comment Monday. Spotify said last week it's adding to its streaming service, launching with the NFL Player Association’s Ace Media an original sports and music series.