After a record-setting e-commerce Black Friday at $5.03 billion, up 17 percent from a year ago, Monday was on track to become the biggest U.S. online shopping day ever, with Adobe Analytics reporting $840 million spent by 10 a.m. EST. Mobile traffic reached a high at 53 percent of overall visits, generating 40 percent of revenue, it said. Smartphones had a 21 percent jump in e-commerce traffic and a 41 percent sales spike. Mobile devices drove 54 percent of e-commerce visits Black Friday, 37 percent of revenue. Of the 115 million people who visited online retail sites on Thanksgiving, 61 percent did so from mobile devices, said comScore. Some 129 million consumers visited online retail sites on Black Friday, up 14 percent, with 104 million via mobile. The mobile user experience is improving, with conversion rates on all devices seeing double-digit growth on Black Friday, Adobe said.
The American TV Alliance blasted CBS’ “massive consumer blackout” of 28 stations in 18 markets Tuesday after the company and Dish Network were unable to agree on terms for a distribution deal. The blackout would leave viewers in 26 states without CBS programming on Thanksgiving, including the Dallas Cowboys' NFL game -- this year against the Los Angeles Chargers.
The November launch of the iPhone X put a $100 million dent in Best Buy revenue expectations for Q3 ended Oct. 29, said CEO Hubert Joly on a Thursday earnings call. Natural disasters in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and Mexico had an additional impact, he said. Revenue was “materially lower than expected,” Joly said, as a “major new phone” didn’t ship until the retailer’s Q4. That caused “significant softness” in Q3 smartphone sales as customers delayed purchases, he said. Chief Financial Officer Corie Barry said with smartphones costing many hundreds of dollars, and the X selling for $1,000, it's “difficult” for consumers to determine wallet share for electronics within holiday budgets. Early results from Best Buy’s In-Home Advisor program meanwhile are strong, and it's adding staff there, said Joly, saying customer waits are a week.
CES will have a few firsts in Las Vegas in January, including new exhibit space for artificial intelligence, a high-tech retail conference and exhibit area, and a design and source marketplace and conference program, said CEO Gary Shapiro at a CES Unveiled news conference (see 1711100003) in New York Thursday. The “booming” sports technology industry will have its own zone, reflecting growth projected to reach $76 billion by 2020, said Karen Chupka, CTA senior vice president-CES and corporate business strategy. Turner Sports is sponsoring that area. Responding to a question on possible security procedure changes at CES hotels, after last month’s mass shooting at a concert outside the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Chupka said the Las Vegas community is studying whether there are other measures organizers can take, with security measures already in place such as cameras in the casinos. She said the city has one of the few fusion centers that Department of Homeland Security describes as where many agencies including state and local ones trade threat-related information.
Apple’s takeover could bring PowerbyProxi's technology to market more quickly, wireless power industry consultant LeRoy Johnson said Monday. The New Zealand company reportedly has 300-plus wireless charging patents (see 1710250043 or 1710250053). Johnson, who has worked with PowerbyProxi, called the company “innovative” in its plans to stretch the Qi wireless charging standard’s limits for distance and power. Qi is the “clear winner” in the standards battle on "everything except charging electric vehicles,” Johnson said.
As reports continue on limited supplies of the iPhone X when it ships next week (see 1710230037), carriers this week made preorder pitches that begin Friday for Apple’s $1,000-and-up flagship smartphone due in stores Nov. 3. The Nikkei Asian Review Tuesday reported initial shipments of the iPhone X are expected to total 20 million units, half the planned amounts. The lower shipment count is due to Apple’s “struggles to solve technical issues with components supporting the model's new face authentication feature,” said the report. Apple didn’t respond. Sprint (here and here), AT&T (here), Verizon and U.S. Cellular (here) were among those with offers. Not all AT&T representatives appeared to be in the loop. A chat representative appeared immediately and when we asked about the iPhone X, she told us: “At the moment there are just rumors about it, I can understand your excitement. I'm always excited when new devices and promos are launched. At this time there has been no formal announcement provided.” When we mentioned the news release, she directed us to the iPhone page cited there.
Premium sports programming could move from broadcast and cable TV to the internet within five years, S&P Global Ratings reported Friday: Internet companies will “eventually gain production experience, develop a more stable streaming platform, and win broadcast contracts from a premium sports league," said analyst Naveen Sarma. NFL's Thursday Night Football TV broadcast contract is the only premium sports contract up for renewal before 2021, said S&P, which doesn’t believe the league will award that package to an internet company when it expires at the end of the 2017-2018 season. Amazon, Facebook, Google and Twitter “could offer substantially more money than the TV networks,” but S&P doesn’t believe the NFL is ready. The report cited Bob Bowman, CEO of MLB Advanced Media, saying its BAMTech streaming platform, viewed by the industry as the most advanced livestreaming platform, can stream high-quality video to fewer than 15 million viewers simultaneously. S&P believes internet companies could solve this technological limitation by 2021, when MLB and NFL Monday Night Football TV broadcast contracts come up for renewal. The latter could be an “inflection point” for internet companies to be considered legitimate competitors for TV sports, said the report. Current Monday Night Football broadcast rights owner ESPN pays a higher per game price than NBC, CBS and Fox do for NFL broadcast contracts, with the largest audience ratings declines of those partners over the past two seasons, S&P said.
Amazon's Alexa voice assistant will continue to dominate the smart speaker space, finishing the year with 68 percent market share vs. Google Home's Assistant at 20 percent, Strategy Analytics reported Thursday. The recent flurry of product launches from Amazon, Sonos and Google expands the choices and will lead to “increased scrutiny” by buyers, SA said. The researcher projects global smart speaker shipments to surge 300 percent to 24 million this year, nearly doubling its projections from February. Competition will heat up more in the next six to 12 months with addition of Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung and Sonos, and as operators announce plans to bring their own voice-based speakers to market, said SA. Challenges include Amazon Echo skills "often only provide a function that can already be achieved through a smartphone,” it said.
CTA said technologies to watch include automation, artificial intelligence and smart machinery; 5G and smart cities, including the IoT; cybersecurity; and the experience economy using apps for everyday activities. More than 100 U.S. communities are developing 5G-based systems, said a spokesman at the association's conference in San Francisco Tuesday. He said it’s “critical that we train and educate our workforce with lifelong learning to adapt to these challenges and remain competitive.” The group hired a vice president of jobs in September to advance that mission (see report in the Sept. 7 issue of this publication).
CTA predicts 2017 holiday tech spending will be up 1 percent to $96.8 billion from 2016 vs. 3.8 percent in Q4 2016 and negative 1.8 percent in 2015. Steve Koenig, senior director-market research, told us Wednesday at the group's conference (see 1710110063) that "what makes robust tech spending growth challenging for 2017 is the comparison to a very solid 2016 season." Smartphone volume will be "mostly flat against a backdrop of lower prices," Koenig said. “We’re even seeing on an annual basis, not just holiday, very moderating growth” in screen devices, he said. Data mining will play a more prominent role, and consumers will see more targeted marketing, said Koenig. A much-requested gift will be smartphones (8 percent), and 128 million adult gift givers plan to buy communications devices including smartphones (27 percent).