Despite perception that “nothing is really going well in Washington,” CTA had successes this year, said CEO Gary Shapiro, opening the Innovate and Celebrate conference in San Francisco Tuesday. He referenced “major progress” on autonomous driving, citing legislation in the Senate and House that would give states the right to test self-driving cars. CTA gets big and small companies together, Shapiro said. He highlighted drones, robotics, the IoT, artificial intelligence and connected health. Shapiro said “something’s changed in the last year, and that is, we are no longer the angel,” referring to the tech industry. “There’s a story line that’s starting to appear that we’re the bad guys -- especially some of the bigger companies -- and that’s a harsh glare.” The technology industry is in the spotlight, with the U.S. segment "kind of dominating the world,” he said, and that generates resentment. Incumbent industries including “taxi cab drivers, hotels and broadcasters,” Shapiro said, “see these new groups coming on, taking away what they view as their share of the pie that they owned 100 percent of. And tech-bashing in Washington … and in the press and around the world is starting to feel like a sport.” Those storylines don’t mesh with reality as CTA sees it. “The truth is, and we’ve got to get this truth out, is that technology empowers people,” he said, allowing anyone with a broadband connection to have access to education and entertainment, “which equalizes them and puts them above where anybody was 25 years ago.” Technology is a “neutral, fair, equalizer, and it’s not that expensive when it comes down to what it does.”
Google’s launch Wednesday of smart speakers (see 1710040055) gives it “rough parity” with Amazon at the low end, but it’s still at a “competitive disadvantage,” reported IHS analyst Paul Erickson Thursday. To keep its e-commerce rival in check, Walmart on Thursday announced a promotion on Google Home products bought through Google Express. Despite “long-term ecosystem advantages for Google Assistant” in the Android mobile space, penetration of Chromecast built in and its presence across platforms, Assistant is “outgunned by Amazon in growing its footprint in the home,” Erickson said. Google’s target with Home Max, Erickson said, seems to be Sonos, which announced an Alexa-based Sonos speaker Wednesday, with Google Assistant compatibility to come. Pressure is on Apple “to perform with HomePod and Siri,” said Erickson.
Wednesday saw more voice-controlled speaker announcements with products capable of getting terrestrial and web-streamer players. Sonos plays Switzerland, announcing an entry-level speaker that will support Amazon Alexa voice control and then in 2018 Google Assistant. It can control Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, SiriusXM and TuneIn. Sonos' Apple AirPlay 2 will be available next year to play any sound from an iOS device -- including YouTube videos and Netflix movies. Google now has a Mini, and it launched a Google Home Max with machine learning and access to You Tube Music along with Spotify and other streaming music services, said Vice President Rishi Chandra.
Consumers will be able to take more control over commercials they see when viewing over-the-top and connected TV content next year, Andre Swanston, CEO of advertising measurement and data management platform company Tru Optik, told us. He wants to bring the type of opt-out and privacy offerings that consumers have on mobile and desktop platforms to the living room TV, Swanston said. “There was really no standard across different applications, data providers or platforms in terms of opt-out and privacy across connected TV like there has been for some time for desktop and mobile.” Swanston called OTT ads “the wild, Wild West,” where it takes just “one bad actor, or actors, or issue, to ruin this amazing growth opportunity for the whole industry.” Swanston believes a “very small percentage” of consumers will opt out of all ad categories because that would lead to fewer targeted ones that are relevant to them. The company has an eye on set-top boxes from cable and satellite companies, though not for now.
Amazon held a “surprise” news-media event in Seattle on new Echo and Fire TV products for the holidays and Alexa integration with BMW. Reports earlier in the day said Google yanked YouTube from Amazon’s Echo Show video device. Another new Echo product is the Spot, a small, rounded device with second-generation far-field mic technology and a small display for viewing the weather, video news briefings, alarm clock functions or to “check on your kids,” said Amazon. The new Fire TV with 4K ($69) follows Apple’s announcement of its 4K streaming media player by a couple of weeks. Fire TV has high dynamic range and Dolby Atmos audio, said Amazon. Bundles are part of the announcements, like a two-month pass to Hulu and one-month Showtime trial.
Following expected regulatory approvals of autonomous vehicle in the late 2020s, costs will fall and consumer acceptance will gain, Cowen Research reported Monday. Shifting from individually owned cars to a network of self-driving vehicles, called “intelligent mobility,” means ride hailing, car sharing and networks of connected autonomous vehicles are poised for increased adoption, it said. Cowen sees a consumer-driven transition from owning cars to one of access to transportation services with the transportation-as-a-service market becoming five to six times the size of the automobile market. “Every product is a service waiting to happen,” said Cowen. Today’s $1.50-per-mile cost for Uber and Lyft -- vs. about $0.80 for personally owned vehicles -- can be cut 40-50 percent for full AV, it said. Cowen calculated an $11 trillion market, five to six times larger than the automobile market. Juniper Research Monday meanwhile said the number of ride-hailing drivers will increase nearly 15 percent this year, rising from 4.3 million in 2017 to 8.6 million by 2022. Platform providers can expect revenue to almost double in the period to $19 billion, the industry researcher said. Surge pricing could account for 30 percent of revenue by 2022, said the study, and overuse could cause "cries of extortion."
Service bundling is a “high priority” area for Pandora, said Naveen Chopra, chief financial officer and interim CEO. Responding to a question at an investor conference last week on whether Pandora is looking at bundles similar to Spotify and Hulu's, offering a student subscription to both for $4.99, Chopra expressed interest in working with over-the-top content providers, whether wireless carriers, traditional video players or broadband providers. Digital assistant platforms “are growing like wildfire,” Chopra also said, predicting the evolution of the voice market will be a lot like the mobile ecosystem that built audiences through many applications.
Video streaming makes up 55 percent of on-demand music streaming time, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported Tuesday. Paid audio streaming was 23 percent and free audio streaming 22 percent over the past six months, said IFPI. The music industry’s “value gap” remains the biggest threat facing the music world today, said CEO Frances Moore. Upload services are used heavily by music consumers but don’t return fair value to those investing in and creating the music, said Moore. Wide availability of unlicensed music remains a challenge, with 40 percent of consumers saying they access unlicensed music, said the report. Copyright infringement is “growing and evolving,” led by stream ripping, IFPI said. The percentage of music listeners who engage in licensed audio streaming rose to 45 percent, from 37 percent in September 2016, IFPI said, and on average, consumers listened to music in four different licensed ways. For teens, 33 percent paid for their own music subscription (compared with 63 percent of paid audio streamers aged 16-64), and 36 percent were part of a family plan (vs. 22 percent of 16-64-year-olds). Of the 87 percent of music consumers listening on to the go, 68 percent listen to broadcast radio and 35 percent listen to internet radio. U.S. smartphone music listening reached 63 percent vs. the 54 percent in the first six months of 2016, highest among 16-24-year-olds at 84 percent and lowest among 55-64-year-olds at 30 percent.
Samsung announced a $300 million investment in its new Automotive Innovation Fund, focused on smart sensors, machine vision, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, connectivity, safety, security and privacy for connected cars and autonomous vehicles. Harman, which it bought in March for $8 billion, established an autonomous/ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) business unit reporting to Harman’s connected car division, it said Thursday. John Absmeier, Autonomous/ADAS strategic business unit vice president-smart machines, also will lead the Harman unit as senior vice president-Harman SBU. The fund's first investment is TTTech, a networked safety control company, focused on transportation including ADAS and autonomous driving. Samsung “will not enter the car-manufacturing business,” said Samsung, saying it will focus on working with carmakers and mobility companies to develop next-generation automotive technology. The company is licensed for on-road testing of autonomous driving software and hardware under development in Korea and California, it said. Harman will eliminate 650 positions in the U.S. and Europe and shut facilities over the next year in Elkhart, Indiana; South Jordan, Utah; and smaller offices in Europe that came under the Harman umbrella through acquisitions, a spokesman confirmed.
Apple’s endorsement of the Qi wireless charging standard in its iPhone 8 and X announcements Tuesday (see 1709120062) is “huge” for the wireless charging industry, engineering consultant LeRoy Johnson told us Wednesday. After Apple’s entry into the Wireless Power Consortium in February, there were questions whether Apple would use Qi or a “variation” of Qi, said Johnson. The confirmation of full Qi compatibility on next-generation iPhones opens the door for a broad wireless charging infrastructure, said Johnson. Apple’s adoption “is going to make people start demanding it, asking for it at their desk at work, in their cupholders in cars, on nightstands,” he said. Johnson believes the infrastructure will build quickly in public spaces. There’s an installed base of some 90 smartphone models with Qi built in, said Johnson.