NPD forecasts Q4 consumer tech sales will rise 18% from the 2019 quarter, about twice the level of increase of NPD predictions made at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stephen Baker, vice president-technology, told an NPD webinar Wednesday. NPD projects tech sales in first-half 2021 will increase 10% over the comparable 2019, disavowing 2020 as a comparative “baseline” due to the year’s volatility, he said. “While we don’t expect lines of people waiting on Black Friday,” it’s reasonable to expect “lines of cars,” said Baker. About 36% of online sales in Q2 were buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) transactions, he said. Baker expects “incremental growth” in BOPIS over Thanksgiving weekend, he said. Baker isn't worried that the extraordinary volume of tech sales occurring during the pandemic is “pull-in” demand that will diminish holiday spending later in the year, he said. “In an environment where demand is infinite, pull-in doesn’t really make any difference,” he said. “We keep worrying about this, but the demand remains there. We’re seeing 20% revenue growth every single month for the last five months. Even if that demand is being pulled in, there’s demand behind it.” That’s one of the reasons “we are increasingly bullish” about the holiday outlook, said Baker. “Anybody who knows me knows I was pretty bearish in the early part of this. Our thought process has evolved over time.” The 18% increase NPD expects for Q4 tech revenue growth is an “historic-type number,” he said. “There remains a huge amount of unmet demand that obviates the challenges around pull-in and gives an enormous base to work against.” E-commerce was 70% of consumer tech revenue at the end of Q2, said Baker. That’s about 20 percentage points higher than it was at the beginning of 2020, he said. “Certainly we’re not going to stay there,” but it’s likely that online as a percentage of tech sales will “permanently” stay above 60%, he said.

Consumer tech retail sales exceeded a record $2.2 billion in the week ended Aug. 8, up 34% from the comparable 2019 week, reported Stephen Baker, NPD vice-president-technology industry adviser. July revenue increased 18% year over year, even against the tough comparison with the July 2019 Amazon Prime Day event (see 1907150062), emailed Baker Tuesday. Amazon’s chief financial officer said recently that Prime Day 2020 will be in Q4 (see 2007310023). The back-to-school frenzy is in “full swing,” said Baker, and sales of “productivity-focused” products “have picked back up,” with PCs “fueling much of the growth.” Laptop revenue was up 64% in the week ended Aug. 8 from the same 2019 week, he said. Dollar sales in other connectivity goods also soared “as preparations for distance learning drive sales of a slightly altered set of products for Back to School,” he said. PC headset revenue was up 127% from a year earlier, and monitors and routers jumped 97% and 87% in revenue, respectively, said Baker.

Fitbit’s premium membership service passed 500,000 subscribers since its launch in August 2019, said the company Monday. The service gives users data, actionable insights, “hundreds” of workouts, games and challenges, sleep tools and wellness reports, it said. The app-based service expects to add seven languages this year.

Customers who buy select Apple products will get extended trial offers for Apple services, the Best Buy e-commerce site showed Monday. Offers are available to new customers only. IPad customers can get “hundreds” of magazines and newspapers via Apple News+ for four months. The subscription automatically renews for $9.99 per month after trial until canceled. Similar Apple Music four-month free trials are being offered with a wide range of products including MacBook Air laptops, the Apple Pencil, Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone adapters, Apple Watch and AirPod Pro earbuds. Monthly Apple Music subscriptions are $5 for students, $10 for individuals and $15 for families. Bloomberg reported last week that Apple is readying services bundles for launch this fall (see 2008130029).

Until the Wireless Speaker & Audio Association reached “critical mass” at retail with certified products in the U.S., Europe and Asia, it wasn’t “cost-effective” to do “more aggressive” marketing to sow broader WiSA consumer awareness and generate business leads, said Brett Moyer, CEO of WiSA backer Summit Wireless Technologies, on a quarterly call Thursday. “We are at critical mass,” he said. “This now lets us run” WiSA consumer campaigns to divert the leads it develops to individual stores or e-commerce sites, he said. WiSA expects the 100,000 visitors to its website in Q3 (see 2008030055) will be “high-value consumers for somebody that’s marketing a WiSA product,” said Moyer. This will be a “continuous project” for WiSA, one that “we will be talking about” for years, he said.

Energous introduced a transmitter module Thursday designed to “ease integration and adoption” of its next-generation wireless charging technology. The module is said to reduce the footprint of the company's WattUp technology for incorporation in smart speakers, medical devices, laptops and tablets, which could send power to compatible receiver devices such as fitness bands, smartwatches, game controllers and hearing aids. Maximum power output is 1 watt.

Microsoft announced opening of preorders for its Android Surface Duo smartphone, slated for Sept. 10 availability at MicrosoftStore.com, AT&T and Best Buy. Prices are $1,399 and $1,499 for 128 GB and 256 GB versions. The device's 360-degree hinge allows users to view each of two displays individually or combine them into an 8.1-inch screen. Microsoft gave as use cases the ability to see participants on one screen in a Microsoft Teams meeting, while presenting PowerPoint slides on another, or opening the Amazon Kindle app and reading an e-book “like a book.” Microsoft is working with Google "to make additions to the Android operating system, paving the way for more apps to take advantage of the full productivity power of two screens," blogged the company Wednesday.

Helm Audio bowed neckband triple-driver in-ear headphones with AptX HD and AAC. Features include 25-hour play time; magnetic, lighted earpieces; and Bluetooth 5 connectivity. The Sportsband HD ($129) headphones have an IPX5 rating to withstand moisture.

“Sell-in” demand in the computing segment at Alpha & Omega Semiconductor (AOS) was “OK” for fiscal Q4 ended June 30, said Executive Vice President Stephen Chang on a Tuesday investor call. But the increased PC sell-through was “quite dramatic,” due to widespread COVID-19 work-from-home and remote-learning, he said. AOS supplies power semiconductors for laptops, LCD TVs, smartphones and other applications and can be a bellwether of consumer tech demand. Many AOS customers that paused production in calendar Q1 through the pandemic’s factory lockdowns “were catching up in the June quarter,” said Chang. “End demand” in computing remained strong through the quarter, “and we were able to meet it with ramping supply” from the fab in Chongqing, China, he said. Revenue in the consumer segment increased 37.5% sequentially and 31.7% year over year, said Chang. “COVID-driven home-sheltering boosted sales of gaming, TVs and home appliances, enabling those segments to achieve healthy growth,” he said. AOS expects double-digit growth in its consumer segment for the September quarter, “driven by home entertainment, gaming and TVs,” said Chang. COVID-19 robbed 2020 of much of its “normal seasonality,” said Chang. Work-from-home and remote-learning mandates are putting the computing segment on a “very healthy” track for the September quarter, said Chang. “We really need to wait and see how demand changes, but right now, it still looks strong.” Smartphone OEMs didn't “pull back production until the June quarter,” said Chang. “But then coming into the September quarter, they're actually starting up production pretty heavily again in anticipation of possibly another factory shutdown” for the next wave of COVID-19 cases in the fall, he said. The stock closed 21.4% higher Wednesday at $13.88.

Pixelworks hopes to save $3.2 million annually through a restructuring that includes a 14% head-count reduction, said the tech company Monday. Q2 revenue declined 48.3% from a year earlier, despite a 24% increase in mobile revenue from higher shipments of Iris-brand visual processors to six smartphone OEMs. “Our second quarter results reflected the anticipated headwinds associated with the broad impact from the COVID-19 pandemic on our target end markets,” said CEO Todd DeBonis on a quarterly call Monday. The stock plunged 25.6% Tuesday to close at $2.54. Pixelworks began seeing the “green shoots of the recovery in mobile demand in the current quarter,” he said. “We continue to believe there will be a high correlation between OEMs’ adoption of 5G technology and high-performance displays and smartphones, as video remains the most single compelling use case for 5G with consumers.” The smartphone industry is “still in the early innings” of the 5G transition, said DeBonis. “We are seeing a more rapid introduction of high-frame-rate displays into mid-tier phones than we previously anticipated, which is positive and increases the Pixelworks value proposition in mid-tier devices.”