Fitbit shares closed up 26 percent at $5.95 Thursday after the company reported 26 percent growth in its health solutions business, higher average selling prices and Versa smartwatch sales growth. CEO James Park noted the company went from owning none of the U.S. smartwatch market 14 months ago to becoming No. 2 behind Apple. Lines between smartwatches and trackers are starting to blur, said Chief Financial Officer Ron Kisling, saying the rate of decline in trackers narrowed and will improve. Q3 sales were little changed from year-ago quarter at $393.6 million as its profit reversed a loss.
SoundHound's music recognition feature is available for licensing via its Houndify voice artificial intelligence platform to brands and developers for use within their user interfaces or to access via voice queries, it said Wednesday. Partners that have deployed SoundHound’s music recognition include Hyundai, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, Korea Telecom, and Casio with its G-Shock watch. SoundHound said Houndify is the first independent AI platform that enables developers and business owners to deploy a conversational interface and retain control of their brands and users “while differentiating and innovating.”
ON Semiconductor announced Bluetooth SIG mesh networking support for its Bluetooth 5-certified RSL10 system-on-chip product line. It's targeted to smart home devices, among other applications, said the company.
Energous will demonstrate its WattUp wireless charging technology at the Telekom Design Gallery during Deutsche Telekom’s Trend Team event Tuesday at the telecom company’s Bonn, Germany, headquarters, said Energous Monday. Stefan Kohn, vice president of the Design Gallery, which showcases technology products and solutions, said “true wireless charging would fundamentally change the customer experience for mobile devices, as dead batteries are one of the biggest customer frustrations today.”
Retailers and carriers jumped on the iPhone XR release Friday, led by Sprint's "$0 per month" promotion for customers with an eligible trade-in phone and a Sprint Flex lease. The trade-in list includes seventh-generation and above iPhones, Samsung Galaxy 8 and above mobile devices, LG’s G7 ThinQ, and three Google Pixel models. At Best Buy, AT&T Wireless promoted a buy-one-save-$700-on-another deal for the XR with postpaid voice and data on both devices and at least one new line of activation. Best Buy's Verizon Wireless offer pushed the full X generation of iPhones, offering $750 in savings on an iPhone XR or X to customers who buy any of the X smartphones. Required are a new line of service that remains active for 24 months and an active first line account for six months. T-Mobile’s limited-time offer for any of the new trio of iPhone X models requires customers to agree to a payment plan and an eligible device trade-in to receive $10.83 per month back on their bill for up to 36 months. The XR, available in six colors, starts at $749, $250 less than the XS; has a 12-megapixel camera vs. the dual 12-megapixel cameras found on the XS and XS Max; and has a 6.1-inch LCD display vs. the 5.8-inch and 6.1-inch screens on the XS and XS Max.
Advanced Micro Devices is “monitoring the tariff situation very closely,” but “we don't see anything material” in the “overall impact,” said CEO Lisa Su on a Wednesday-evening earnings call. “We are doing quite a bit to adjust our supply chain, as I'm sure many others are,” she said. “We already had a supply chain that was highly multisourced, and so that's very helpful.” Computing and graphics revenue, the biggest portion of Q3 sales, rose 12 percent to $938 million from the year-ago quarter but declined sequentially. "The quarter-over-quarter decline was due to significantly lower graphics revenue driven by high channel inventory," AMD reported. The stock closed down 15 percent at $19.27.
Biometric technology company Zwipe teamed with Tappy Technologies to develop and launch biometric wearable payment, access and digital authentication devices, they said Monday. Tappy will license Zwipe’s IP, for biometric authentication in wearables and payment cards.
Innovation is ahead for a “stuttering” virtual reality market, Futuresource reports, predicting 220 percent growth this year for game content to $1.3 billion. “Mass market uptake is going to be gradual, but it is going to happen” as content evolves, user experience improves and entry-prices drop, said Michael Boreham Thursday. Full game sales and downloads are expected to dominate, led by Steam and Oculus, first in the “PC VR” and then “building out a presence in mobile VR,” which the analyst sees as the best hope for establishing a market foothold. Boreham predicts mobile VR will divide into Google’s Cardboard platform at the entry level and second-generation all-in-one devices.
Twelve percent of U.S. broadband households reported unresolved technical problems this year vs. 5 percent in the previous three years, with issues becoming more complicated and difficult to diagnose, Parks Associates blogged Wednesday. “Strong value is achieved from the smart home when devices communicate with each other,” analyst Patrice Samuels said, but diversity in device technology and communication protocols is making seamless communication difficult. Wi-Fi connectivity is the most persistent issue, Samuels said.
Flagship smartphones in 5- and 5.5-inch screen sizes are preferred by most consumers, especially in China and India, where a 5.5-inch screen is considered “ideal” vs. the preferred 5-inch last year, Strategy Analytics reported. SA Wednesday cited better productivity and entertainment capabilities, thinner designs, higher quality screen resolution and quality as features driving consumers to larger screens. Improving “one-handed usability” and adding voice assistants will reduce user friction with larger screens, pushing preferences for larger devices further, said analyst Chris Schreiner.