The “competitive environment’s good” for Dish Network’s wireless 5G network rollout, said Chairman Charlie Ergen on a Q2 earnings call Wednesday. The “big picture” amid historically high inflation is that everyone's wireless connection “is a necessity,” he said. “After food and water and shelter, it’s just about next in line.”
Paul Gluckman
Paul Gluckman, Executive Senior Editor, is a 30-year Warren Communications News veteran having joined the company in May 1989 to launch its Audio Week publication. In his long career, Paul has chronicled the rise and fall of physical entertainment media like the CD, DVD and Blu-ray and the advent of ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology from its rudimentary standardization roots to its anticipated 2020 commercial launch.
Intel was “thrilled to see the bipartisan vote in the Congress” to pass the chips package (see 2207280060), said CEO Pat Gelsinger on a Q2 earnings call Thursday. “We have been integrally involved in moving this groundbreaking legislation forward. This progress, combined with the strong momentum in Europe, will reshape our industry and bring us toward a geographically balanced, resilient supply chain that we are uniquely positioned to enable and benefit from.” Gelsinger personally had lobbied heavily for the chips package, threatening at one point to delay Intel’s $20 billion investment to build two semiconductor fabs in Ohio if Congress failed to pass the legislation before leaving for the August recess. "Literally since World War II, there might not have been a more important piece of industrial policy that’s came forward through Congress," said Gelsinger of the chips package. "This is great for the semiconductor industry," he said. "We see this as an accelerant to our strategy and something that will give us the capacity" to meet Intel's product needs, plus the needs of its foundry customers, he said. "This is powerful and something that we are thrilled to have come across the line just today."
Qualcomm now expects global handset shipments in calendar 2022 to decline by “a mid-single-digit percentage” year over year, including 650 million to 700 million 5G handsets, said Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkhiwala on an earnings call Wednesday for fiscal Q3 ended June 26. Previous Qualcomm 5G smartphone forecasts pegged shipments to exceed 750 million handsets for calendar 2022.
Despite the “changing market” for PCs, Microsoft continues to see more PCs shipped than pre-COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s “taking share,” said CEO Satya Nadella on an earnings call Tuesday for fiscal Q4 ended June 30. “We are seeing higher monthly usage of Windows 11 applications with increased time spent across creative work, collaboration, gaming, media and writing code as people rely on the PC for its unique productivity capabilities, rich interactive experiences and to stay connected,” he said. The “extended production shutdowns” in China due to COVID-19 that continued through May, plus the “deteriorating” PC market in June, “contributed to a negative Windows OEM revenue impact of more than $300 million,” said Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood. Revenue in Microsoft’s personal computing segment was up 2% year over year to $14.4 billion, she said: “Segment results were below our guidance range.” Microsoft sees its Windows OEM revenue declining by high-single digits in its fiscal Q1 ending Sept. 30, assuming that “the trends we saw in June continue through Q1,” said Hood.
Three prominent cardiologists and StopAfib.org, an atrial fibrillation patient advocacy organization, came to Apple’s defense Wednesday, urging the International Trade Commission in docket 337-TA-1266 not to ban imports of the Apple Watch, Series 4 through 6, for infringing two AliveCor electrocardiogram patents. ITC Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot, in a June 27 initial determination, found Apple guilty of Tariff Act Section 337 violations (see 2207140030). The “irregular pulse notification” alerts on the Apple Watch “can effectively identify people with atrial fibrillation who were not previously aware of this condition,” wrote Marco Perez, Stanford University associate professor of cardiovascular medicine and a board-certified cardiac electrophysiologist. As a clinician who manages patients with atrial fibrillation daily, Perez can attest that “many of these patients either did not have symptoms and were therefore unaware of a problem, or did have symptoms such as palpitations, but were previously dismissed or just could not be diagnosed by other means,” he said. Thanks to the cardiac alerts they received on the Apple Watch, said Perez, “many of these patients now have received treatment earlier than they would have otherwise, which has lowered their risk of stroke and has ameliorated their symptoms.” Hugh Calkins, cardiology professor at Johns Hopkins University, and Richard Milani, vice chairman of the Cardiology Department at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, gave similar Apple Watch endorsements, as did StopAfib.org CEO Mellanie True Hills. Removing the Apple Watch and its cardiac alerts as an “option” could have “devastating effects on the atrial fibrillation patient community and their family members,” said Hills. But the Medical Device Manufacturers Association was alone among those commenting to urge the ITC to enforce its proposed import ban on the Apple Watch. In Apple’s “push to extend the reach of its consumer products” into the health and wellness space, it has “disregarded the patent rights of innovators,” said the group. The recommended import ban “is in the public interest given the need to protect the patent rights of medical device innovators from the threat of companies such as Apple who can afford to engage in ‘efficient infringement’ as a business strategy,” it said. Apple didn’t comment.
Netflix Q2 paid net subscriber losses reached 970,000, roughly half of the 2 million losses it had forecast in April (see 2204190066), reported the company in its quarterly shareholder letter Tuesday. The Q2 losses were up 385% from its 200,000 losses in Q1. Netflix finished 2022's first half with 1.17 million net losses compared with 5.52 million net additions in January-June a year earlier. Netflix plans to launch its ad-supported VOD tier “around the early part of 2023,” having just picked Microsoft as its ad technology and sales partner (see 2207130048). Netflix is in the early stages “of working to monetize the 100m+ households that are currently enjoying, but not directly paying for, Netflix” through shared passwords, said the letter. It’s testing two different approaches in Latin America “to learn more,” it said. Netflix shares were trending 15.2% higher Tuesday in after-hours trading.
The $52 billion Chips Act incentive package embedded in both the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act and America Competes Act now before House and Senate conferees “has become a bit of a political football,” said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger. “We’ve made it super-clear” to the House and Senate leadership that if the Chips Act funding is not approved, “I will change my plans” to invest $20 billion in Ohio to build two Intel semiconductor fabs on a 1,000-acre campus just east of Columbus (see 2201210041), Gelsinger told a Washington Post webinar Tuesday. The Europeans "have moved forward very aggressively” on a package of incentives for the semiconductor industry that's in "the final stages of approval," said Gelsinger. “I think it’s embarrassing that the U.S. started this process a full year before the Europeans, and the complex, 27-member-state Europeans have moved forward more rapidly. It’s just implausible.” Intel is emphasizing to House and Senate leaders that "there are real-time consequences" if the Chips Act funding "doesn't pass," said Gelsinger. "I will make the decision to delay our project in Ohio. We're going to go ahead in Ohio, but the speed and the size is dependent on U.S. industrial policy to make this happen, and that's embodied in the Chips Act."
Radio communications and TV "hobbyist" Roger Davis, a self-described “rural resident at the fringe” of a small TV market in eastern Ohio, sees the ATSC 3.0 transition “as an opportunity for broadcasters to serve rural populations in ways never before possible,” said his filing posted Thursday at the FCC in docket 16-142. His were the very first comments received in the FCC’s NPRM on all aspects of 3.0, five years into its voluntary deployment (see 2207060019). On the NPRM’s call for feedback on the market availability of 3.0 receivers, “my perception as a consumer is that while receivers are available, they are extremely limited in terms of choice at this time,” said Davis. He has been researching new TVs from several top manufacturers, “but I see that the ATSC 3.0 tuner capable models are restricted to higher priced units,” he said. Since NextGenTV stations “are generally simulcasting on lighthouse transmitters with no additional content or features, there is no compelling reason for me to switch to a new expensive television at this time,” he said. The 3.0-capable SiliconDust gateway device he bought in October 2020 “is fine for my hobbyist needs right now,” he said. But he worries that “much of the promise of ATSC 3.0 will be left behind as streaming options become more profitable and more prevalent,” he said. NextGenTV’s backers cite the current availability of many dozens of 3.0-capable TV models from LG, Samsung and Sony, at price points starting under $500, with approximately eight more models on the way from Hisense later this year. Comments in the NPRM are due Aug. 8, replies Sept. 6.
Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot at the International Trade Commission set Oct. 2, 2023, as the target date for completing the Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations in a Broadband iTV April 22 complaint that set-top boxes from Comcast, Charter and Altice infringe four VOD and electronic program guide patents (see 2204280027), said an order he signed Tuesday in docket 337-TA-1315. Elliot’s order has five days of hearings scheduled to begin Feb. 6, and his initial determination in the case is to be ready by June 2.
Right-to-repair advocates were caught unaware by a June 29 letter we stumbled on Tuesday in which 15 tech groups urged New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to veto the nation’s first digital electronics repair legislation (S-4104/A-7006), after it cleared the New York Assembly on a 145-1 vote more than a month ago (see 2206030034). Hochul’s office largely has been silent about her bill-signing intentions. "The Governor is reviewing the bill," emailed a Hochul spokesperson Wednesday. Of the 30 state legislatures that considered similar legislation in 2021, no right-to-repair bill has passed and been signed into law, “as states have come to the determination that legislating repair rules for manufacturers created more issues for consumers than answers,” wrote the tech groups, including CTIA, CTA, the Information Technology Industry Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association. The groups are committed to working with Hochul “to promote digital privacy and security, while resisting unwarranted intervention in the marketplace with one-size-fits-all mandates that compromise consumer safety and protection,” they said. R2R advocates expected “something like this had been circulated” in opposition to the legislation, emailed Repair.org Executive Director Gay Gordon-Byrne. She hadn’t seen the letter until we forwarded it to her for comment, she said.