Rebecca Day

Carriers began taking preorders Friday for Apple’s least expensive iPhone, the SE (see 2004160029). It's due to deliver this week, shipping to consumers since stores are closed. The handset’s launch is designed to expand Apple’s footprint into more price-conscious consumer demographics and geographies, where Apple’s premium handsets are often unattainable, blogged Futuresource analyst Stephen Mears Friday. Because consumers are cutting back discretionary spending, the SE, starting at $399, is “likely to appeal to a wider consumer base, and could potentially become a key handset for 2020,” Mears said. AT&T offered upgrades early for $5 monthly for the 64 GB version, with a trade-in, after paying off at least 50% of their phone. Sprint offered the SE on its “budget phone” page for $5 monthly over 18 months after a two-month eligibility period. Verizon offered to waive the activation fee of customers who preorder online and pay $16.66 over 24 months.

Best Buy will furlough about 51,000 hourly store employees due to the coronavirus, said the company Wednesday. The retailer said sales since March 21 plunged 30% from a year earlier after the company began restricting in-person sales to curbside pickup. Fiscal Q1 ends early May. COVID-19 sent March retail sales at electronics and appliance stores plunging 15.1% from February and 16.2% from March 2019, reported the National Retail Federation Wednesday. Executive salaries are being cut. Furloughs will affect hourly store employees and nearly all part-time employees, Best Buy said. It's keeping 82% of its full-time store and field employees on the payroll, including most in-home advisers and Geek Squad personnel. “The situation we are all facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic is truly unprecedented,” said CEO Corie Barry. All of Best Buy’s U.S. stores are closed to customer traffic, with 40 closed completely, mostly in the Northeast, “for at least 10 days at our discretion,” Barry said. Online domestic sales are up more than 250%, with half of those sales coming from customer pickup at stores, Barry said. The situation remains “very fluid and there is still a great deal of uncertainty,” Barry said, referencing depth and duration of store closures “and consumer confidence over time.” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter emailed investors that upcoming tech innovations the retailer expected to benefit from near term “will be delayed by supply chain disruptions and muted by a looming recession.” That could extend the timeline for the retailer to meet long-term targets, said analyst Michael Pachter. Shares Wednesday closed down 7.3% to $64.76.

Companies are looking to add customers amid surging virtual conferencing demand, we found this week. The new target audience is work from home, which now has its own hashtag and abbreviation: WFH. Video monitor maker ViewSonic announced availability of myViewBoard Clips. The ecosystem is available to educators who can access more than 2 million licensed educational videos, said the company. Key Digital wants to “build a sense of normalcy" within mandatory teleconferencing. It’s pitching its professional USB camera. It works with software including Zoom, Skype, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, RingCentral and Google Hangouts. Nearly a fifth of U.S. households used video and conference call platforms over the past week, up 7 points from March 27-29, said a CTA survey. Seventy percent used a streaming or download service, up from 66%. Household use of online education courses rose 4 points to 13% as more kids practiced distance learning. Other activities include virtual birthday parties, happy hours and game nights, said CTA Research Director Lesley Rohrbaugh. As the use of video conferencing software skyrockets, hackers have followed. Zoom’s privacy and security are under scrutiny. (See reports including in this and in the previous two issues.)

Artificial intelligence companies are seeking ways to bridge gaps between consumers and information sources and doctors and patients during the health crisis. UneeQ went live Monday with "Sophie," a “digital human” tasked with answering questions via smartphone or computer. When COVID-19 began to spread globally, information about the virus was “overwhelming,” said Tyler Merritt, vice president-platform development. Sophie's data comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She's “statically programmed” to say a vaccine isn’t yet available for COVID-19. When a question is asked, she looks into the CDC database and “tries to find a match,” Merritt said. UneeQ is working with IBM. Medsphere Systems added a telehealth component to the ChartLogic electronic health record. Clinicians can launch video rooms, said the company.

Walmart is letting in-plan employees get three free telehealth doctor visits, the company said as part of COVID-19 announcements this week. Separately, through June, associates nationwide, outside of New York, get "free access to Even, a third-party mobile app that offers financial wellness features," the retailer said. Target, meanwhile, saw "a surge in traffic and sales" in mid-March in some areas, with "strength" that included entertainment and essentials, the retailer said. Target withdrew its earnings outlook for Q1, citing costs related to COVID-19. States are relaxing some telehealth restrictions (see 2003250035).

The “math just doesn’t work” for movie studios and streaming video services to make a rapid shift to a direct-to-video model during the COVID-19 outbreak when millions of viewers are captive at home, said LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield Wednesday on a webcast. Greenfield was commenting on the possibility of first-run movies debuting on subscription VOD streaming services at a time when U.S. movie theaters are closed.

COVID-19 and its fallout's worst-case scenario is a year of decline for a “wide range” of consumer electronics industries, said Futuresource Thursday. After the smartphone category’s contraction over the past two years, 2020 was expected to be a breakout year with 5G. That push “may be delayed until 2021 should disruption continue,” the researcher forecast. The gaming industry, poised to jump-start stagnant sales with next-generations systems, could also be affected. Companies that could take coronavirus-related hits include Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, the report said. Some meetings can be moved to digital platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, but there's little substitute for industry events that convene global decision-makers, noted the firm.

The global mobile device market had “mass disruption” to its production and supply chains due to labor shortages and inactive logistics resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic that hit China last month, reported ABI Research. The U.S. imported 214.6 million smartphones last year, 74.6% from China, said Census Bureau data we accessed through the International Trade Commission. China was 75.8% of the 14.4 million smartphones imported to the U.S. in January. Import data from February and March are expected to show a COVID-19 impact on reduced Chinese cargo. Supply chain partners such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, Qorvo and Skyworks faced shrinking smartphone demand; first half production could drop by as much as 30%, ABI forecast Wednesday. The 5G rollout will feel adverse effects from the disruptions, which will suppress near-term growth of the next-generation handsets, said the report. A move to lower price tiers was expected to be a key driver for boosting 5G smartphone shipments this year, but now it’s expected that shipment volume for 5G smartphones will be “much lower than previously expected, slowed by a stagnant supply chain and crippled demand,” it said. The market is expected to face disruptions and delays. Global business smartphone units will ship 12% fewer smartphones to enterprises in 2020, Strategy Analytics predicted.

Sprint temporarily closed 71% of its retail locations and cut back store hours in those remaining open, in response to the spread of COVID-19, it said Tuesday. New store hours are Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.

Amazon is adding 100,000 new full- and part-time positions across the U.S. in fulfillment centers and its delivery network to meet the surge in demand from people relying on its deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said Monday. The additional workers will boost its ability to deliver critical supplies “directly to the doorstep” of people relying on its service “during this stressful time." The e-tailer is contacting potential employees whose jobs have been affected in fields of hospitality, restaurants and travel, saying “we want those people to know we welcome them on our teams until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back.” Amazon is temporarily boosting pay for existing employees, who are “playing an essential role” in the crisis, adding $2 per hour in wages in the U.S. to its current $15, through April. The company acted to promote social distancing in the workplace and is doing enhanced and frequent cleaning.