Rebecca Day

Apple's CEO isn't scared about the next tranche of tariffs that takes effect Dec. 15 on smartphones and other devices. Tim Cook's view is “very positive in terms of how things are going," he said on a call Wednesday on Q4 ended Sept. 28. The tone of trade talks “has changed significantly, and I have long thought that it was in both countries’ best interests to get to an agreement that maybe initially doesn't solve everything but solves some things that each party may want,” he said of the U.S. and China. “I'm hopeful that that's where we're headed.” Cook highlighted the “recurring payment” model a growing number of iPhone users have adopted. He said the company wants to make that process easier, responding to a question on plans for bundling hardware and services, which the company is doing for the first time beginning Friday (see 1910310050). That Apple TV Plus service bundle is “a great way to get more people to see the content,” Cook said. Critics have noted limited content available. Though bundling won’t be a “pattern,” Cook said, “I wouldn't want to rule out for the future that we might not see another opportunity at some point.” The CEO was sanguine about iPhone’s 9 percent decline (see 1910310032), saying it's a “significant improvement” over the 15 percent decline in the year-ago quarter.

Worldwide smartphone shipments reached 360.1 million in Q3, up 1.2 percent, ending a five-quarter streak of declines, reported IHS Markit Thursday. Huawei’s 66.8 million were its most ever, rising 28 percent year on year. Samsung held top rank, up 10 percent to 78 million. Huawei’s share fell globally due to U.S. sanctions (see 1903070041). It's prohibited from including Google Mobile Services on new smartphones, noted IHS analyst Jusy Hong. Launch of Mate 30 smartphones was the first sign of Huawei devices without Google services, and Huawei “will face increasing difficulties in some markets,” the analyst said. Huawei’s existing devices can still launch with Google, he noted. Its domestic sales in China, up 65 percent, “more than compensated for its overseas sales, which fell,” said Hong. Apple’s 45.9 million iPhones were a 2.1 percent decline, its fourth consecutive down quarter. Its share rose 2 points sequentially to 13 percent. Motorola, ranked eighth with 3 percent at 9.7 million. LG, at ninth, had shipments drop 28 percent to 8.3 million for 2 percent share.

Holiday spending from smartphones will be 36 percent of online sales, a 20 percent rise from last year's season, reported Adobe Analytics Tuesday. Fifty-seven percent of e-commerce visits will be mobile, 11 percent higher. Online spending from phones will grow from 30 to 47 cents a minute, though consumers will continue to use desktops for research-heavy purchases including electronics, Adobe said. Retailers with more than $1 billion in annual sales will win the e-commerce battle this holiday season, with a 65 percent boost vs. 35 percent for smaller retailers, the company forecast. Smartphone visits to retail sites from social media tripled in the past three years to 11 percent, but conversion rates are lower than other channels such as search or email, it said. Cyber Monday 2019 is expected to be the largest and fastest growing online shopping day of 2019, but having six fewer peak shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas will cost e-commerce nearly $1 billion, Adobe said.

Podcasts are driving listener engagement at Spotify and likely “significantly increased conversion of free to paid users,” said Monday's Q3 letter. Shares closed up 16 percent at $140.20 after better-than-expected results. Monthly average users jumped 30 percent year on year to 248 million, beating company guidance. Increased podcast engagement among music listeners is leading to increased conversion from ad-supported to Premium, said the company, calling increases “extraordinary, almost too good to be true.” It's working to “clean up the data to prove causality,” and believes the data is “more right than wrong.” Spotify partnered with AT&T on Premium. On upcoming music label talks, CEO Daniel Ek said it will be the sixth major renegotiation in the company's 13 years, and there’s nothing different: “We don’t expect any material differences with the exception of the introduction of the marketplace strategy,” which Spotify is rolling out this quarter with sponsored playlists. Spotify estimated it's adding about twice as many subscribers monthly as Apple and more users than Amazon's music service. Revenue grew to $1.56 billion from $1.22 billion. Outgoing finance chief (see personals section) Barry McCarthy compared early days of Spotify as a public company to those during his tenure at Netflix, saying “there were long periods" before the stock market "figured out Netflix, just like it will eventually figure out Spotify.” Streaming was to Netflix as podcasting is to Spotify, he said. “There was a time when Netflix increased spending on streaming at the expense of profit." The question for music streaming generally is “how big will it be and will it be a winner-take-all-marketplace?” McCarthy said. "It’s our game to lose.” Pivotal Research Group's Jeffrey Wlodarczak's monitoring the number of senior executives leaving Spotify, including the chief accounting officer and head of music last month, saying he doesn’t view significant management exits positively. He attributed Spotify’s 18 percent jump Monday morning to “massive short covering” and said Spotify shares have underperformed the Nasdaq exchange since the analyst downgraded the stock in July.

Vizio will release a software update next month designed to speed startup time for its SmartCast TV operating system, said Amanda Cross, Vizio senior manager-product marketing, at a Tuesday media walk-through in New York. The performance improvements of SmartCast 3.5, rolling out mid-November and expected to be complete by year-end, will cut the boot time from cold start to powering on the TV in half. The update will refresh all Vizio SmartCast TVs back to 2016 models, Cross said, fitting Vizio’s marketing message that its TVs bring value to new customers and to the existing user base. The update also accelerates load time of apps that “used to take a bit of time” by five times, Cross said. Users will be able to return to the SmartCast homepage quickly from other apps, improving the search and browse experience, she said, including from AirPlay. For the holidays, Vizio will push added value from the SmartCast performance update, which it says eliminates the need for an external streaming stick. It will also spotlight “really competitive holiday pricing" including some prices exclusive to specific retailers, she said.

Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Netflix lead over-the-top video amid an OTT shift, with a rising “middle class,” some offering live TV, said Parks Associates researcher Brandon Riney. CBS All-Access, WWE Network and Acorn.TV have gained “millions of subscribers,” benefiting from “service-stacking,” he said. That's where customers pile additional video streaming services on top of a primary sub to one of the big three. OTT on-demand video is well-established, so live services are extending the reach further into the mainstream, he told a Thursday webcast. On virtual MVPDs, Riney cited YouTube TV and Sling TV and their appeal of no annual contracts and lower pricing than pay TV.

Google added its spin on the smartphone camera Tuesday, launching the next-generation Pixel 4 with a dual-lens camera, one a telephoto; a night mode that takes photos of stars; Live HDR Plus to get a preview of photos in tricky lighting; and more control over lighting and detail. Some Twitter users were disappointed an ultrawide lens isn’t included. The phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor. Pixel 4 has MotionSense, which anticipates what a user wants to do based on movement and responds accordingly. A Recorder app included with the phone simultaneously transcribes speech in real time without an internet connection and identifies sounds such as music or applause, blogged Brian Rakowski, Google vice president-product management. A car crash detection feature can automatically call 911 if it detects the user was in a car crash. Google began taking preorders through AT&T, C Spire, Cellcom, Google Fi, Spectrum Mobile, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, Visible and Xfinity Mobile.

We found high demand for the iPhone 11 Saturday, in canvassing stores. At the West 14th Street Apple store, we could play with demonstration models of the three series 11 iPhones but were told we would have to join a line of more than 30 customers hoping to score one from dwindling inventory. A screen shot of other Apple Store locations in the New York area showed the model we were looking for -- a 256 GB iPhone Pro in midnight green was sold out in six locations -- while supplies were in low single-digit in three more. The salesperson cautioned that a yellow icon with an exclamation point next to stores likely meant “by the time you’d get there, they’d be gone.” At a Verizon Wireless authorized retailer, the only 11s were waiting for customer pickup. We were told there we could order the 11 Pro and pick it up in six days. We called a Verizon company store and were told the green version of the 11 Pro would be back in stock in November. That store had only the base 11 model in stock, opposite of what larger trends showed. Shortages in New York focused on the higher-end models, we found. Apple didn’t respond Monday to questions. Before Apple's Thursday launch of the iPhone 11 trio, analysts predicted little customer interest in the latest series because the handsets aren't 5G-capable (see 1909100068).

MVPDs tacked on fees adding $450 to the average customer’s annual subscription, said a Thursday Consumer Reports analysis of nearly 800 bills from 13 U.S. providers last year.

3D audio is “interesting, and we are watching it closely,” a Sonos spokesperson emailed in response to questions on Amazon’s move (see 1909190019). “If it proves to be popular with consumers and the industry, we’ll consider supporting it,” he said: “Artists tell us that when they are in the studio with the right content and perfectly calibrated equipment, 3D audio can be quite impressive.” The challenge is “making it easy for customers to replicate that experience in the home,” he said. Amazon Sept. 25 launched an Echo speaker capable of playing back 24-bit/192 kHz tracks in the “Ultra” tier of its Music HD streaming.