Rebecca Day

Wi-Fi will still rule in the smart home in the 5G era, said speakers on a Tuesday IHS Markit webinar. They sought robustness and reliability for good customer experiences.

Mobile communications were among products headlining Pepcom’s Holiday Spectacular Thursday in New York, as manufacturers geared up for the Q4 selling season. Motorola's 5G Moto Mod brings 5G capability to the company’s z2 Force and later phones. It will be available at Verizon stores when the carrier launches 5G service in New York Thursday, a Motorola spokesperson told us. Moxee showed a mobile personal safety device that will sell exclusively on the T-Mobile network, beginning Monday, before rolling out to other carriers next year, a spokesperson said. The pager-size device, without a display, lets users press a button to indicate status: a single button shares their location with contacts; two presses sends an alert to contacts, with location; and three presses sends an alert to contacts and a professional monitoring service, he said. Gabb Wireless positioned itself as a kind of anti-smartphone for kids, launching a phone and nationwide wireless network Thursday with no access to the internet or external apps. The company’s message is that kids are exposed to too much technology too early, leading to anxiety and depression, so despite having the form of smartphones, the devices are used for calls and messages. One is made by ZTE.

Amazon chose not to call its high-resolution music service "Hi-Res" because the terms hi-fi and hi-res aren't widely understood by consumers, and different countries use different terms to describe CD-quality-and-higher music, industry officials told us. Instead, Amazon’s Music HD offers what it calls 50 million High Definition songs and “millions” in Ultra High Definition. Though the major music companies, RIAA and the Recording Academy, developed the logo "Hi-Res Music," the name is generally used to describe the overall music category. Individual streaming services differentiate their brands with their own names for hi-res offerings. Lenbrook brand Bluesound, which Amazon didn't single out (see 1909170055) in Tuesday's announcement that mentioned Sonos and Sound United, came Wednesday. It, too, is compatible with Amazon Music HD -- and an early adopter. Bob Stuart, creator of the Master Quality Authenticated audio codec, welcomed Amazon's "offering better sound quality to a wide audience," saying, "for too long the mainstream diet of MP3 quality has degraded the listener’s enjoyment." Amazon is "restoring to at least Redbook (44.1 kHz/16b) quality and raising expectations of quality," Stuart said. He said any service that’s streaming FLAC, which Amazon Music HD does, "can rapidly upgrade to MQA in the future." MQA technology delivers higher than HD quality in a 1.3 Mbps stream, he said.

Spotify downplayed Amazon’s move into hi-resolution music, focusing on its fledgling podcast service and artist programs (see 1909120017). Amazon's offering a two-tier premium music service in CD-quality and 24-bit/192 kHz resolution, it said Tuesday. Spotify hasn't talked about "higher fidelity,” said Paul Vogel, head-financial planning and analysis, treasury and investor relations. “It’s not really something that has been a big differentiator,” he said, citing Tidal and its hi-res service. Important to Spotify and its subscribers are the user interface, algorithms, playlists and "discoverability,” Vogel told investors. Tidal didn't comment. Musicians are “excited” about the ability for fans to stream their music “as it was originally recorded,” said Steve Boom, vice president-Amazon Music. On the threat of big tech companies' leverage in the music streaming market with smartphones and smart speakers, Vogel deflected to Spotify’s growth trends. Citing his 3.5-year stint, Vogel said the service had 25 million subscribers and under 100 million users when he joined; now, Spotify boasts 232 million monthly average users and 108 million subscribers. “We fully recognize the fear” about the three largest tech companies as competitors, Vogel said. Despite competitors’ big pockets, Spotify is spending “as much, if not more, on innovation and R&D” in music and audio, he said. Vogel said Spotify's “ubiquity” is its strength -- being available “just about everywhere” except for “a couple of Apple products.” Qobuz welcomed Amazon to the hi-res music market. Qobuz USA Managing Director Dan Mackta said it “validates our business and underscores the growth in demand for higher-quality streaming."

Retailers are continuing to sell the Apple Watch 4, though Apple is no longer selling it, we learned. The most recent Apple Watch, prior to release of the 5 this Friday, received no love during the company’s Sept. 10 event where it launched a trio of iPhones, a tablet and the Apple Watch 5 (see report, Sept. 11). Bigger news than the display that doesn’t sleep in the Watch 5 was the price cut from $279 to $199 on the model 3, setting a new entry point for Apple Watch, as the company looks to broaden its customer base. The Watch 4, meanwhile, is no longer featured on the Apple website and quietly took a modest price cut; Best Buy was selling a GPS-only version, with 40mm case and pink band Monday for $349, down from $399, with $50 cuts also applied to other models. The Apple website Monday featured the 5 starting at $399 for a space gray case with sports band going up to $1,399 for a ceramic case with stainless steel band. Deal hunters are likely to check retailers often heading into the holiday season as retailers look to clear Watch 4 inventory.

Low expectations for the 11 series of iPhones, sans 5G (see report, Sept. 11), carried over to carrier and retailer advertising Wednesday. Apple launched new phones, smartwatches, an iPad and $5 monthly game and video services Tuesday. Preorders begin Friday for the three new iPhones, with Sept. 20 availability.

Apple’s three-iPhone launch Tuesday, coming amid the third consecutive year of contraction for the smartphone category (see report, Sept, 10), captured fans’ eyes. Broad pricing and advanced camera features wowed consumers (see here) and critics (including CNET). The Pro series, Apple’s first with that designation, stole the show for camera fans. Phil Schiller, senior vice president-worldwide marketing, highlighted the wide aperture and focus pixels that cover 100 percent of the sensor; a telephoto camera said to let in 40 percent more light than the previous generation; and an ultrawide camera. A new A13 Bionic chip and a new-generation image signal processor enable “a whole new level of photography,” Schiller said. The company launched flagship phones starting at $999 for the 5.8-inch 11 Pro and $1,099 for the 6.5-inch Pro Max, spreading pricing for other phones starting at $449 for the 8. The XR, the top-selling smartphone over the first half of 2019, dropped from $749 to $599, with this introduction of the 11 at $699. CEO Tim Cook gave details of the Apple Arcade gaming service, which opens Sept. 19 at $4.99 per month. The company turned heads more with the offer of a free one-year subscription to its $4.99 monthly Apple TV Plus video streaming service that launches Nov. 1 to customers who buy new products. Other starts included a new watch and tablets.

Analysts and others predicted challenges for the next round of iPhones expected to be announced at Apple’s annual special event Tuesday in Cupertino, California. Samsung, LG and Moto jumped into the nascent 5G market early, but Apple has been widely reported to be waiting until 2020 for its first 5G phone. That could give current iPhone owners little incentive to upgrade to 2019 models, analysts and others said. Digital Trends expects a lack of a 5G iPhone this fall due to 5G chip availability and 5G’s early growing pains (see 1909090002). Apple didn’t comment. Citing its own tests of 5G service, Digital Trends assessed the next-generation mobile infrastructure as “still very much in its infancy.” It "struggled to find 5G service that doesn’t drop out from one city block to another.” In 4G, Apple iPhone users experienced higher upload speeds -- useful for sharing photos and videos -- than on download speeds compared with Android users May 27-Aug. 5, reported Opensignal Monday. Noting the three-year U.S. smartphone replacement cycle, analyst Ian Fogg said users with 2015-16 iPhones experienced much slower download speeds than users with recent models: iPhone 7 and 6s users experienced 4G download speeds of 16.7-18.3 Mbps vs. more than 25 Mbps for the iPhone Xs and Xs Max. OnePlus, LG and Samsung smartphone users experienced the fastest U.S. download speeds, said Opensignal. OnePlus 7 Pro, LG V35, LG G8, Samsung S10 and S10 Plus models tied for first place averaging above 36 Mbps. Across the top 50 smartphone models ranked by the speed, 36 percent were Samsung models, 20 percent from LG and 15 percent Google. Two iPhones -- XS and XS Max -- made the list.

The Wireless Power Consortium revealed its wireless charging standard for small kitchen appliances, Ki Cordless Kitchen. Philips will demonstrate at IFA this week a blender/food processor, juicer and air fryer, emailed Hans Kablau, chairman-WPC Kitchen Work Group. The Ki logo indicates safety and interoperability for wireless power for cordless kitchen devices up to 2,200 watts, said WPC. The standard allows Ki transmitters to be placed beneath countertops and in new induction cooktops, it said. The Ki standard draft specification is available to Wireless Power Consortium members; they'll determine their commercialization timetable, a WPC spokesperson emailed. Communication between the appliance and transmitter is handled by near-field communication, said Kablau. NFC controls the amount of power transferred and enables smart features. It prevents a smartphone from inadvertently overheating when placed on a coil, the spokesperson said. Ki's “essentially the same technology” as the magnetic induction wireless charging method used by Qi, she said, though Ki coils are much larger. Another difference is that Ki only transmits energy that’s consumed as power vs. Qi technology, which transmits energy that’s stored by the receiver so it can power a phone on the go. Since a Ki receiver doesn’t store power, when appliances are removed from the transmitter, power transfer ceases and the appliance shuts off, she said.

Best Buy trimmed 2019 forecasts due to the projected impact of the fourth tranche of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods that take effect Sunday and again Dec. 15. A more-than-expected “drag” in the videogaming cycle, plus the maturing smartphone category also weighed heavily on the outlook, said executives on a Q2 call Thursday. Shares closed down 8 percent at $63.49. In May, the retailer held to its February FY 2020 revenue guidance of $42.9 billion-$43.9 billion on enterprise same-store sales increases between 0.5 percent and 2.5 percent. Thursday, it shaved the top end of the guidance range to $43.1 billion-$43.6 billion, and cut its same-store sales growth forecast to 0.7 percent-1.7 percent. This is “best estimate of the impact from the List 4 tariffs and the most recent announcement regarding List 3 moving to a 30 percent rate” from 25 percent, said Corie Barry on her first call as CEO. Vendors’ continuing migration out of China will result in a lower impact from tariffs next year, Barry predicted, “because you’re seeing supply chains already start to move.” Computing and mobile phones were 44 percent of Q2 revenue, down a point from Q1.