Rebecca Day

Smartphone penetration among U.S. consumers ages 18-34 was “solidly above 90 percent” at the end of 2015, a comScore cross-platform report said. Penetration is highest in the 18-24-year-old bracket, growing from 90 percent in December 2014 to 94 percent at the end of 2015, comScore said last week. Overall smartphone penetration hit 79 percent at the end of 2015, “finally showing signs of slowing growth as the market nears saturation,” comScore said. Among operating systems, iOS gained a point in 2015 versus 2014, representing 43 percent of the U.S. market, while Android held steady at 53 percent. The industry research firm expects iPhone 6/6S models to surpass iPhone 5/5S/5C models among U.S. users this year. Despite fewer U.S. cable households, the average amount of TV viewing per household rose in Q4 by 7 percent over Q4 2014, comScore said, citing a broader selection of viewing options that appeal to a “wider array of tastes.” Total quarterly live household viewing hours rose 7.3 percent to 1,004, it said. Cable VOD viewing time during Q1-Q3 was 7.1 percent transactional on demand, 31.2 percent subscription VOD and 61.7 percent free on demand, comScore said. Most growth in cable VOD is coming from subscription services such as HBO and Showtime, comScore said.

Refinements to system design and diversified applications and power ratings are driving the development of the wireless charging receiver market that’s forecast to pass 1 billion unit shipments by 2020, an IHS report said Tuesday. Integrated receivers went mainstream in 2015, as the wireless charging receiver market grew more than 160 percent last year to 144 million units, IHS said.​ The mobile phone market makes up most of wireless charging receiver shipments, led by Samsung Galaxy smartphones that come equipped with dual-mode Qi and PMA (Power Matters Alliance)-certified low-frequency charging, IHS said. It estimated 10 percent of smartphones shipped this year will be wireless charging-capable. The wearables category is the second-largest segment for wireless charging, led by Apple Watch and Samsung Gear S2, it said. The first high-frequency magnetic resonant receivers are expected to launch in laptop computers this year, spreading adoption of wireless charging to more device types, IHS said.

Apple CEO Tim Cook prefaced what was mostly a series of product line expansion announcements Monday with a strong stance on corporate policy toward its encryption battle with the FBI that drew a tweet from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Reacting to Cook’s comments on consumer privacy during Apple’s new product announcement in Cupertino, California, Snowden tweeted: “When the public is forced to rely on a corporation to defend its rights. This is a warning sign. #AppleEvent.”

Thiel Audio invested “millions” of dollars in an entertainment space in Nashville and its Aurora 4K streaming video production studio, and will use the venue to launch a streaming music box coinciding with the Country Music Association Music Festival in June, newly installed CEO Thomas Malatesta told us. Thiel is spending “a lot of money” on new websites, social media, e-commerce and third-party websites, said Malatesta. The company is building the 4K platform that's to go live as a subscription-based service in May. Aurora hopes to aggregate its original concerts in Ultra HD and become a content provider, and it's working on secondary distribution deals, said Chief Branding Officer Rebecca Abrahams. The streaming service will offer a dashboard that allows subscribers to interact with artists, she said.

Following Allstate, Liberty Mutual and State Farm by a couple of years, Travelers is the latest home insurance company to tag homeowner policy discounts to smart home products. “We’re interested in learning as much as we can about smart home technology and how it may be able to protect people and also property,” Greg Jacobs, Travelers managing director-telematics product strategy, told us by phone.

Pushing streaming video service Vudu support as the current source of Dolby Vision content, LG announced pricing and availability of its 2016 Super UHD TVs in a news release Thursday. Without an Ultra HD Blu-ray player to support the launch on the content side, LG focused on Vudu’s current roster of 30-plus Dolby Vision titles as a way for customers to experience Dolby Vision. It repeated Dolby’s estimate that 100 Dolby Vision titles will be on the market by year's end.

DTS is getting increased interest in its headphone technology for smartphone customers, and expects growth in installation in automobiles of HD Radio, which it acquired last year (see 1510070014), said CEO Jon Kirchner on an earnings call Wednesday. DTS is in discussions with automotive partners on leveraging its technology and HD Radio implementation inside vehicles, he said. It also developed customizable implementations of Headphone:X to address smartphone customer requests for the technology on multiple platforms, said Kirchner. DTS signed a contract with a top-five smartphone manufacturer for a 100-million-unit order last year for Headphone:X, Kirchner said. After the launch of Headphone:X on a Qualcomm chip, DTS “engaged with a number of partners” about integrating the technology in their flagship phones, said Kirchner. He also cited the latest content companies to join DTS' Play-Fi ecosystem: Amazon Music and iHeartRadio. DTS was particularly happy with Dish Hopper demonstrations at CES that are taking the company “in a new direction,” Kirchner said, along with Acer's news at Mobile World Congress that Liquid Jade 2 smartphone users will be able to stream content to Play-Fi speakers.

People will become as accustomed to facial recognition biometrics in the next five years as they are to fingerprint sensors in smartphones today, ABI Research analyst Dimitrios Pavlakis said on ABI’s "Biometrics: Opportunities and Vulnerabilities" webcast last week.

Sluggish tablet and smartphone sales led a 1.7 percent Q4 drop in comparable sales at Best Buy, CEO Hubert Joly said on an earnings call Thursday. Joly forecast flat domestic revenue for the full year on strength in connected home and other products countering slowing sales in smartphones and other categories. He cited opportunities in service beyond free setup offered by the Geek Squad. Tech support, beyond self-help, “is something that customers are happy to pay for and we are seeing increased demand,” he said. Online sales were up nearly 14 percent at 15.6 percent of total domestic revenue in the quarter ended Jan. 30, Joly said. For FY 2017, Best Buy is entering the next phase of its Renew Blue strategy, to be “the retailer that helps customers learn about the latest technologies,” Joly said. Joly said low consumer demand and high smartphone penetration “is depressing the category.” Over the year, “more compelling smartphone offerings” could fuel renewed growth in the category, he said. Best Buy’s growth initiatives include the IoT. The Geek Squad and services business are key to the IoT strategy, Joly said. Longer term, Joly is “very excited” about virtual reality.

Device makers and others used Monday's opening of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to make virtual reality and other announcements involving smartphones. VR is the “key tool” smartphone makers will use this year to market flagship smartphone models, IHS analyst Ian Fogg said in an emailed research note Monday. “In a mature smartphone market, smartphone makers compete with their older selves to drive consumers to upgrade their existing smartphones.” At Samsung’s Sunday news conference from MWC, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared as a surprise guest to tout the role Facebook’s Oculus VR technology will play in social media’s future. As a successor to audio and video, “VR is going to be the most social platform,” Zuckerberg said. Meanwhile, LG has much at stake, Fogg said, citing previous IHS projections that LG smartphone shipments would decline 3 percent in 2016. LG’s G5 smartphone was announced Sunday at MWC with a 360 CAM VR accessory camera. And Dolby and DTS announced new and expanded partner relationships at MWC with smartphone and tablet makers hoping to differentiate in the competitive market segments. DTS said it's extending the Play-Fi ecosystem to smartphones for the first time in models from Acer, Gionee and Phicomm.