Smartphone trade-in specialist ecoATM Gazelle raised $75 million in “new growth equity” from existing investor Cowen Sustainable Advisors to speed its global expansion and support its “product extensions,” said the company Monday. It will use the funds to build and deploy thousands of “automated retail fulfillment kiosks” across the U.S., Europe and Asia and support new market launches “with increased multi-channel marketing campaigns and operational investments,” it said. The company has collected 28 million used smartphones, “indicative of the growing and critical demand for technology recycling,” it said.

Right-to-repair advocates called New York Senate passage Thursday of the Digital Fair Repair Act (S-4104) the first measure dedicated to consumer tech repair to clear any state's chamber. Though a matching Assembly bill failed to clear committee on the last day of the legislature’s 2021 session, the Senate's 51-12 bipartisan OK “speaks to the support right to repair gets when it receives a fair vote, against tech lobbyists’ wishes,” emailed Kerry Sheehan, iFixit U.S. policy lead. S-4104 would prohibit consumer tech OEMs from withholding diagnostics and other repair materials from consumers or service shops. Last month’s FTC report saying OEM restrictions on independent third-party repairs harmed consumer protections in the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (see 2105070013) “is a huge help across the board in helping lawmakers understand how baseless opposition arguments against right to repair really are,” Sheehan told us. “We'll continue to see it as an extremely useful resource for educating lawmakers.” Advocates are unfazed by a matching Assembly bill's failure to clear committee, she said: “Some opposition lobbyists were able to convince Assembly leadership not to bring the bill forward for a floor vote this year." Backers in the Assembly have "a dedicated bill sponsor" in Patricia Fahy (D), "who is committed to moving right to repair forward,” said Sheehan. Right to repair was one of Fahy's top priorities for the end of the legislative session, emailed a spokesperson Friday. Fahy's office hosted two town halls and "created a coalition bigger than any existing one," including 30 Assembly co-sponsors, he said. "We are extremely frustrated with the lack of movement we’ve received based on the support and work put into it." The tech industry "will likely be back bigger and stronger next year" to oppose a measure in the Assembly, "so we’re already planning how to keep the issue alive in the off-session and build even more momentum surrounding it next session," he said. CTA didn't comment.

Garmin asked for a tweak to the draft order that would let companies market RF devices pending FCC authorization, in conversations with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington. Garmin sought “clarification that the draft rule allows manufacturers that distribute products through unaffiliated retailers to take advantage of the proposed pre-sales flexibility by affixing the required temporary labels only to the shrink-wrapped pallet, sealed shipping container, sealed carton, or other enclosure containing multiple units and not to individual units of the product,” said filings posted Thursday (see here and here) in docket 20-382.

April imports to the U.S. of laptops, tablets and smartphones were little changed sequentially and double digits higher than April 2020, per Census data we accessed Wednesday through the International Trade Commission. The 59.81 million smartphones shipped here in 2021's first four months were 25% above the 47.89 million handsets in the year-earlier period. April smartphone imports to the U.S. from all countries under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8517.12.00 reached 15.09 million, up 27%. China generated 77% of April smartphone imports.

Global semiconductor sales reached $41.8 billion in April, increasing 1.9% from March and 21.7% from April 2020, reported the Semiconductor Industry Association Wednesday. “Global demand for semiconductors remained high in April, as reflected by rising sales across a range of chip products and throughout each of the world’s major regional markets,” said SIA President John Neuffer. “The global chip market is projected to grow substantially in 2021 and 2022 as semiconductors become increasingly integral to the game-changing technologies of today and the future.” Year-over-year sales increased 25.7% in China, 24.3% in Asia Pacific, 20.1% in Europe, 17.6% in Japan and 14.3% in the Americas, said SIA.

Marvell Technology expects a “strong second-half ramp” compared with the first half in its networking business. That stems from the “increase in 5G adoption in the U.S. and other regions,” said CEO Matt Murphy on a call Monday for fiscal Q1 ended May 1.

IPhones global sales will generate nearly 40% of 2022's smartphone market, despite being fewer than 20% of units sold, reported Juniper Research Monday. “Apple has managed to consistently convince users to purchase higher-priced models through curation of a strong hardware and software ecosystem.” Apple’s average selling prices will rise in coming years, while Android ASPs will decline, “unless they can leverage new technologies like 5G or bring new design features, such as foldable phones, into the market,” said Juniper. Android smartphone vendors “will struggle to compete on a features basis,” it said. “Vendors that focus on a particular segment and investing in premium features, such as high-end audio and advances in camera technology, will not appeal widely enough to compete at scale.”

Global smartphone sales to end users, rebounding from their “steep decline” in 2020, grew 26% year over year in Q1 to just under 378 million handsets, reported Gartner Monday. “The improvement in consumer outlook, sustained learning and working from home, along with pent-up demand from 2020 boosted sales of smartphones in the first quarter,” said Anshul Gupta. Consumers started spending on discretionary items as the pandemic situation improved in many parts of the world and markets opened up,” said the analyst. Top-three vendors Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi maintained their positions. Samsung’s launch of under-$150 handsets boosted its unit sales globally, as did early shipments of its flagship 5G smartphones, said Gartner.

Samsung called its deal with Walmart to equip 740,000 employees with Galaxy XCover Pro smartphones (see 2106030028) its largest U.S. enterprise deal. The phone has an immersive display, “powerful camera” and long-lasting battery, Samsung blogged Friday: On-the-job functions include mobile clock-in, access to scheduling and inventory management via the camera, which doubles as a barcode scanner. Workers can tap a co-worker's name and initiate a push-to-talk conversation from the phone using a physical side key. Knox security software creates separate work and personal profiles.

Chip demand is “much more pervasive than we've ever seen” and “we're really in the early innings of this huge demand acceleration,” Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson told a Bernstein virtual conference Wednesday. The company supplies semiconductor production equipment to chipmakers and OLED vapor-deposition products and services to Chinese panel makers, Customers are talking about “big multiyear investments” in “longer-term supply assurance” contracts, more “than I've ever heard before,” he said. “I really see a rethinking of the whole supply chain, and people are understanding that you can't respond in a matter of weeks or months relative to building capacity.” People in the supply chain “are understanding this just-in-time type of a mindset is not going to work,” he said.