Consumer purchase intentions for loudspeakers and headphones were flat before COVID-19, and demand will likely spike due to work-at-home and entertainment-in-place practices, Parks Associates reported Tuesday. Parks before the pandemic found U.S. broadband household penetration rates of 44% for speakers, 37% for headphones not bundled with a phone or music player and 33% for earbuds. Recent demand won’t diminish consumer expectations for advanced functionality, "so device manufacturers still need to prioritize app development and software enhancements,” said analyst Steve Nason. “Everyone in the household now needs their own headphones and earbuds for privacy.” Users at home want to integrate stand-alone headphones with smart speakers and other connected devices, he said.

TCL plans three Android smartphones under $500, including a 5G model due to arrive later this year. Monday's announcement deviated from the path it laid out at CES, when it expected to launch at MWC 2020 in February. After the event was canceled on coronavirus fears, TCL executives took to the road, showing the products. Stefan Streit, general manager-global marketing, showed us the lineup in New York. The mainstream arrival of 5G felt a lot more imminent last month prior to worldwide lockdowns enacted to contain the spread of COVID-19, he said.

Evoca will be the go-to-market branding of the ATSC 3.0-enabled terrestrial TV service Edge Networks plans to launch in the Boise market this summer, said the startup Thursday. It applied for the Evoca trademark March 18, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Edge has ambitions to leverage 3.0's IP backbone to deploy a wireless nationwide subscription-based video service that includes 4K channels (see report, March 11 issue.)

The Washington state facial recognition bill Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed Tuesday (see 2003310051) is “a reasonable compromise among innovators, law enforcement and the privacy interests of Americans,” said CTA President Gary Shapiro Thursday. “This is a balanced model for other states and should be open to revision with experience."

Wireless charging pushed into the mid range of the smartphone segment in Q4, driven by Apple’s iPhone XR, said Omdia Wednesday. The increase in wireless charging-enabled shipments in the price segment was triggered by Apple’s price reduction on the iPhone XR, said analyst Anna Ahrens. Before Q4, more than 90% of phones with wireless charging capability were premium and high-end devices, led by Apple and Samsung phones. In 2019, phones with wireless charging grew 2.7% to 18.5% of all smartphones. The prior year, annual growth was 5.6%, with the slowdown in 2019 attributed to Samsung.

Sony Electronics Corp. will begin operations as a new “intermediate holding company” at the April 1 start of the fiscal year, said Sony Thursday. It will incorporate the three business segments residing in the Electronics Products and Solutions group (EP&S) -- imaging products, home AV and mobile communications. Shigeki Ishizuka, executive officer in charge of imaging products and storage media, will be Sony Electronics CEO. Ichiro Takagi, who supervises Sony’s consumer AV business, including sales and marketing, plus supply-chain logistics, will be chief operating officer. Forming the new company will “accelerate the integrated operation” of the EP&S businesses, and “optimize its organizational structure, talent and business portfolio,” said Sony. EP&S is forecasting a 45% increase in operating profit to 111 billion yen ($1.01 billion) for the year ending March 31, though sales in the segment are projected to decline 11% to 2.07 trillion yen ($18.9 billion). Sony is scheduled to report year-end results in late April.

Qualcomm launched Bluetooth SoCs geared to true wireless earbuds and hearables Wednesday. One earbud is wirelessly connected to the smartphone via Bluetooth; the other bud mirrors the connected bud and is engineered to deliver what the company called a “rapid swap.” If the user removes the connected bud from her ear, the mirroring bud is designed to take over the connection to the phone, to avoid interruption of streaming music or an active voice call, said the company.

Wedbush lowered its target share price for Roku to $86 from $115 Monday, saying the company's road to profitability is “unclear.” But the streaming platform provider is potentially a “big winner during social distancing and quarantines,” wrote Michael Pachter to investors, saying all subscription VOD and advertising VOD are “well-positioned” at a time when governments are urging social distancing or mandated quarantines. Roku is in a strong position due to revenue share agreements with most SVOD and transactional VOD partners, Pachter said. It and other platforms that host Oscar-nominated films for purchase or rental can benefit from the current climate, with people more likely to watch many of the nominated films for a fee than they would be under normal circumstances, said the analyst. Roku likely is benefiting from its subscription services by signing up users to HBO, Showtime and other premium SVOD suppliers, he said. A downside of the COVID-19 period for streamers and studios is that productions of current film and serial content have halted. Shares closed up 17.5% at $89.46.

Global smartphone shipments plummeted 38% year on year in February, the biggest fall in category history, said Strategy Analytics Friday. Shipments fell to 61.8 million, from 99.2 million in February 2019, it said. Smartphone demand “collapsed in Asia last month,” due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as some Asian factories were unable to manufacture handsets and many consumers were unable or unwilling to buy new devices in retail stores, said analyst Neil Mawston. Despite “tentative signs of recovery in China,” SA expects worldwide smartphone shipments to remain weak in March, with “hundreds of millions” of affluent consumers sidelined, said analyst Yiwen Wu. The industry will likely turn to online flash sales, “generous discounts” or smartwatch bundles to lift sales, Wu said.

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.