Intel holds its Q2 earnings call Thursday, and CEO Bob Swan is sure to face questions about reports Intel is in advanced talks to sell its 5G modems business to Apple. Swan reported on a late-April call that Intel was still deciding what to do with the rest of its 5G modems business (see 1904260005), after announcing earlier it was dropping 5G smartphone modems for lack of profit potential (see 1904170004). Evaluating Intel’s future in 5G modems for PCs and IoT devices, including what to do with the company’s “wonderful” patent portfolio, was a "work in progress," said Swan then. Neither Apple nor Intel commented Tuesday on the reports.

Laser-scanning display developer MicroVision raised $2 million by selling 3.04 million shares of common stock to Toronto real-estate developer Shmuel Farhi, said the company Tuesday. MicroVision will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, it said. Farhi’s purchase price was just over 65 cents a share. The stock closed trading Tuesday unchanged at 70 cents. MicroVision faces a renewed delisting risk under a Nasdaq “delinquency notice” received June 13 after shares sold for under $1 for 30 straight trading days (see 1907190013). MicroVision had $4.6 million cash on hand at the end of Q2, said the company last week.

Global semiconductor revenue will decline 9.6 percent this year to $429 billion, said Gartner Monday. A weaker pricing environment for memory chips types, plus fallout from the U.S.-China trade dispute and sluggishness in smartphone, servers and PC sales “is driving the global semiconductor market to its lowest growth since 2009,” said Gartner. The U.S.-China trade war “is causing uncertainty over trade rates,” it said. U.S.-imposed restrictions on sales to Huawei “will have a longer-term impact on semiconductor supply and demand,” it said. “We expect that high smartphone inventory and sluggish solid-state array demand will last for a few more quarters,” said Gartner.

Amid sluggish category sales hampered by steep prices, longer ownership cycles and 4G market saturation, smartphones were discounted during sales events last week. Promotions extended beyond the Amazon Prime 48-hour sales event when smartphones led electronics with 20 percent discounts, per Adobe Analytics. T-Mobile touted a Friday promotion for a free phone over 2 years with service. Customers could get four new phones and four lines for $40 monthly per line. Models included are the Samsung Galaxy A10e and LG Q7+ and LG K30. AT&T is giving away an iPhone 8 to customers over 30 months with an unlimited plan. There's also a buy one, get one free promo for current-generation iPhones. Sprint is hoping to steal customers from the other major carriers, offering new customers up to $650 for switching costs.

Gartner expects 5G phones to be 51 percent of total handset sales globally in 2023, it reported Wednesday. Mobile operators began launching such service this year in parts of the U.S., South Korea, Switzerland, Finland and the U.K., “but it will take time for carriers to expand 5G coverage beyond major cities,” it said. Gartner estimates 7 percent of global communications service providers “will have a commercially viable wireless 5G service” by next year: “This will mark significant progress from 5G proofs of concept and commercial network construction work in 2018.” Though 2019's first half saw release of the first fifth-generation smartphones, several OEMs likely will introduce more affordable ones in 2020 in a bid to reverse declining sales, it said. Gartner estimates global smartphone shipments will decline 3.8 percent this year to 1.75 billion units. The researcher projects 5G-capable phones will be 6 percent of total phone sales next year and "as 5G service coverage increases, user experience will improve and prices will decrease.”

About 45 million PCs and tablets incorporating 5G connectivity will be in use globally by 2023, based on a 216 percent compound annual growth rate in sales the next five years, reported Strategy Analytics. The 5G era will give mobile operators “a fresh chance to communicate the advantages and new use cases of high-speed cellular connectivity with consumers, a much needed conversation to bring more devices onto these more efficient networks and to make good on the massive 5G investment,” said SA. Most 5G computing devices in use by 2023 will be tablets and detachable 2-in-1s, it said. Asia-Pacific will have more than 40 percent of the 5G devices in use, followed by North America (29 percent) and Western Europe (21 percent), the researcher said Tuesday.

U.S. consumer tech retail revenue is expected to reach $401 billion this year, said CTA Monday in an upgrade of its January forecast. CTA announced at CES it expected 2019 industry sales to top $398 million. The new forecast downgrades TV industry sales, and smart-speaker adoption is expected to slow. “Growing popularity” of streaming services, plus artificial intelligence-enabled “emerging devices” and connected car technology will be 2019's leading growth drivers, said CTA. “Enthusiasm for AI-powered technologies is skyrocketing,” said President Gary Shapiro. The cloud of “unnecessary tariffs ... threatens to slow down our nation's economic momentum," said Shapiro. CTA expects 2019 sales of Wi-Fi cameras, smart thermostats, smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, smart locks and doorbells and smart switches, dimmers and outlets to reach 28.6 million units, up 19 percent, and $4.5 billion, up 16 percent.

Online tech spending grew 10 percent year on year in the 12 months through March 31, NPD reported Friday. "While consumers are increasingly shopping online, consumers aged 18-34, 35-54, and 55+ are prioritizing their spend across major technology categories differently." Those 18-34 are willing to pay top dollar for notebook PCs and headphones but lower prices for LCD TVs. “Despite these pricing disparities all consumers, especially younger ones, are shopping online for value," said analyst Stephen Baker. "We’re seeing that traditional retailers have been able to apply successful in-store models to their online presence to compete effectively in product and price with online retailers.”

The FTC’s “Nixing the Fix” half-day workshop July 16 about manufacturer restrictions on third-party repairs of consumer products will feature three panels heavily stacked with right-to-repair advocates, but no individual tech companies, according to a final agenda released at the agency Tuesday. Walter Alcorn, CTA vice president-environmental affairs and industry sustainability, will appear on a panel on the impact of self-repair restrictions on consumers and small businesses. CTA, along with other tech groups, has lobbied for years against state right-to-repair laws, saying they wrongly impose government regulation on the relationship between OEMs and equipment repair facilities (see 1704090001). Alcorn will share the panel with Vibrant Technologies CEO Jennifer Larson, whose firm refurbishes and resells used information technology equipment. Larson is a supporter of right-to-repair legislation in her native Minnesota because she argues the large tech firms are trying to put organizations like hers out of business through measures that include limiting free-market access to replacement parts. Another panelist, Theresa McDonough, who owns Tech Medic, an independent repair shop in Middlebury, Vermont, argued on a Vermont Public Radio podcast last year that all the big tech companies are “guilty” of building planned obsolescence and limited repairability into their products, making it difficult for operations like hers to survive. "The older-generation iPads, if you needed a new charging port, they had a pop connector, you could easily change them out,” she said. “But with some of the newer generations, they solder them in. I get that there are some technological advances that require soldering, but things like charging ports don’t need the micro-soldering.” Apple didn’t comment Wednesday. Other workshop panels will feature state legislators who have sponsored or backed right-to-repair bills, plus the Repair Association advocacy group and iFixit, one of its key board members. The FTC has said the workshop will examine whether manufacturer repair restrictions can undercut consumer protections in the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which it’s charged with enforcing. The commission will accept written comments through Sept. 16 in the Nixing the Fix docket but has been silent on what actions it might take on the public input it receives.

The one-time feud between Amazon and Google (see 1712280031) seems like distant history as the two tech giants have loosened restrictions preventing co-mingling of their hardware, software and platforms. Amazon.com is selling Google Chromecast devices -- which compete directly with its Fire TV sticks -- and as of Tuesday, Amazon Prime Video content can be viewed on Google’s Chromecast and Android TV devices, and the YouTube app is available on Fire TV, Google blogged. Amazon’s Prime members will have unlimited access to Amazon Originals and films on Google devices, while Google’s YouTube app will be available on “select” Amazon Fire TV devices: second-gen and 4K Fire TV Sticks, Fire TV Cube, Fire TV basic and Toshiba, Insignia, Element and Westinghouse Fire TV Edition smart TVs. Chromecast and Chromecast built-in users, with access to over 2,000 apps for content and games, can now cast content directly from their phone’s Prime Video app to a TV, said Google. Chromecast Ultra users will get access to 4,000 titles included with Prime at no additional cost, it said. Users will need the latest Prime Video app and Android 5.0 or higher or iOS 10.1 or higher on their phone or tablet to receive the update. In addition to the select Android TV devices that currently have Prime Video, “many more” Android TVs, set-top boxes and streaming devices will soon have the streaming service, it said.