OLED microdisplay supplier eMagin had an 8% Q3 revenue decline, partly due to completing a project under a contract with a tier 1 consumer tech company that will become active again in Q4, said CEO Andrew Sculley on a Thursday investor call. “We completed the wafer design for this company and it is now being fabricated at a foundry,” he said. “We anticipate receiving these newly designed wafers in early Q2 and then we'll begin to directly pattern the OLED." The customer’s goal is to commercialize an augmented- or virtual-reality headset for the consumer electronics business, he said. He thinks "this market will take off is because we talked to the companies themselves who are interested.” Companies are shopping eMagin because they “want the next generation to be a display that has no screen door effect,” he said. That’s a mesh-like appearance when gaps between pixels can be seen on-screen. “The companies that we're dealing with certainly are pushing us very hard to get these things done quickly,” he said. "There's great belief in consumer electronics companies that this is a path forward.” The stock closed 15.7% lower Thursday at $1.13.

Ninety-seven percent of U.S. adults buying tech during Black Friday Week plan to shop in actual stores, said CTA Thursday. More consumers plan to use their mobile devices (86%) and voice-activated digital assistants (51%) to shop than last year. Some 86% plan to buy tech devices, accessories and/or streaming services during the five-day period. The group projects overall holiday spending at $135 billion. The online survey of 2,006 U.S. adults was done Oct. 30-Nov. 1.

Antitrust authorities cleared the way for Uber to buy Postmates. An FTC early termination notice dated Monday and released Tuesday ended the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period.

Cloud service providers need to better coax creators to move their content production to the cloud, Microsoft Azure Media and Entertainment Chief Technology Officer Hanno Basse told a SMPTE 2020 virtual conference keynote Tuesday. Azure embarked on a “customer listening tour” with “well-prepared survey questions,” canvassing nearly four dozen “top creators” in the film and TV industry, said Basse, CTO at 20th Century Fox Film before its sale to Disney and ex-founding president of the UHD Alliance. He joined Microsoft in April. The survey's goal was to give Azure a “good, wholesome picture” about the creative industry’s cloud “expectations,” using that feedback to better “inform” its product development process, he said. Azure heard from creators that cloud vendors “need to do a better job of actually raising awareness as to what cloud production actually means and the benefits that it brings,” said Basse. An important part of that is “total cost of ownership,” he said. Creators told Azure “security and access control” are fundamentally important cloud requirements, he said. It heard from “people in the trenches” that there’s a constant “tug of war” between personnel on the set and studio heads about “what they want to make available to the studio executives,” he said. “Not every day is perfect on set, so there needs to be a way of not exposing everything that goes on there.”

Some 35% of U.S. broadband households report a data security problem in the past year, including malware/spyware infection, loss of privacy and data/identity theft, said Parks Associates. “More activities and use cases are going across more devices, and that increases exposure to risk,” said President Elizabeth Parks. Four in five are concerned about security and privacy issues at home, led by identity theft.

Vivint’s Q3 revenue grew nearly 10%, “reflecting healthy consumer demand for smart home and security services,” said CEO Todd Pedersen on a Wednesday call. It added nearly 127,000 subscribers, up 14% from a year earlier, he said. “In today's environment of uncertainty, homeowners are spending more time thinking about and investing in their homes,” he said. “Consumers continue to expect increasingly complex smart home solutions that include integrated door locks, exterior cameras, interior cameras, lighting controls and thermostats that are professionally installed, monitored and serviced.” The stock closed 8.3% higher Thursday at $18.79.

General Motors' self-driving subsidiary Cruise “continues to make progress” with launch of the Origin shared-ride autonomous vehicle, said CEO Mary Barra on a Q3 call Thursday. The Origin will be built at GM’s “Factory Zero” in Hamtramck, Michigan, she said. GM began testing the Origin’s Ultium battery system at its Milford, Michigan, “proving ground,” and "pre-production” Origin vehicles are expected next year, she said. Cruise AVs will be tested in San Francisco by the end of 2021 “without backup drivers” after California regulators give GM gets the “go-ahead,” she said. “Cruise will be the first company to test autonomous vehicles with no backup driver in a dense and complex urban driving environment.” GM and Cruise in "coming months” plan to file an “exemption petition” with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “to deploy Origin vehicles without steering wheels or pedals,” said Barra. Cruise is working with an epidemiologist and using health research “to identify measures that may help maintain a healthy ride environment,” free from risks of COVID-19, she said.

In home networking, CommScope continues to see a drive toward streaming devices, “and we're reacting quickly to reallocate resources to ensure we have a primary position as this transition takes place,” said Chief Technology Officer Morgan Kurk on a Q3 call Thursday. New technologies like Wi-Fi 6 “will give us even greater opportunities to support applications with our streaming devices in the future,” he said. The “collection of spectrum” in the U.S. “will become the foundation that enables 5G to reach its potential,” said Kurk. That spectrum will drive “increased competition for consumer wallets between wireless operators for mobility” and hasten the fight between wireless and fixed-line operators “in the battle for the home,” he said. “As the impact of COVID-19 will likely impact the world throughout 2021, operators will need to enhance the fixed-line access, given how essential connectivity has now become in the home.” Though the pandemic brought many challenges, it shows “the world how essential network connectivity is,” said new CEO Charles Treadway, who joined a month ago from Accudyne Industries (see personals section, Oct. 5). “Whether it's keeping businesses running, maintaining our education systems with virtual teaching or helping people stay connected to their loved ones, COVID-19 has highlighted the power of network connectivity.”

NPD acquired Pricing Excellence, a retail analytics company specializing in cloud-based computing technologies, said the buyer Tuesday (see also personals section, this issue). Pricing Excellence will enhance NPD’s ability to “provide insight across emerging channels and provide more granular data faster,” it said.

Comcast and Walmart didn’t comment Tuesday on reports they’re in talks to develop and sell smart TVs. A Tuesday Wall Street Journal article said the companies are discussing possible Walmart-branded TVs that would run Comcast software with streaming apps on a platform similar to those offered by Amazon, Roku, Google and Apple. Walmart would get a cut of the streaming revenue. Walmart sells Roku TVs under its Onn private-label brand and from Hisense, JVC, RCA and TCL.