Rebecca Day

Samsung unveiled a new brand identity and partnerships for the Samsung TV Plus free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service that launched in 2015. Samsung TV Plus is integrated into all 2016-2022 Samsung smart TVs and Galaxy devices, plus select Family Hub refrigerators in the U.S. and Korea, the company said.

By 2030, the number of active users in virtual spaces will top 1 billion, up from 118.3 million last year, said an August ABI Research report on metaverse market opportunities. User-generated revenue is projected to grow from $4.2 billion to $44.8 billion over the span. That doesn’t include transaction volume for related non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or dedicated AR/VR revenue, which it said will add “billions of dollars” more, ABI said.

TCL submitted a status report Tuesday on a class-action settlement filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in the case of Julian v. TTE Technology in which the plaintiffs alleged TCL North America marketed certain TVs as having a frame rate twice as high as their actual refresh rate.

Fitbit announced Wednesday the next generation of devices in its Inspire tracker line and the Versa and Sense series smartwatches. The latest devices are thinner, lighter, “more comfortable” and don’t require daily charging, blogged TJ Varghese, director-product management.

The COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest, economic uncertainty and growing availability of do-it-yourself systems helped drive “slow but steady” adoption of home security systems, said Parks Associates analyst Ryan Hulla on a webcast last week. Parks’ most recent home security system data shows 35% of internet households had a security system in Q4, up from 33% two years earlier and 18% in Q4 2018.

Ad-supported streaming services are gaining a larger share of consumers' wallets in connected TV, but consumers’ attitudes toward commercials that air during programming vary and are sometimes contradictory, a July report from Infillion shows.

Bang & Olufsen is “constantly evolving" its retail locations and "brick-and-mortar experience based on market trends” in cities where it sees an expanding client base, emailed Nilas Porsman, B&O America head-retail, after the luxury AV brand's announcement this month it plans to open an experience store by year-end in the Miami Design District (see 2208020017). The brand has had showrooms in the U.S. and Canada for more than 30 years.

Target management defended its decision to push out inventory in Q2 at the expense of profit on the company’s Q2 earnings call Wednesday. The strategy cleared a path for it to lock in high-demand items for the second half, executives said. Target’s Q2 operating income plunged 87% year on year to $321 million for the quarter ended July 30, the company said. Cost of sales rose 16.6% to $20.4 million. Comparable sales were up 2.6%, and store traffic grew 2.7%; total sales increased 3.3% to $25.7 billion.

WiSA’s Q2 revenue fell 40% to $946,000, from $1.6 million in the year-ago quarter, said Chief Financial Officer George Oliva on a Monday earnings call. Its net loss was $4.1 million vs. $3.4 million in Q2 2021, said an SEC filing. Gross margin shrank to 20% from 29%, due to lower sales volumes, said the corrected quarterly earnings release.

After resetting Q2 financial guidance three weeks ago (see 2207260009) due to price cuts it had to take on bloated electronics and apparel inventory, Walmart finished the fiscal Q3 quarter ended July 31 “stronger than we had anticipated,” said CEO Doug McMillon on the company’s Tuesday earnings call. Walmart sales in the quarter were “well ahead of plan,” with higher prices lifting the average transaction size. Supply chain costs, too, were better than expected, McMillon said.