Rebecca Day

Spotify’s free mobile version is now available for Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 users, who can download the app from the Windows Phone Store, Spotify said Tuesday. Windows Phone users can participate in the standard 30-day free trial offered by Spotify, but only Sprint customers are eligible for the free three-month or six-month trials depending on their mobile plan, a Spotify spokeswoman told us. Previously, only the premium $9.99/month version of Spotify was available to Windows Phone users, the spokeswoman said. Premium subscribers get on-demand play, higher quality audio, uninterrupted music with no commercials and the ability to download music and listen offline, according to Spotify. With the free version, users can listen to and shuffle playlists, it said.

A week after Canada-based ChargeSpot announced the first wireless charger that’s compatible with both Qi and PMA wireless charging standards, the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) asserted its independence with its Qi spec, providing a status report on Qi penetration in offices, restaurants, airports, hotels and public venues. A Qi spokeswoman told us there’s no correlation between WPC’s status report and the ChargeSpot release last week (CED Aug 22 p6). WPC said Tuesday that the installed base of Qi-enabled wireless chargers reaches 30 countries and more than 1 million locations. “WPC’s 200-strong member companies are fueling exciting innovation of the Qi standard, Qi products and Qi-based business services, which is driving the accelerated adoption of wireless charging by consumers and businesses around the globe,” said John Perzow, WPC vice president-market development, citing 65 models of Qi-enabled phones and “over 500 different products that use Qi.” WPC said companies including Facebook, Google, Texas Instruments and Verizon have installed Qi chargers in corporate meeting rooms; nine McDonald’s restaurants in Germany recently installed Qi chargers, as have several coffee shops in Toronto and a restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kube Systems announced a deal with Marriott Hotels for a Qi charging system, WPC said. Verizon has deployed 800 Qi-enabled charging spots in U.S. airports, while Haier installed charging stations in the Beijing airport and DoCoMo installed Qi charging systems in airports and train stations in Japan, it said. The installed base of Qi chargers charge one device at a time, the spokeswoman said. The company has yet to release its specification for resonant charging that will enable multi-device charging, she said.

As the official electronics partner of the US Open Tennis Championships that began Monday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, LG is sponsoring the 1,300-square-foot LG Winner’s Circle showing off TVs, smartphones and its Magic Remote.

Rumors were rampant Friday about production delays for the iPhone 6 on accounts from supply chain sources. According to a Reuters report (http://reut.rs/1q0Nr5f), Apple suppliers are scrambling to get enough screens ready for the new iPhone 6 because a redesign of “a key component” disrupted panel production. Some accounts speculate that the thinness of the iPhone 6 is causing manufacturing headaches. An Apple news conference scheduled for Sept. 9 has many industry watchers pegging availability for Sept. 19, based on previous Apple roll-out schedules. A delay could threaten the number of phones available at launch, reports say, but rumors of delays for upcoming iPhones are as much a part of the annual runup to a new launch as “exclusives” about design and features. Retailers, meanwhile, continue to clear shelves of the soon-to-be-dated iPhone 5s. Walmart lopped $100 off no-contract 5s and 5c models on the Straight Talk plan. The prepaid 32 GB 5c is now $449 at Walmart, while a 16 GB 5s is $549. Two-year-old iPhone 4s smartphones have dipped, in turn, to $349, with bonus case, on Straight Talk and to $299 for an 8 GB on Net10, we found. On the contract side, Target has a temporary price cut to $99 on the 16 GB 5s on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon networks with a two-year contract. Best Buy cut the 16 GB 5s to $149 on Sprint, with Verizon and AT&T holding at $199. The trade-in market for the iPhone is active, too. Gazelle gave a trade-in price Friday of $305 for a 32 GB iPhone 5s in good condition, $320 in excellent shape and $100 for a broken model. In contrast, the 32 GB iPhone 4s reaped $70 in good condition, $80 perfect and $30 broken, we found.

While low-priced Chinese brands are putting pressure on tier-one TV brands in the U.S., new e-commerce-based TV entrants to the Chinese market are driving already competitive TV prices lower there, said a blog post Friday by DisplaySearch analyst Bing Zhang [http://bit.ly/1v6iEHC].

Lowe’s in 2015 will exhibit for the first time at CES as part of the Tech West exhibit at the Sands Expo, Kevin Meagher, vice president and smart home general manager, told Consumer Electronics Daily on a press swing through New York. He said Lowe’s will make its CES debut in 2015 because the home control market is “going mainstream” and Lowe’s is part of that. Home control has been part of CES in the past, but at a level beyond the reach of most consumers, Meagher said. “Anybody can do home automation for $5,000 a pop, but Lowe’s is trying to bring it to the masses at $179.” He was referring to the company’s Iris starter kit.

ChargeSpot Wireless Power announced the first wireless charger that’s compatible with both Qi and PMA wireless charging standards. The company called the product an “important step forward” for offices and public locations including hotels, cafes and airports that want to offer wireless charging for cellphone users “without the risk of having to choose between different wireless charging standards.” The ChargeSpot Pocket, designed for installation in public places, installs beneath a surface where it’s hidden from sight, the company said, making it suited to design-centric environments where hygiene and safety concerns come into play. ChargeSpot Pockets are currently installed in coffee shops, hotels and offices in Canada. ChargeSpot CEO Mark Goh told us a wireless charging solution for the Rezence wireless charging standard “is in the pipeline and we'll be there when the market’s ready for Rezence.”

Al Baker, chief operating officer at technology startup Playtabase, sees home health as a largely untapped market for wearables, he told Consumer Electronics Daily on a media tour in New York. The company is launching an Indiegogo campaign next month for Reemo, a wrist-based wearable designed to help users control their environment through gestures using point-and-control technology. Playtabase was one of 10 companies out of a field of 400 selected for the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator program for technology startups.

Samsung’s double-digit growth in an overall slowdown in tablet sales in 2014 is due largely to “an opportunity presented for more specialized devices,” said Samsung Electronics America President Tim Baxter at the launch of the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook at Barnes & Noble’s Union Square store in New York Wednesday. Samsung and Barnes & Noble are billing the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook as a “best of both worlds” tablet, combining B&N’s content and reading experience with Samsung’s video, apps and web-browsing capability. The $179 device (including $20 rebate) carries the same suggested retail price as the vanilla Galaxy Tab 4 that Samsung sells at Best Buy and other retailers.

Sprint and Sharp are taking a decidedly mid-market approach to the U.S. smartphone market that’s dominated in the U.S. by Apple and Samsung, according to comments executives made at the launch of the Sharp Aquos Crystal smartphone in New York Tuesday. The phone, available on subsidized two-year contract plans for zero down and $10 per month over 24 months -- or $149 on a prepaid plan from Boost Mobile or Virgin Mobile -- was launched along with value-oriented data pricing plans from Sprint.