Rebecca Day

Netflix shares shot up 24 percent Tuesday following its positive Q1 earnings report released after regular U.S. markets closed Monday, to close Tuesday at $216.99. In a letter to shareholders released Monday, CEO Reed Hastings said Netflix added more than 3 million members to its streaming service, bringing the total to more than 36 million worldwide (CED April 23 p6) . The number of DVD members fell from 8.22 million in Q4 to 7.98 million in Q1. Lower-than-expected content costs and higher revenue led to a higher-than-forecast $113 million in contribution profit for DVD in Q1, Hastings said.

Worldwide regulations forcing the transition from incandescent and other inefficient lighting sources to energy-friendly bulbs are a “huge growth opportunity” for semiconductor makers, Biven said. Total light bulb shipments last year were 13 billion-17 billion units, an “amazingly large volume market,” he said. Today, LEDs make up just 2 percent, roughly 230 million, of the total bulbs shipped, but are expected to surge to more than a billion on the back of incandescent replacement business by 2015-2016, Biven said. Compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb sales will continue to grow for the time being because they're a cheaper alternative to LED bulbs, but LED’s longevity, color and environmental benefits will ultimately win out as the price delta narrows, he said.

"The PC is far from dead,” said AMD CEO Rory Read on the company’s Q1 earnings call Thursday. But the PC market is “a little bit more difficult than what people had thought,” Read said, and while second half 2013 will be better than the first, it’s likely to end up down “low-to mid-single digits” for the year.

Elop highlighted the Lumia portion of its smart device segment where unit volume grew sequentially to 5.6 million units, with roughly two-thirds of Lumia volumes accounted for by Windows Phone 8-based devices. While Lumia product sales grew 27 percent over Q4 2012, overall smart device volume fell 49 percent from Q1 2012 to 6.1 million units, said an earnings release. In Q1, Nokia shipped half a million Symbian devices, said Chief Financial Officer Timo Ihamuotila, “down significantly” from Q4.

Touch-enabled Ultrabook pricing could fall to $499 during the holiday season, with $599 “pretty commonly out there,” said Intel Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith on a Q1 earnings call. Thin notebooks, powered by Intel’s Bay Trail processors, will hit $300 price tags come Christmas season while some ultrathin and light notebooks based on non-core processors could reach as low as $200, according to outgoing CEO Paul Otellini.

Global penetration for LED lighting applications is forecast to be 26 percent in 2016, up from 5 percent in 2012, DisplaySearch said. The highest growth will be in LED-based tubes that replace fluorescent tubes used in commercial applications, street lights, and luminaires whose innovative designs produce light across various shapes and sizes, DisplaySearch said.

LG Electronics joined the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), founded last spring by Samsung and Qualcomm, according to an article from ETnews.com in Asia. It wasn’t clear from the report whether LG plans to continue supporting two wireless charging formats, having introduced the first phone compatible with the Wireless Power Consortium’s Qi charging standard in 2011 and launching what it called the smallest wireless charger at Mobile World Congress two months ago, also using Qi technology. A spokesman for A4WP would only say “the WPC website still lists LG as a member.” In the ETnews.com article, forwarded to us by A4WP, an LG executive said, “We had initially planned to focus on developing and commercializing both magnetic induction and magnetic resonance wireless charging technology. … We joined A4WP as a means to check the market.” A4WP focuses on “magnetic resonance” wireless power transfer technology that provides “spatial freedom for charging,” the spokesman said. WPC’s technology requires devices to be placed directly on a charging pad in a fixed location. A4WP will release “more formal” news about LG’s membership in A4WP in coming weeks, the spokesman told us.

The FTC approved nine final orders settling allegations that seven rent-to-own companies and a software design firm and its two principals spied on consumers using computers the consumers had rented from them (CED Sept 26 p6). Using software, the companies recorded screenshots of confidential and personal information, logged customers’ computer keystrokes, and took photos of people in their homes without the customers’ knowledge, said the complaint. Under the settlement, respondents will be prohibited from using monitoring software and banned from using “deceptive methods” to gather information from consumers, the FTC said (http://1.usa.gov/14qqOhT). The respondents will be prohibited from using geolocation tracking without consumer consent and notice, and from using “fake software registrations screens” to collect personal information. The seven rent-to-own stores are also barred from using information “improperly gathered” from consumers to collect on accounts, the FTC said. Respondents include DesignerWare and its principals Timothy Keller and Ronald Koller; Aspen Way Enterprises; Watershed Development Corp., doing business as Watershed and Aaron’s Sales & Lease Ownership; Showplace Rent-to-Own; J.A.G. Rents and Red Zone Investment d/b/a ColorTyme; B. Stamper Enterprises; and C.A.L.M. Ventures d/b/a Premier Rental Purchase. The agency’s vote, which took place after a public comment period, was 3-0-1. Commissioner Joshua Wright didn’t vote. Software company DesignerWare, and its principals, Koller and Keller, are prohibited from “providing others with the means to commit illegal acts,” said the FTC in announcing the approved orders. Under the settlements, the commission will have access to records so it can monitor compliance for 20 years, it said. Kelly said his company’s restricted Detective Mode Program could only be installed after a computer was reported stolen for tracking purposes, according to his public comment (http://1.usa.gov/11aDELh). The program was only installed when the renter claimed the computer was stolen and couldn’t be returned, he said. “DesignerWare has never had any reports that its license agreement with rental stores was ever violated and that the Detective Mode Program was ever installed on any computer other than one reported stolen.” He conceded that DesignerWare doesn’t know how all its licensees used the Detective Mode Program. Regarding improper use of video recording, Kelly said, “We have never been shown any evidence from the FTC that anyone was recorded having sex, pictures of children, etc.” He said every renter signed an agreement saying “if they steal it then the [sic] might be subject to being monitored!”

According to a Consumer Reports index published Monday, more incentives may be necessary to offset “consumers’ lethargic outlook.” The Index’s past 30-day retail spending gauge for March fell for the third straight month, the report said. The index’s sentiment score was stagnant from February to March at 50.1, following a trend that has been “frozen in a narrow band between 51.2 and 48.9 since November,” it said. The sale of personal and major electronics “remained stable” from February, a Consumer Reports spokesman told us. According to the index’s planned buying activity, April will see an uptick in planned spending for major appliances, small appliances and seasonal yard and garden equipment, but consumer electronics spending will dip from 15 percent of consumer retail spending to 13.6 percent.

Custom integrators are small businesses in a “huge” electronics market, and consumers are adopting technology “way faster than they used to,” Daniels said. With technology getting “very cheap,” that’s creating a need for dealers to adjust their revenue mix to industry trends, he said. Ten years ago, switching systems in customers’ homes accounted for 20 percent of Xssentials’ revenue, Daniels said, compared with half of that now. “Consumers expect more from less,” he said, as technology keeps getting simpler for them to relate to and buy. “They expect that $100,000 they spend buys them a lot more in reliability, accessibility, usability and fun than ever before.” The $100,000 system of “yesteryear” is now available to customers for $50,000, he said.