Rebecca Day

Voice has evolved from an interface to a distinct consumer channel -- with its own behaviors and implications for brands, Vixen Labs said Tuesday. About 95% of consumers using voice technology are mobile users; two-thirds use a smart speaker; and 31% use voice daily, with most using voice to search, consume and shop, said a May survey done by Vixen with the Linux Foundation’s Open Voice Network.

Use of connected TV devices leveled off over the past year after being “pulled forward” in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, said a Q2 Leichtman Research Group report. Still, 39% of adults watch video on a TV via a connected device daily, 60% weekly, and 70% at least monthly, it said. Despite consumers having more ways to watch video, TVs are “overwhelmingly” their preferred delivery method, said Leichtman.

The global market for sound bars, at $8 billion annually, is starting to “plateau” in unit volume, SAR Insight analyst Peter Cooney emailed Friday. The category remains important for technology companies because sound bars make up for the thin speakers used in flat-screen TVs, he said. Voice-controlled sound bars are the fast-growing segment in the category, moving from the “works with” approach to voice engine technology now being built in, said Cooney. Analysts’ assumptions that growth in sound bars would stunt sales of smart speakers haven’t played out: “Soundbars have continued to assert their dominance in the living room” without having a negative impact on smart speakers, said Cooney.

Vizio certified LTN, Beachfront, FreeWheel, Invidi, Google, Adcuratio and Extreme Reach for meeting technology specifications of the Open Addressable Ready (OAR) standard and successfully enabling addressable campaigns, said the TV maker Thursday. Vizio surpassed 11.2 million U.S. addressable TVs (see 2106090024) last month and successfully launched live addressable TV ad campaigns with top TV networks, it said.

Klipsch bowed two premium Dolby Atmos sound bars Thursday. The flagship $1,499 system includes a 54-inch, 1200-watt sound bar matched with a pair of wireless surround speakers and a 12-inch wireless subwoofer, “unheard of in this category,” said Mark Casavant, senior vice president-global brand and business development, on an embargoed call last week. The sound bar and surrounds in the 5.1.4-channel system have upfiring speakers for Atmos. Casavant compared the wood-enclosed Cinema 1200 and Cinema 800 sound bars to “general plastic sound bars” on the market, saying the Klipsch models are “premium, high-fidelity loudspeakers that just happen to be in a sound bar form factor.” They use the company’s design philosophy of horn-loaded high-, mid- and low-frequency drivers to deliver high-efficiency, low-distortion flat frequency response with controlled directivity, he said. Senior Product Manager Michael Buratto referenced Klipsch’s position in professional cinema sound systems, emphasizing bass reproduction below 50 Hz “where all the boom happens” in movies. The Cinema 1200 “sounds twice as loud” as competing systems at 30 Hz, he said. Both sound bars have built-in universal Wi-Fi for multiroom streaming and work with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Spotify Connect. Other features include HDCP 2.3 for 8K HDR video passthrough, dialog enhancement modes and Bluetooth 5.0. Surround speakers ($279 each) are options with the $879 800-watt Cinema 800, a 3.1-channel 48-inch sound bar with three high-frequency, four mid-range drivers and a 10-inch subwoofer. Klipsch also announced a Cinema 600 sound bar with Dolby Audio at $499.

Companies should treat profit as “an outcome, not as the ultimate goal,” said former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly in a Q&A session at the recent National Retail Federation Retail Converge event. Joly, who stepped down as CEO of Best Buy in 2019 (see 2003110072) and as executive chairman in 2020, is a lecturer at Harvard Business School. He discussed his recent book, The Heart of Business, which he bills as leadership principles for “the next era of capitalism.”

Transportation and vehicle technology companies showing automotive, drones and self-driving technology will be among the exhibitors in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s newly opened West Hall at CES 2022, a CTA spokesperson emailed Wednesday. The Central and West halls “are filling up fast,” she said, after the announcement CES added space tech and food tech categories for the January show (see 2106300063). Space tech will have its own section in the North Hall, and food tech is slated to be part of the lifestyle section, she said. Some 1,000 companies have committed to exhibiting in Las Vegas, covering 1.56 million net square feet, she said. A June 8 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the West Hall was followed by the opening of World of Concrete, the first major show to return to Las Vegas post-pandemic. The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop, an underground tunnel developed by Elon Musk's The Boring Co. and designed to shuttle convention attendees throughout the 200-acre campus in electric Tesla vehicles, also became fully operational, said the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. An open-air atrium, with a 10,000-square-foot digital screen developed by Samsung, is said to be the largest digital experience in a U.S. convention center in the U.S.

Higher priced panels, shortages and price hikes in components forced TV brands to cut shipments of mid- and small-sized TVs to focus on more profitable large-screen mid- to high-end models, said TrendForce on Wednesday. QLED TVs, as a result, will have a 22.4% bump in shipments this year to 7.1 million; OLED TV shipments are forecast to jump 80% year on year, with both segments expected to set shipment records.

Netflix’s venture into consumer products, announced several weeks ago, along with reports it may be expanding its game offerings, indicate the company is “looking to build a new profit pool or two a la Disney,” MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson wrote investors Tuesday. But consumer products or gaming won’t be enough “to change the narrative,” said the analyst, suggesting Netflix instead should add a live sports tier or advertising-based VOD offering to reach new customer segments and markets, especially in emerging regions with low average revenue per user. Since the start of 2018, Netflix has underperformed the S&P 500, rising 34% vs. 57% for the broader market, Nathanson said, saying a maturing U.S. subscriber base and an intensifying competitive environment among streaming services contributed to limited stock performance. He questioned how much growth is left in Netflix’s subscription VOD business, while “the success of AVOD businesses has been especially notable this year, and Netflix seemingly would have pole position to capture that market.” He noted Netflix “has a fundamental opposition to advertising,” but he said emerging pressure to find growth “as well as a more developed AVOD ecosystem may make Netflix more amenable to advertising on the service.” Netflix benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic with record subscribership last year, but subscriber growth slowed to below guidance in Q1 at 4 million subscription adds. The analyst expects an acceleration in signups in the second half as more content is available, but “as economies further reopen, we believe people will spend more time engaging through in-person activities rather than streaming content at home.” Netflix didn’t comment Tuesday.

Qualcomm launched a successor to the flagship Snapdragon 888 mobile platform at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Monday, and bolstered support for 5G millimeter-wave networks with a contingent of ecosystem supporters. Qualcomm’s next-generation 5G mobile platform for Android devices delivers the entertainment “users expect from flagship devices,” said Lekha Motiwala, director-product management, on an embargoed call Thursday announcing the launch of the Snapdragon 888 Plus.