Rebecca Day

Samsung highlighted 5G, Wi-Fi 6 and custom Bluetooth connectivity in the “next evolution of the PC” during its virtual Unpacked event Wednesday. The new laptop series includes the Galaxy Book Pro (starting at $999) and two-in-one Galaxy Book Pro 360 ($1,199), with what TM Roh, head of Samsung Electronics' mobile communications business, called a “reinvention of the PC” -- laptops with the “mobile DNA of a Samsung Galaxy smartphone.” Each model, with aluminum casing, is available in 13- and 15-inch versions. Gamer versions under the Odyssey sub-brand ($1,399) are also part of the line, due to launch May 14.

Addressing the staffing shortage that has plagued the custom integrator channel for years, Azione at its spring meeting Wednesday announced a program called SmartHomeHire that’s designed to connect job hunters with dealers looking to fill positions for salespeople, project managers, system designers and technicians.

Shopify reported strong Q1 revenue performance, with gross merchandise value (GMV) growing across all geographies on “robust consumer spending,” said President Harley Finkelstein on a Wednesday call. Revenue grew 110% to $988.6 million, with about $321 million coming from subscriptions, just under $668 million from merchants, said the company. Though U.S. stimulus programs had an impact on revenue, GMV “was strong even without it,” said Chief Financial Officer Amy Shapero, saying GMV outside of the U.S. accelerated at a faster pace. Q1 revenue exceeded Q4 revenue, “a remarkable achievement” given the typical seasonal falloff after the holiday selling season, Shapero said. Markets that opened post-pandemic, including Australia and New Zealand, aren’t slowing down, said Finkelstein, saying online GMV remains elevated: “So I don't think the consumer preference shift that happened through COVID was a temporary thing.” Multichannel selling is becoming “more critical as the costs of customer acquisition climbs and the lines blurred between online and offline commerce,” said Finkelstein. In the quarter, Shopify expanded its TikTok partnerships to an additional 14 countries and broadened its Pinterest channel by 27 markets, he said. The company launched in-app buy buttons. It integrated Shop Pay as a checkout option with merchants selling on Facebook shops and Instagram Checkout. Lord & Taylor launched on Shopify in the quarter. Finkelstein noted it was America's first department store, founded in 1826, and said it’s “exciting to see their value proposition evolve into an excellent mobile and social experience" and to build on a future-looking platform "experiences that haven't even been thought of yet.” Shopify has under 30% e-commerce penetration in North America, slightly higher in the U.K., said the executive: “There's so much headroom, and there's so much room for e-commerce to grow.” As countries roll out vaccines in 2021 and populations can move about more freely, "the overall economic environment will likely improve," Shopify said. "Some consumer spending will likely rotate back to offline retail and services, and the ongoing shift to e-commerce, which accelerated in 2020, will likely resume a more normalized pace of growth." Shares closed 11.4% higher at $1,288.80.

Spotify shares closed 12.3% lower Wednesday at $256.84 after the company’s Q1 earnings report showed monthly average user growth “modestly below” internal expectations. Total monthly average users grew 24% year on year in Q1 to 356 million, said the Q1 shareholder letter. Average revenue per user for paid subscribers was 7% lower year on year to $4.98. Spotify had “meaningful contributions” in the U.S., Mexico, Russia and India, but lower than projected MAU growth in Latin America and Europe. Per-user consumption grew in developed regions including North America and Europe, but developing regions were below pre-COVID-19 levels.

Spotify officially rolled out its podcasting platform Tuesday, allowing creators to offer subscriptions through a separate platform, beginning in the U.S. A week earlier, Apple introduced a podcast subscription platform (see 2104200070). The Spotify version -- which promises revenue, reach and discoverability among the service's 345 million customers -- will be available through its Anchor service, letting podcasters mark episodes as subscriber-only. For the first two years, creators will receive all subscription revenue; in 2023, Spotify will begin charging 5% of revenue for the service. Anchor pitched it as a way for podcasters to save time with setup and management, saying they can be up and running with a subscription service “in minutes.” The platform allows them to choose one of three tiers: $2.99, $4.99 or $7.99 monthly. Content will be searchable and discoverable within Spotify, which is also testing the Spotify Open Access Platform for creators to deliver paid content to existing paid audiences elsewhere while retaining direct control over the relationship, it said. Another revenue opportunity for podcasters is through the Spotify Audience Network (SPAN), an audio advertising marketplace to connect with listeners. Beginning Saturday, Spotify will open SPAN to select independent creators using Anchor, billing it as a “better value” to advertisers than solutions using Really Simple Syndication. A Q&A feature will allow podcasters to invite “their most loyal supporters” to interact directly with the show, Anchor said. It expects to add functionality soon allowing them to contact subscribers directly to offer additional perks like merchandise and promo codes. It's also collaborating with NPR to make some of its shows available sponsor-free to paid subscribers. How I Built This With Guy Raz, Short Wave, It’s Been a Minute With Sam Sanders, Code Switch and Planet Money will be available May 4, marked by “Plus” in the title. Podcast listening got a boost from stay-at-home trends during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Futuresource: The share of survey respondents listening to podcasts grew from 36% in 2019 to 41% at year-end 2020.

TiVo’s Stream 4K was the only streaming player out of 18 devices in a recent Consumer Reports rating that didn’t encrypt data it sent out, said the organization Monday. User information -- such as SSID, city and state, and longitude and latitude coordinates that could be used to pinpoint a street address -- were exposed, said CR, which notified TiVo. The Xperi-owned company “quickly agreed to fix the problem,” it said. TiVo attributed the weakness to a third-party app’s “transmission of certain data.” CR found the TiVo Edge DVR also was sending unencrypted data, but information didn’t include user data such as IP addresses, and CR didn’t see it as a risk to consumers. The TiVo Stream 4K flaw could leave users open to security vulnerabilities such as a malicious app that has access to a user’s network, CR said: An attacker could use the information, along with other valuable data, to create “an even more invasive attack.” TiVo fixed the problem by the end of March, a company spokesperson told us Tuesday: "We take consumer privacy very seriously and acted as quickly as we could -- pushing the fixes out to the affected devices."

After moderating declines in pay-TV subscriptions due to COVID-19 stay-at-home trends, the rate of losses will tick up to 6.6% this year from 4.9% in 2020, S&P Global predicted. Losses will be primarily from larger cable operators as consumers continue to abandon pay TV’s “steadily increasing prices for less expensive streaming video options.”

Roku community members blasted Roku Monday in its dispute with Google over what Roku called “unfair terms” for YouTube TV. Some users received an email from Roku warning of the possibility “that Google may take away your access to the YouTube TV channel,” saying recent negotiations “have broken down because Roku cannot accept Google’s unfair terms as we believe they could harm our users.”

Silicon Labs’ divestiture of its Infrastructure & Automotive business to Skyworks Solutions won’t affect its R&D efforts in IoT, executives said during Q&A on a Thursday investor call. The company announced Thursday a definitive agreement to sell the I&A business assets, including power/isolation, timing and broadcast products, intellectual property and associated employees to Skyworks for $2.75 billion.

Custom-channel dealers are itching to get back to in-person conferences but are in holding patterns about plans for the CEDIA Expo, scheduled for Sept. 1-3 at Indianapolis' Indiana Convention Center, buying group executives told us. Executives reported some pushback from members over the show's mandatory mask policy.