Rebecca Day

Home AV retailers in metro areas with local rooting interests in Sunday’s Super Bowl had requests for TV upgrades spike since the teams clinched spots for the NFL football championship game, dealers in the Kansas City and Tampa Bay areas told Consumer Electronics Daily this week. They're also having a tough time finding the jumbo-size TVs customers want.

Amazon blew past Q4 guidance of $112 billion-$121 billion -- and analysts' consensus of $119.6 billion -- posting $125.6 billion in revenue, up 44%, in a holiday quarter padded with October Prime Day receipts. Third-party units were 55% of total paid units during the quarter, said Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky on Tuesday’s earnings call.

Spotify shares closed 8% lower Wednesday, at $317.25, following conservative Q1 revenue guidance based on pandemic uncertainties and their ongoing effects on user, subscriber and revenue growth. Revenue guidance for Q1 is $2.4 billion-$2.6 billion with 354 million-364 million monthly active users (MAUs), including 155 million-158 million paid, said the company's Q4 shareholder letter Wednesday.

"Robust" digital revenue in the recorded music and music publishing segments drove Warner Music's fiscal Q1 revenue up 6.3% year on year to $1.3 billion. They were offset by COVID-19-related declines in physical recorded music, artist services, expanded-rights and performance revenue, the company reported.

Holiday season online and other non-store sales spiked 23.9% year on year November-December to $209 billion, for 26.4% of total retail sales, blogged National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz Monday. Non-store growth in the 2019 holiday season was 14.7% to $167.8 billion, representing 23% of total retail. Combined U.S. retail sales for the 2020 period were $789.4 billion (see 2101150054). NRF had forecast a 3.6-5.2% bump to between $755.3 billion and $766.7 billion in an "unprecedented shopping landscape."

Ford named Google Cloud its preferred cloud provider for data, artificial intelligence and machine learning as part of a six-year partnership, they announced Monday. Google will create unique services and capabilities for "millions" of Ford and Lincoln customers, beginning in 2023.

Dolby fiscal Q1 revenue of $390 million for the quarter ended Dec. 25 sailed past guidance of $330 million-$360 million, and was above $292 million in the year-ago quarter, said Chief Financial Officer Lewis Chew on the company's quarterly call Thursday, attributing better-than-expected results largely to shifts in timing.

"Save the date" for the ProSource annual meeting Aug. 2-6 in San Antonio, emailed the buying group Friday. ProSource canceled the 2020 version of the event, usually held in spring, soon after its March summit with sister group BrandSource went on as scheduled in Las Vegas in the early days of the pandemic. Friday's email said details will follow.

Consumers spent 44% more time streaming in Q4 than in the prior-year quarter, said a recent Conviva report. Roku led streaming platforms with a 31% share, followed by Amazon Fire TV (19%) and Samsung smart TVs (10%), it said. Overall, smart TVs led in viewing hour growth, logging a 157% increase vs. the year-ago quarter, it said. Connected TV device viewing hours rose 38%, but share gave way slightly to smart TVs, dropping from 51% to 49% year on year. Viewing on game consoles rose 16%.

Apple had double-digit fiscal Q1 growth across all product categories despite “ongoing COVID-19 impact at retail locations,” said CEO Tim Cook on a Wednesday investor call. Record $111.4 billion revenue, up 21% year on year, outperformed expectations, as iPhone grew 17%, iPad 41% and Mac 21%. Cook referenced the role all three played in users’ lives during the pandemic. The quarter ended Dec. 26.