Rebecca Day

Pitching a “better normal for all,” Samsung highlighted artificial intelligence, MicroLED displays, robots and sustainability at its prerecorded CES 2021 news conference Monday.

After a “record-setting” year for TV as consumers shifted discretionary dollars to TV purchases, shipments are forecast to drop 8% this year to 43 million units, said CTA Monday. That would still be the second-highest amount on record, it said, with revenue off 1% to $22 billion. Growth areas for the segment are 70-inch and larger TVs, forecast at 3.3 million units (up 6%), and 8K TVs (1.7 million, up 300%), it said.

Shipments of devices with built-in voice assistants will double to 3 billion units by 2024, said Futuresource Friday. Though the COVID-19 pandemic affected shipments in 2020, its effect on consumer purchasing was less than expected, with shipments growing 9% for the year.

Roku introduced a wireless reference design to allow CE brands to build and sell wireless sound bars with Roku technology under their own brands, it said Friday. TCL will launch the first Roku wireless sound bar at its Tuesday CES news conference, Mark Ely, Roku vice president-product strategy, told us in a Wednesday pre-brief. Element is due to launch a 2.0 Roku TV Ready sound bar and 2.1 sound bar with a subwoofer later this month, Ely said. Last year, TCL, Hisense, Enclave, Sound United and Bose released Roku TV Ready-certified audio products in the U.S., he said.

Harman touted extending headrests with built-in sound, in-cabin lighting, OLED and QLED displays and tactile transducers on a Thursday's online event. Targeting automotive OEMs, executives touted the company’s experience concepts, ExPs, for integrated automotive experiences made possible by technologies across its brands.

With a full holiday shopping season wrap slated for Tuesday, Adobe Analytics reported the November-December period had a total online spend of $188.2 billion, up 32% over 2019, to a record. Cyber Week sales were slower compared with the overall season, with Thanksgiving-Cyber Monday growing 21% year on year, Adobe emailed Wednesday. For the first time, more than half of online spending came from smartphones Christmas Day. Average daily online revenue topped $3.1 billion during the season vs. $2.3 billion in 2019, and for the first time, every day of the two-month season exceeded $1 billion in sales. Fifty days had revenue over $2 billion, nine days passed $4 billion, and Thanksgiving Day sales exceeded $5 billion. Curbside pickup orders were up 36% overall but dropped to 26% in the seven days leading up to Christmas. Smartphones were 40% of the season’s e-commerce growth.

New Neo QLED TV technology and environmental initiatives were top themes during Samsung’s prerecorded First Look 2021 event Wednesday, leading up to the company’s news conference Tuesday at virtual CES.

Olympus completed the transfer of its imaging business to Japan Industrial Partners, said Olympus Monday. Olympus, which began selling the Semi-Olympus with Zuiko lenses in 1936, said in June it was selling its sagging imaging business after logging operating losses for the past three fiscal years (see 2006250060). It signed a memo of understanding with Japan Industrial Partners to carve out its imaging business to a new company, since named OM Digital Solutions, and to transfer its shares to a fund handled by JIP. OM Digital Solutions will retain Olympus capabilities in research and development, production, sales and marketing. It will license the Olympus brand name, “which is familiar and resonates with customers, for the foreseeable future,” said Shigemi Sugimoto, former Olympus digital imaging head, who was named representative director of OMDS. The company will continue production at the facility in Dong Nai province, Vietnam, where imaging products have been manufactured since 2008, it said. The new company will “continue to launch innovative products in existing business areas such as cameras, audio recorders, and binoculars” and will provide new solutions "as our future product roadmap plans have not changed." OMDS will offer customer support for the imaging and audio products previously manufactured and sold by Olympus. "Services, repairs and warranties will continue, and customers will receive full support for future purchases,” it said. The launch of the new Tokyo-based company, with a market capitalization of $360 million, brings together a more "focused and flexible organizational structure," it said. OMDS employs about 2,000 globally. Olympus, meanwhile, will concentrate on medical and scientific solutions, said CEO Yasuo Takeuchi. It recently bought Veran Medical Technologies.

Virtual CES 2021 gives many companies that couldn’t afford the physical show in Las Vegas in the past a way to play on the global tech stage, said Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology Tuesday. Startups “that do not have the infrastructure or the resources to have a physical presence at events such as CES, can now participate in the show directly from their home cities and reach a broad international audience,” said the group, which will represent more than 100 startups at CES 2021.

It could be a breakout year for augmented reality hardware, said an ABI Research 2021 trends report, as Nreal and Mad Gaze expand their AR efforts, and Facebook is expected to debut its AR smart glasses from the Reality Labs initiative. Google could take another stab at smart glasses after buying North and facing pressure from Facebook and others, said analyst Eric Abbruzzese. Apple, a “wild card,” is expected to have a dedicated AR product launch in 2022.