There’s no “let up” in cybercriminals using the COVID-19 pandemic to steal personal data, reported Nokia Thursday. One ruse is an app that mimics Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center website and plants malware on victims' computers to fetch personal data, it said. "Cybercriminals are playing on people's fears and are seeing this situation as an opportunity to promote their agendas," said Nokia. It advised the public to install apps only from trusted app stores. It estimated IoT devices are now about a third of the equipment infected, more than double 2019's infection rate. The findings are based on data aggregated from monitoring network traffic on more than 150 million devices globally with Nokia “end point” security solutions deployed.

Contactless checkout and technology that lets customers avoid waiting in line are among the new COVID-19 safety protocols Target is installing for the holiday shopping season, said the retailer Thursday. Customers can use the Wallet mobile payment option in the Target app without having to touch the scanning device, meaning the payment process is contactless regardless of whether the customer opts for self-checkout or checkout by an employee, it said. Target also will begin accepting “pre-trip shopping reservations,” it said. It will monitor and limit the number of people inside stores at one time, it said. Customers can visit Target.com/line to see if their local store has a line and can reserve a spot in line. Target will then text customers to notify them when it's their turn to enter the store.

Q3 revenue at LG Display increased 27% sequentially from Q2, “driven by a continuous rise in panel shipments” for laptops and tablets, due to the “growing trends of working from home and online schooling,” it said Thursday. “Strong global TV sales,” plus the start of full-scale mass production at LGD’s OLED panel plant in Guangzhou, China, also contributed to the revenue increase. LGD switched some Korea-based LCD production lines from TVs to laptop panels to “respond flexibly to customer needs and the short-term supply and demand situation,” it said. Industry shortages of laptop LCD panels and components impeded sales as the supply chain struggles to meet spiking consumer demand for notebook PCs as “essential” work-from-home and remote-learning connectivity tools, said market leaders Dell and HP in late August (see 2008280012).

Weekend occupancies at the Venetian and Palazzo “have been as high as 70%,” said Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson on a Q3 investor call Wednesday. The resorts are “working diligently to prepare to safely host convention and group meeting customers from throughout the world,” he said. Resuming a higher volume of commercial “airlift” into and out of McCarran airport and bringing back the convention business “are both critical components to achieving a full recovery in Las Vegas,” said Adelson. CES 2021 was canceled in July as a physical show at the Las Vegas Convention Center (see 2007280034), and the NAB Show was postponed at the LVCC to October 2021 from April (see 2009090049). Sands sees “some bright spots” looming in the Vegas convention and group business, said President-Chief Operating Officer Robert Goldstein. “Some of these large shows still want to come in Q1. We have a couple of major impediments that I don't know how we're going to correct them.” Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) imposed restrictions on large public gatherings, and “it's very difficult to overcome that,” he said. The Sands organization hopes Sisolak will "revisit those restrictions and enable the market to talk to some of these large shows,” said Goldstein. Sisolak’s office didn’t respond to questions Thursday. The governor announced a loosening of restrictions on large gatherings last month. The positive news is, “we’re getting inquiries from people from all different parts of group market saying 'we want to come back.'” The market needs a “catalyst” to change how people view “being in a place with 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 people,” he said. Goldstein doesn’t see “a lot of change” in Vegas “until there's a change structurally in the governor's position,” plus an increase in airline volume and a change in people's willingness to be in large gatherings, he said.

Amazon delivered two-thirds of its U.S. parcels in July, 274 million items, topping FedEx, said ABI analyst Susan Beardslee on a Wednesday webinar. Total retail revenue this year is forecast at $5.3 trillion, slipping 1.99%, with $70 billion from e-commerce, $4.2 trillion from brick-and-mortar stores. E-commerce is more than 14% of U.S. retail sales, she said. ABI pegs Amazon 2020 e-commerce sales at $310 billion, followed by Walmart at $41 billion. Beardslee noted Walmart started a Prime competitor this year. The top 10 retailers generate an estimated 63% of all U.S. digital sales. A growing concern for e-commerce companies is lack of qualified commercial truck drivers as the market recovers from COVID-19. More than 88,000 drivers were furloughed in April and either found other employment or retired, said the analyst. She cited a high incidence of noncompliant drivers found in the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse database, who hadn’t started a return to duty process as of August. The combination is resulting in driver shortages approaching 2018 levels, she said. That’s expected to “impact the cost to shippers,” as shippers incur costs to acquire and maintain talent; that cost is likely to be passed on to consumers, she said. Eighty percent of shoppers expect to use the buy online, pick up in store fulfillment option this season; 50% of retailers plan to offer it, she said.

An estimated 18% of U.S. homes added new laptops in the two weeks ended Oct. 18, reported CTA’s biweekly COVID-19 tech purchase tracker Wednesday. That “wave 20" result was up 5 points from wave 19 ended Oct. 4 and was the highest level of laptop purchase activity recorded since CTA began the tracker weekly in late March. Other trends: (1) An estimated 15% of U.S. households bought new TVs, up 2 points from wave 19; (2) Headphone/earbud purchase activity rebounded to 20% of U.S. homes after two declines; (3) Smartphone additions at U.S. homes stayed at 17%.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is “very hopeful and very optimistic that we’re making progress” in talks on a compromise COVID-19 aid bill despite the Senate failing to invoke cloture on Republicans’ Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act. It has Department of Education funding partly for remote learning (see 2009080076). Senators voted 51-44 on moving forward with debate on the measure, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered as a substitute amendment to S-178, the designated shell bill for the next COVID-19 measure. That fell short of the 60-vote threshold to invoke cloture on legislation. Democrats are pushing for passage of the revised version of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act (HR-8406), which includes more than $15 billion in broadband funding (see 2009290044). Meadows told reporters he remains hopeful a deal can happen, but Senate Republicans “are starting to get to a point where they believe that” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., “is not negotiating in a fair and equitable manner.” Pelosi noted on SiriusXM she wants “a deal” before the Nov. 3 election, and it’s “going to be up to whether” President Donald Trump “can convince [McConnell] to do so.” House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., urged Democrats to “put partisan politics aside.”

CTA forecasts a 10% Q4 spending lift on consumer tech hardware and services to $135 billion, it said Wednesday. Some 81% of U.S. adults are “more likely” or “just as likely” to buy tech products during the holiday season, despite economic and safety concerns during the pandemic, said the survey of 2,007 U.S. adults Sept. 10-13. “With consumers forgoing budgets for travel and experiences this year, more dollars will go towards technology gifts,” said Lesley Rohrbaugh, director-market research. The tech gifts consumers want most are smartphones, laptops, videogame consoles, TVs and wearables. About 70% of holiday shoppers plan to buy at least one content-related gift this season. Forty-five percent of consumers expect to buy at least one smartphone as a gift in Q4, a 4 point increase. Of those, 66% expect to upgrade to 5G. Interest in education-oriented tech products grew, said CTA. Some 26% plan to gift kits dedicated to engineering, robotics and coding for the holidays, up 5 points. Eighty-five percent plan to buy tech gifts in brick-and-mortar stores this season, 79% online. Two-thirds say the ability to socially distance from others will be a key factor. Consumers plan to buy fewer gifts and spend 18% less this holiday season than last year, reported KPMG. It canvassed 1,000 consumers in September, finding 41% who said COVID-19 fears will prevent them from shopping Black Friday sales in person.

Q3 personal electronics revenue at Texas Instruments was up more than 20% sequentially from Q2 and 15% from in the 2019 quarter, said Vice President-Investor Relations Dave Pahl on a Tuesday call. “The strength was broad-based.” TI is “very well-positioned to handle whatever comes at us,” including unexpected spikes in consumer demand for personal electronics during the pandemic, said Chief Financial Officer Rafael Lizardi. The company is in “the strategic position of being the supplier of catalog parts that are highly diversified,” he said. It sells 80,000 “different parts” to more than 100,000 “different customers,” he said.

TV viewing has changed in the COVID-19 pandemic, and it isn’t clear which of those changes will persist, said CBS Chief Research and Analytics Officer Radha Subramanyam during a virtual Q&A Tuesday for the NAB Show New York. TV viewing in general and daytime viewing increased as people work from home and generally stay closer to home, Subramanyam said, and there's increased viewing later in the morning as home workers tend to sleep later. Viewership numbers decreased in summer and started to go back up with the cooler weather and the return of sports, she said. “Some things may be cyclical.” Higher than usual news consumption began before the pandemic, and has been fed by racial unrest and the presidential election, she said. With some pollsters predicting the results could drag on past Election Day, heightened news consumption could continue as well, she said.