With no “on/off switch” for fully resuming film production, “it's a gradual ramp” up, Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy told a Citi virtual conference. COVID-19 is “a very unpredictable virus,” she said. That’s the “new reality” until there’s a vaccine that’s “widely available,” she said. The emphasis will be on “opening where we can,” she said. Shooting began three months ago in New Zealand on Avatar 2, “the first movie to get back up and running,” said McCarthy. “We'll continue to ramp up other productions. It's going to depend on where they are, how big the cast is, what the guilds and the unions will want to allow. I believe outside shooting is going to be easier to deal with than when you're inside a soundstage.” Fast-tracking the Sept. 4 release of Mulan on Disney+ (see 2009040049) was “not an easy decision” -- “because there were so many factors,” the CFO said Wednesday. "It would have been released were it not for theaters being closed.”

NPD expects “historic growth” for the consumer tech sector in Q4, based on “healthy gains in categories associated with learning and working from home,” said the researcher Wednesday. The 18% industry revenue growth expected in Q4 compares with 4% in 2019's Q4. Q2 revenue growth leaders in connectivity tools were laptops (up 45% from a year earlier), tablets (up 37%), monitors (up 84%), printers (up 59%) and keyboards and mice (up 62%). E-commerce was 69% of consumer tech sales vs. 48% in Q2 2019, said NPD: “That number is expected to remain above 60% moving forward.”

Evidence suggesting it will be “well into next year” before COVID-19 comes “under control” forced NAB to postpone its 2021 Las Vegas show from April to Oct. 9-13, said CEO Gordon Smith Wednesday (see 2009090046). There’s widespread “reluctance” about participating in large events in 2020's first half, he said. “We also have our own concerns around being able to deliver the type of event in April that will not only drive results, but one that can be produced safely for all involved and without significant limitations on the experience.” NAB will find a new date for the October 2021 NAB Show New York. It already decided to collocate the Radio Show with the Las Vegas show next year. The postponement came weeks after Las Vegas resort executives began playing down expectations about a return to normal convention business before next summer. COVID-19's cancellation of the physical CES 2021 in early January (see 2007280034) typified the shaky outlook for Las Vegas conventions next year, said Wynn Las Vegas President Marilyn Spiegel last month (see 2008050028). NAB’s action set a new bar for moving or scrapping large public gatherings with ample notice and lead time. CTA canceled CES 2021 on July 28 with five months and nine days to spare, while NAB’s postponement Wednesday was seven months and two days before the show was to open.

CTA estimates 14% of U.S. homes bought laptops in the past week, it said in “wave” 17 of its COVID-19 pandemic survey. Laptop purchase frequency was down from 15% in wave 16 and 17% in wave 15. CTA began canvassing 1,000 homes weekly after lockdowns began in late March. The canvasses became biweekly after June 10. Headphones and earbuds remained the tech product in highest demand, bought by 21% of homes in the past two waves. Demand was lowest for virtual reality headsets, bought by 2% of homes canvassed.

Work-from-home helped spark Slack new paid customer additions at a “faster rate” in June and July than in April and May, said CEO Stewart Butterfield on a quarterly call Tuesday. “That trend continued in August, even after the typical vacation-related slowdown for the month, indicating that paid customer additions are potentially finding a new baseline rate.” The quarter ended July 31. Slack experienced “some macro-related headwinds in the installed base," Butterfield said. Since it prices the service on a “per-seat basis,” when customers downsize, freeze hiring or hire more slowly, “net dollar retention is negatively impacted,” he said. Due to the “substantial number of smaller customers on monthly plans, it shows up much more quickly than it would for others in our industry,” he said. The stock closed 13.9% lower Wednesday at $25.24. There’s more “budget scrutiny” during COVID-19, “especially for new categories with longer adoption curves,” like videoconferencing, said Butterfield. Chief information officers “have a lot on their plates right now,” he said. The COVID-19 pandemic is having “positive and negative effects on our business,” he said. “The positive changes will have greater impact and will persist as part of this permanent structural shift in the way we work.” And “negative effects will dissipate as we emerge from the pandemic,” he said. Chief Financial Officer Allen Shim said less than 20% of its business is from industries “most directly impacted" and “while these represent a minority of our business, these higher-risk industries grew significantly slower in the first half versus non-impacted industries.”

Roku reminded customers they can watch Disney’s Mulan, which was originally destined for theaters but debuted instead Friday as a streaming offer due to COVID-19 (see 2008050003). The live-action remake is being streamed on Disney+ at $29.99 through Nov. 2. On Dec. 4, all Disney+ subscribers get access at no additional cost.

Futuresource erased $88 billion from its forecast for CE dollar shipments this year due to COVID-19, it reported Monday. “The pandemic has dented consumer confidence and disrupted global supply chains," said analyst Simon Forrest. Though TVs and laptops performed well in first-half 2020 due to lockdown spending, “this is expected to have drawn sales forward” from the second half, “which is likely to be impacted by the economic repercussions,” said Forrest. The analyst cited difficulties for the category that include "adapting to the steady commoditisation of hardware" and negating the "competitive threat from software-only platforms and online services" that are pulling consumers away. The global CE market grew $3 billion in 2019 to reach $683 billion, with unit shipments growing 2.7% to 4.4 billion, said the research firm. Despite the uncertainty and “imminent recession” across regional economies, the long-term outlook for the category remains positive, said Forrest. Futuresource expects 20% CE growth to 5.2 billion shipments annually worldwide in 2024, with $121 billion in revenue.

Brand "incumbents" are being "challenged" for their leadership positions during the pandemic, said Warren Saunders, GfK general manager-Northern Europe. The research company runs a "brand share volatility index" to measure how COVID-19 is causing market shares to change with consumers' shifting buying behavior, he said Friday at the mostly virtual IFA show in Berlin (see 2009080050).

IFA 2020's top point man declared the hybrid physical/virtual tech trade show under his watch a "huge success," conceding at a closing news conference Saturday that “compared to any other year, the numbers were small.” IFA 2021 will return Sept. 3-7 as a physical show at “full scale,” complemented with a repeat of this year’s virtual component, said Executive Director Jens Heithecker from Berlin. Visitors at IFA 2020 numbered “in the hundreds” at any single time, not the usual thousands, said Heithecker. “We kept the numbers down, well below the limits set by public health authorities” (see 2004220038). IFA representatives didn’t respond to questions Tuesday about the rationale for making IFA 2021 five days. Heithecker was “pleased to see our health and safety concept in action,” he said. Germany “successfully contained the virus, but we must not be complacent,” he said. “The pandemic knows no borders.” IFA 2020 “sent an important signal to the world that tech is back,” he said. Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center ranks Germany 20th in cases, 18th in deaths. About 6,100 people visited during the three-day event “in real life,” said Heithecker. The virtual component had more than 260,000 “online views,” he said. We found the show's virtual offering easy to navigate, and the audio and video quality was good throughout. One glitch was the apparent server crash Friday afternoon EDT that prevented us from accessing on-demand content. Organizers didn’t comment on the problem.

Warner Bros.’ Tenet, which premiered overseas while COVID-19 kept U.S. theaters closed, pulled in more than $20 million in the U.S. and Canada over the Labor Day weekend, reported Comscore. About 65% of U.S. theaters are open under 25%-45% capacity limits, it said. Tenet, directed by Christopher Nolan, grossed $30 million in China, and worldwide receipts exceed $150 million to date, it said.