Top CE industry trends to watch in 2022 include the growing importance of smart TVs as the center of the connected home lifestyle; the shift toward high-quality, lossless and spatial audio; growing use of immersive audio in vehicles; advances in headphones and wearables; a move to virtual meeting spaces; and renewed interest in augmented reality and virtual reality, said a January Futuresource report.
With its Peacock streaming service growing faster than expected, Comcast plans to ramp up spending on content for it, executives told analysts during a quarterly call Thursday. CEO Brian Roberts said it will look at ways to expand its broadband footprint more aggressively, with government subsidies and new household and business formation potential growth opportunities.
AT&T plans to deploy much of its C-band spectrum at the same time it deploys the 3.45 GHz licenses it bought in a recent FCC auction, CEO John Stankey told analysts on the company’s Q4 call Wednesday. Stankey said the radios needed for 3.45 GHz should become available in late spring or early summer. Installing the bands “together at one time with one tower climb … allows us to start really going what I would call good guns on this in scaling up,” he said. AT&T has followed a similar one-touch strategy in building out FirstNet spectrum.
The EU has returned to a proposal that would make USB-C the common standard port for charging all smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, portable speakers and video game consoles. Member states agreed on a negotiating mandate for the common charger proposal, said the European Council Wednesday. A proposal for a common charger was tabled by the European Commission in September.
Corning management has heard from investors “that a key factor weighing on our stock price is a concern that the current cycle of downward price and profits in the LCD panel industry would cause a significant glass price and profit squeeze for Corning,” said CEO Wendell Weeks on a Q4 earnings call Wednesday. But “confirmatory evidence” from the field bolsters Corning’s belief that the display-glass pricing and profit environment was “favorable” in Q4 and will remain so in 2022, he said.
More than 150 companies responded to the Commerce Department’s Sept. 24 request for information on the global semiconductor shortage (see 2109230038), and the RFI found the chips supply chain “remains fragile,” blogged Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Tuesday. The findings confirmed it’s “essential that Congress move swiftly” to pass the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260) to authorize the $52 billion in funding for semiconductor production and R&D under the Chips Act, said Raimondo.
Logitech scratched the Jaybird line of audio products on a 32% sales drop in the audio and wearables business in fiscal Q3, said Chief Financial Officer Nate Olmstead on the company’s Tuesday earnings call. After a portfolio review, management chose to “redirect resources to new opportunities,” said prepared remarks. Jaybird headphones delivered about $5 million a quarter; Logitech had $8 million of component and other inventory write-offs in the quarter related to Jaybird products it decided not to launch, Olmstead said.
A proposed Washington state data privacy commission got some support at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. The panel heard testimony on a comprehensive privacy bill before a possible vote at a Friday meeting. The question of enforcement continued to divide witnesses Tuesday. In Delaware, a House panel unanimously cleared a data broker bill based on Vermont’s law.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg assured investors Tuesday remaining issues on the C band will be resolved quickly (see 2201190064), as the company became the first of the major national carriers to report full Q4 results. AT&T announces Wednesday.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated consumer awareness for home healthcare, telehealth services, stay-at-home fitness and whole-home home ventilation, said Parks Associates analyst Kristen Hanich during Parks' virtual Connected Health Summit.