Q1 sales in Sony’s core Home Entertainment & Sound product sector increased 8.9 percent to $2.3 billion ($1 = 112 yen), mainly on the “improvement in product mix reflecting a shift to high value-added models” of TVs such as 4K sets that was “partially offset” by an unspecified decline in TV unit sales, the company said Tuesday in its quarterly financial release. The shift toward premium TV models also pushed operating profit in the sector 11.6 percent higher to $201.8 million, Sony said. In its latest financial disclosure, Sony dispensed with its recent practice of releasing actual TV unit sales and forecasts, but said sales of the OLED TVs it launched in the spring (see 1705010056) “continue to be strong.” Sony’s TV business -- the biggest portion of Home Entertainment & Sound -- generated $1.6 billion in Q1 revenue, 7.9 percent higher than in Q1 a year earlier, the company said.

A day after unveiling plans for its LCD display fab in Kenosha, Wisconsin (see report in the July 28 issue of this publication), Foxconn announced Friday it's teaming with Rockwell Automation to implement connected enterprise and industrial IoT concepts for smart manufacturing in Foxconn’s U.S. facilities using technology and expertise from both companies. The companies also will collaborate on smart manufacturing at Foxconn’s global electronics assembly operations “within the related industry eco-system,” they said. Foxconn and Rockwell will partner on workforce development and training, working with ManpowerGroup to create a pool of certified talent for manufacturing positions across the U.S., they said.

TiVo expanded its intellectual property license agreement with TCL, it said in a Thursday announcement. The deal extends to “into the next decade” and covers TCL’s Roku TVs. Separately, TCL North America obtained capability to incorporate TiVo “entertainment discovery technology” into TVs for the U.S., Canada and Mexico markets, it said. TiVo didn’t respond to questions.

TiVo launched new content discovery features Tuesday for MVPDs, highlighting “conversational voice search” and personalized search and recommendations. Analytics capabilities in the Personalized Content Discovery platform allow MVPDs to do A/B testing and optimize operations in real time, said TiVo. With the new platform, a user can ask, “What’s on TV tonight?” and get “highly relevant” personalized search results of the top 10 TV programs the user is likely to be interested in based on viewing behavior and interests, said the company. TiVo’s platform also supports contextual voice queries, allowing users to narrow results within a specific sub-category, eliminating the need to string together long queries with unnatural phrasing, it said. A user who asked for Tom Hanks movies could follow up by saying, “only the comedies,” for example. Conversational search capability covers the content catalogs available to the consumer, such as linear TV, VOD or over-the-top programming, TiVo said. The platform recognizes what the user is subscribed to and can be set to return only what is available in a user’s specific package. The platform has an integrated backend business console that provides management and real-time tuning of search results, allowing video providers to improve the user experience and generate more engagement from viewer searches, TiVo said. Operators can use rules to drive internal business objectives, such as boosting more VOD titles in voice searches to promote broader category awareness, it said. In the past, it was time- and labor-intensive for MVPDs to update search results, said Pratik Patel, director-product management, advanced search and recommendations. With the new platform, changes can be made “almost instantaneously, generating stronger, more relevant results for viewers,” said Patel.

That Apple contract manufacturer Foxconn may be nearing a decision to build a $10 billion display fab in Wisconsin (see 1706230041) is “a hard case to make in terms of labor and other costs,” said Chris DeMuth, chief investment officer at Rangeley Capital, on a Monday podcast. U.S. labor costs are “competitive” with those of other world regions only at the very high end of “precision-type manufacturing,” such as for specialty medical devices, said DeMuth. Flat-panel screens “can be made much cheaper in Asia,” he said. That’s why DeMuth sees any decision to build a plant in Wisconsin as a “political” ploy to win favor with the Trump administration, he said. Though building a highly robotic plant in Wisconsin “could make some business sense for Foxconn, I think it’s definitely a political play,” agreed Andrew Walker, Rangeley Capital portfolio manager. “I don’t think it’s an accident that they’re looking to build in Wisconsin, Paul Ryan’s home state,” said Walker of the Republican House speaker. Building a U.S. plant also “serves as an economic hedge” against possible trade wars, he said. “If they do jack up the taxes on iPhones coming into the U.S., you can start building them in the U.S. at that plant you’ve already built.” Foxconn and Wisconsin representatives didn’t comment Tuesday. Foxconn CEO Terry Gou is scheduled to keynote IFA Sept. 2 in Berlin (see 1707110023).

Cloud platforms drove Microsoft’s FY 2017 Q4 revenue, which grew to $23.3 billion from $20.6 billion in the year-ago quarter, said CEO Satya Nadella in an earnings release. Microsoft Office consumer products and cloud services revenue grew 13 percent, and Office 365 consumer subscribers increased to 27 million, said the company, while Windows OEM revenue inched ahead 1 percent, “slightly ahead of the overall PC market.” On the Thursday earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said the U.S., Germany and Japan “performed better than we expected.” Surface tablet revenue decreased 2 percent on product lifecycle transitions, the company said. Gaming revenue advanced 3 percent on gains in Xbox software and services that offset lower hardware revenue, and Microsoft’s gaming business is “growing profitably” in a market that’s evolving “faster than ever before,” said Nadella. He cited “explosive growth” in streaming and eSports, new subscription services and mixed reality scenarios. The Xbox Live network numbers more than 53 million users, Nadella said.

Doug Henderson, president of B&W Group North America for more than five years, left the company last week, a B&W spokeswoman confirmed to us Friday. Chief Revenue Officer Richard Campbell will oversee group responsibilities on an interim basis, she said. Tech investment company EVA Automation acquired B&W Group last year (see 1605030054). At the time, EVA Automation CEO Gideon Yu told us his plan wasn’t to “fix” B&W, calling it “preposterous” that a two-year-old company could play that role with a venerable brand. Company officials weren’t available for comment.

Dolby said the first U.S. Dolby Atmos music experience will launch at the Chicago club Sound-Bar July 29. In a Monday statement, Dolby Chief Marketing Officer Bob Borchers said Atmos allows artists to create “multi-dimensional soundscapes that deliver an electrifying experience to club goers.” Richard Mowatt, a producer and DJ known as Solarstone, will provide the music for the space and said Atmos allows him to “push the boundaries of what's technologically possible" in delivering music that immerses club goers "from all angles in the venue.” Dolby will outfit Sound-Bar with overhead speakers and Dolby Atmos processing technology, it said, as part of a 30-speaker, 22-channel sound environment that works in sync with the venue’s lighting. Dolby’s first Atmos music installation was at the Ministry of Sound club in London with artist Hospital Records. Dolby didn’t immediately respond to questions.

If Dish Network and Amazon are in talks, as has been rumored, the end goal is likely creation of a fifth national wireless network, Macquarie analyst Amy Yong said in a note to investors Thursday. Yong also said any such discussions are "clearly preliminary," and Amazon could opt into wireless via another route and a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) "with traditional players is still an optimal outcome." A Dish partnership would help Amazon by allowing it to offer a wireless plan as an additional benefit for Prime customers and to beef up its IoT offerings, plus possibly hasten deployment of drone delivery, Yong said. Such a deal would let Dish meet its spectrum requirements and help it monetize its spectrum holdings. The cons to building such a network include the cost -- as much as $20 billion, she said. An outright purchase of Dish seems unlikely given regulatory scrutiny and Dish's business model, Yong said, saying Amazon reaching an MVNO agreement with a wireless carrier would be the fastest and least risky route.

The “tinkerers” at iFixit have been fans of MacBook Pros for a long time for the device's “legacy of user-repair and upgradability,” the do-it-yourself repair company said in a Wednesday blog post. “But all that changed in 2012 when Apple introduced its sleek, non-upgradable MacBook Pro Retina with a battery stubbornly glued to the frame,” it said. MacBook Pro Retina models “have remained super hard to repair ever since,” it said. “Apple only repairs devices for a limited amount of time, and we don’t think the life of a laptop should be limited to the life of its battery.” The company, after a “whole lot of testing and experimentation on dozens of formulations,” finally devised a “DIY repair solution for folks who want to replace the battery in their MacBook Pro Retina,” it said. The challenge was “how best to loosen that adhesive without compromising the battery,” it said. It ultimately settled on “a blend of household chemicals--safe to use, but potent enough to get the job done,” it said. “The repair is still a fair bit of work: removing the battery requires a lot of caution and patience--but it’s definitely doable with the right tools, the right instructions, and the right adhesive removal technique.” Apple representatives didn’t comment Friday.