Delphi Automotive will acquire media connectivity module supplier Unwired Technology in a deal that’s expected to close in Q4, terms undisclosed, the companies said Tuesday. “Media connectivity is a high-growth segment as auto manufacturers respond quickly to consumers’ increasing desire to integrate their smartphones and tablets in their vehicles,” said Delphi CEO Rodney O'Neal in a statement. “Unwired’s products strengthen our overall electrical architecture and electrical connector offerings, which is supporting increased electronics content per vehicle.” As CE products become more advanced, “automakers are integrating increasingly complex modules and hubs,” Delphi said. Unwired’s connectivity products provide two-way data connections between smartphones and tablets and in-car infotainment systems, “allowing consumers to safely access content in the vehicle,” it said. “These media connectivity modules can handle multiple devices, provide high-speed charging capabilities and enable seamless access to content through emerging infotainment software solutions."

One of every eight U.K. homes uses streaming services to watch TV, while tablets and smartphones are the “go-to” browsing devices in a third of British homes, and one in every 10 millennials doesn’t own a PC or laptop, said a survey report released Monday by the U.K. firm Post Office HomePhone and Broadband. Streaming or downloading TV programs ranked as one of the top three most popular uses for broadband at home, with 12 percent of homes viewing TV shows mainly via online channels, the report said. The survey of 2,000 British consumers in mid-August also found that nearly a third of U.K. homes use a smartphone or tablet as their main browsing device at home. But PCs and laptops still remain popular for accessing the Internet at home, though not among the youngest consumers, it said. Only 15 percent of 18-24-year-olds use PCs as their main browsing platform compared with two in five consumers over 55, it said. “Streaming and on-demand entertainment services respond to the needs of the time-poor consumer and our report demonstrates how the convenience of these entertainment channels is beginning to dominate the UK’s home browsing activity,” the company said. “While smartphones and tablets provide convenience when accessing the Internet away from home, it’s interesting to see that they are now superseding the PC and laptop as the device of choice in nearly of third of households as well."

ZTE announced a strategic partnership with Global Distribution FZE to strengthen its presence in the Middle East and North Africa region, it said Monday at Gitex Shopper in Dubai. The smartphone maker launched its brand with its top-tier models including the Grand SII LTE, Nubia Z5S Mini and Blade Vec 4G, it said. International Data Corp. told us it expects Middle East/Africa to be the second-largest smartphone market behind Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) by 2017. ZTE plans to ship 60 million smartphones in 2014, it said.

CEA wants to intervene in support of the FCC in Sinclair’s court challenge of the commission’s incentive auction order, CEA said in a motion filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (http://bit.ly/1rFUrFT). Sinclair’s challenge threatens to “derail” or “delay” the incentive auction, which would harm CEA’s members, CEA said. Though NAB’s challenge to the auction order was filed last month and has now been consolidated with Sinclair’s, CEA named only Sinclair as the motivation behind the motion to intervene. “Challenges to the Incentive Auction Order by broadcasters who have eight year broadcast licenses harm the FCC’s ability to ensure our wireless networks and innovations are keeping pace with our growing innovation environment,” CEA President Gary Shapiro said in a statement Monday. CEA hopes to help “inform the record” in support of the auction, Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney told us. Sinclair’s challenge threatens to harm CEA and its members “because a decision vacating the challenged rules will force the FCC to delay the auction while it undertakes a lengthy, complex new rulemaking process,” CEA’s motion said. “No adequate substitute is available for the spectrum to be auctioned, and delays increasing the availability of unlicensed spectrum and in putting these licenses to work expanding mobile broadband threaten CEA’s members’ ability to continue bringing innovative products to market. Thus, CEA and its members would be aggrieved by reversal or modification of the Commission’s order and are entitled to intervene as of right."

An uptick in purchasing by leading LCD TV brands since Q2 has led to tightening supplies of LCD TV panels and rising panel prices for 32- to 55-inch TVs, a DisplaySearch blog post said (http://bit.ly/1or4rxV). In Q3, Samsung and LG raised their 2014 business plans to 48 million and 34 million units ahead of the holiday season, contributing to the shortage, while Chinese TV makers also are gearing for Q4 and 2015 holidays with expanded forecasts, DisplaySearch said. The top 15 brands produced 15.5 million LCD TVs in August, the highest monthly tally since January, and early predictions are for production to reach 18.7 million units in September, up 9 percent over the year-ago quarter, it said. Production from the top 15 brands is slated to reach 21.1 million in October, a 15 percent year-over-year increase, which would be the largest increase ever for LCD TV panels, DisplaySearch said. Production is expected to slip after October but still maintain a higher level than in Q3, it said. The record high expected this year for October -- typically the seasonal peak for global TV production and set shipments -- “shows how determined the TV brands are to see strong Q4 sales,” DisplaySearch said. Rising panel prices haven’t led to rising prices in the competitive market. Many brands -- including Samsung, LG, Sony and Chinese TV makers -- have cut retail prices by as much as double digits “in an attempt to stimulate sell-through,” it said. Samsung and LG are increasing October production and shipment plans by more than 40 percent sequentially, with the two accounting for 48 percent of global revenue in Q2, giving them “great power over panel allocation and price negotiation,” DisplaySearch said.

NCTA fought back in defense of a Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (S-2799) provision that would repeal the set-top box integration ban. “Public Knowledge has been flooding inboxes calling on their network to take a stand on what they describe as an anti-consumer measure in must-pass video legislation,” said a Monday NCTA blog post (http://bit.ly/1rwikyj), referring to a recent PK campaign. “A closer look shows that Public Knowledge is distorting the impact of this change in spite of the fact that these changes would benefit consumers. The integration ban is an outdated rule which forces cable operators -- and cable operators alone -- to include a separate piece of descrambling equipment known as a CableCARD in the set-top boxes they lease to customers, which adds costs, wastes energy and provides no benefit.” Public Knowledge “appears oblivious to this injustice, perhaps blinded by their seemingly endless desire to criticize the cable industry,” NCTA said. The House approved a similar provision in July. The battle over this STAVRA provision prevented the Senate from approving a Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act proposal earlier this month.

A one-stop-shop HEVC Portfolio License covering essential HEVC patents owned by 23 companies and entities is now available from MPEG LA, the consortium said Monday. “The market is ready for an HEVC License,” MPEG LA CEO Larry Horn said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1vq4gH8). MPEG LA’s objective “is to provide worldwide access to as much HEVC essential intellectual property as possible,” it said. “Therefore, MPEG LA welcomes any party that believes it has patents that are essential to the HEVC standard to submit them for an evaluation of their essentiality by MPEG LA’s patent experts and inclusion in the License if determined to be essential.” The license is royalty-free for a licensee that ships under 100,000 units HEVC-compliant products annually, said an MPEG LA license summary (http://bit.ly/YD51lm). A royalty of 20 cents per unit is assessed at volumes over 100,000, the summary said. The annual royalty cap is $25 million for “present coverage during the first License Term,” which runs through the end of 2020, it said. The license is renewable for successive five-year periods “for the life of any Portfolio patent on reasonable terms and conditions,” it said. Royalty rates or annual caps won’t increase by more than 20 percent at each five-year renewal, it said.

Parties to the Information Technology Agreement should come together in the coming weeks to broker an expansion deal before the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing, said trade associations in a Sunday statement (http://bit.ly/1pCRhwU). Groups including CEA, the CompTIA, CE Retailers Coalition, DigitalEurope and Entertainment Software Association said the expansion deal would eliminate tariffs on more IT products, and “help restore confidence” in the World Trade Organization, following the recent collapse of the Trade Facilitation Agreement. The U.S. and China are two of the 70 nations involved in the expansion talks, but each side blames the other for not putting appropriate concessions on the table. “For the past several years, APEC leaders have repeatedly called for swift conclusion of a balanced and commercially significant outcome to these negotiations,” said the statement. “Product expansion of the ITA, as well as expansion of geographic scope of the agreement would yield immediate and substantial benefits, removing tariffs on a vast array of tech products.” Despite many IT industry developments in recent years, the ITA hasn’t broadened its list of duty-exempt products since its launch in 1996. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has called for the expansion talks to wrap up by November. The location of the APEC meeting may help break the U.S.-China deadlock, said John Neuffer, senior vice president-global policy at the Information Technology Industry Council, in a blog post Sunday (http://bit.ly/10fsbiV). “As host to APEC this year, China will likely want to trumpet noteworthy trade deliverables when the leaders meet in Beijing this November,” said Neuffer. “And China should want to reaffirm its support for the WTO. ITA expansion stands out as the most likely -- and most significant -- among the potential trade deliverables.” CEA President Gary Shapiro said in a statement Monday that 82 signatories globally, representing tens of thousands of businesses, “are rallying together to support trade negotiators from all member economies in the ITA.” It marks an “opportunity now to come together, bridge gaps and finalize this negotiation so that a huge win may be announced in Beijing at the November APEC Leader’s meeting,” Shapiro said. The ITA hasn’t been updated since its creation 16 years ago, CEA said. An expanded ITA “could remove tariffs on an estimated additional $800 billion in information and communication technology trade globally,” it said.

Samsung is leveraging its curved screen technology in the SD590C monitor designed for the gaming and office markets, the company said Monday in a news release. The 27-inch 16:9 screen, with built-in speakers, provides an immersive playing experience, the company said. Because the display’s edges are physically closer to the user’s eyes and “match their natural curve, users don’t need to shift focus to see the ends of the screen,” Samsung said. The monitor is targeted at “serious gamers or office workers who spend extended hours in front of a computer,” it said. The monitor is due in stores Thursday at $429.

DisplaySearch estimated the flexible AMOLED display in the Apple Watch costs several times more to make than equivalently sized LCD displays, and more than the more-established glass-based AMOLEDs currently used in smartphones, the company said Monday (http://bit.ly/1rycJZz). DisplaySearch estimates it costs $7.86 to produce the display for the Apple Watch, which is believed to use a 1.5-inch-diagonal AMOLED fabricated on a plastic substrate, protected by a proprietary thin and flexible solid-phase plastic seal. The touch panel interface, cover lens and other items add $19.55 to the total, DisplaySearch said. Accounting for the panel yield rate and other manufacturing costs, the total display system costs are estimated to be $27.41, it said. “Although production costs are higher, the benefits of adopting a plastic AMOLED panel include a display module that is approximately 65 percent thinner and lighter than an LCD display and 50 percent thinner and lighter than a conventional AMOLED display.” The display system’s total cost “is highly dependent on yield rates throughout the manufacturing and assembly process,” it said. “Producing high-resolution flexible AMOLED displays is challenging, due to the additional process steps required to coat the flexible substrate on a carrier glass, as well as encapsulation, and laser-lift off, which also further complicate the module manufacturing process. While current costs for the flexible AMOLED display are high, costs are forecast to continuously decline, due in large part to improving yield rates.” Apple’s choice of a plastic AMOLED as the display medium for its Watch “reflects not only its strategy of emphasizing quality, but also suggests increasing confidence in flexible displays as an enabling technology for wearable computers,” it said. The smart watch craze “is expected to spur tremendous growth in OLED display shipments this year,” DisplaySearch said. It forecasts that worldwide OLED smart watch display shipments will exceed 11 million units in 2014, for a year-over-year increase of 450 percent. Shipments of AMOLED panels for the Apple Watch alone are expected to reach 8 million units this year, as Apple builds up inventory for the 2015 launch, it said.