Dell unveiled products and software including a business laptop that's 5G ready and uses Wi-Fi 6. Also Thursday, it launched Dell Cinema Guide to help customers find streaming entertainment.

“Safety and security at CES are important to us,” emailed CTA Tuesday to our questions about whether the show plans extra security precautions for the keynote appearance of White House adviser Ivanka Trump (see 1912300045). “We do not comment on security plans involving individual speakers,” said CTA.

Z-Wave Alliance opened its specification as a multi-source wireless standard, hoping third-party chip makers and software stack suppliers will grow the ecosystem beyond 100 million devices to 200 million, Johan Pedersen, Silicon Labs smart home product marketing manager told us Thursday. Similar to Zigbee's Wednesday announcement (see 1912180060), Z-Wave said Thursday members will work together on connectivity to help solve interoperability challenges. Zigbee works in the 2.4-GHz range; Z-Wave operates in sub-GHz frequencies. "Our plan is to push out Z-Wave and enable many other companies to participate in it so it’s not a closed system,” he said. Silicon Labs, which bought the Z-Wave business from Sigma Designs for $240 million in April 2018, wants that standard to be the only sub-GHz standard for smart home, said Pedersen. Silicon Labs, which makes Zigbee chips, too, is also part of the Connected Home over IP initiative backed by Amazon, Apple, Google and the Zigbee Alliance, he noted.

Samsung Display leapfrogged BOE in Q3 to reclaim the top position in the global smartphone display market, reported IHS Markit Thursday. Samsung Display took 29 percent share, up year over year from 21.3 percent. Smartphone AMOLED shipments 57 percent sequentially to 146 million units.

The Zigbee Alliance encouraged industrywide participation in a new smart home working group spearheaded by the alliance’s board, along with Amazon, Apple and Google. Absent in Wednesday's announcement was the Z-Wave platform, with 2,400 smart home products on 100 million devices. Project Connected Home over IP “welcomes device manufacturers, silicon providers, and other developers from across the smart home industry to participate in and contribute to the standard,” it said. The Z-Wave Alliance didn’t comment. The WG plans to develop and promote adoption of a new, royalty-free connectivity standard to increase compatibility among smart home products. It highlighted participating Zigbee Alliance board member companies including Ikea, NXP Semiconductors, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) and Silicon Labs as joining the WG. Control4 that's based on the Zigbee protocol wasn’t highlighted. Charlie Kindel, chief product and technology officer of parent SnapAV, emailed us that Control4 remains committed to Zigbee and the alliance. “For the promise of the smart home to be realized, companies big and small will need to deliver a seamless, secure and ever-reliable experience,” said Kindel.

General Motors is bringing SiriusXM’s 360L service to 1 million vehicles on 13 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac models, the companies said Tuesday. A connected access plan and a SiriusXM All Access or SiriusXM Select subscription is required. 360L combines satellite and streaming delivery of 200-plus live SiriusXM channels and on-demand programming. Eligible models have a three-month subscription to SiriusXM All Access, which offers in-vehicle plus app-based listening.

NakiRadio wants an exclusion from the List 4A Section 301 tariffs for the “kosher Wi-Fi device” it imports from China, it posted Sunday in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative public docket 2019-0017. The device streams only “pre-approved” Jewish content and is imported under the same 8517.62.00.90 subheading covering a broad swatch of other tech goods, including smart speakers, Bluetooth headphones, fitness trackers and smartwatches. The device has a 2.1-channel stereo speaker/subwoofer with a three-inch screen “used to navigate an electronic interface,” said the application. NakiRadio tried sourcing the product in the U.S., “but has been unable to find a manufacturer” capable of producing the firmware that “limits the accessible channels,” it said. Finding alternative sourcing would incur “punitive capital investment and serious disruption to its supply chain" because the product is of “a highly specific construction and functionality,” it said. “Kosher Wi-Fi devices with limited channels geared for the Orthodox community are not strategically important” to the Made in China 2025 industrial program, it said. NakiRadio pays 15 percent List 4A duties on the imports. The Trump administration announced plans Friday to roll back List 4A to 7.5 percent in the phase one trade deal with China (see 1912130042).

The Chinese “irreversibly accelerated” their Made in China 2025 industrial program since summer, taking a sharp protectionist turn as the U.S.-China trade war persisted with no negotiated breakthrough, said Photronics CEO Peter Kirlin on a fiscal Q4 call Wednesday. "They ain't turning back." Kirlin's company drew more than half its Q4 revenue from the photomasks it supplied Chinese panel makers, produced at Photronics factories throughout Asia, including in Xiamen and Hefei, China. As the U.S-China trade talks “have gone unresolved,” and U.S. export restrictions remained in place on Huawei (see 1912110039) and other Chinese telecom companies, “the resulting uncertainty has motivated Chinese companies to seek local solutions” for their supply needs, said Kirlin. Their “growing need for photomasks” is a positive “outcome” for Photronics as Chinese tech firms strive to become “more independent and self-sufficient,” he said. The stock closed up 20 percent at $15.13.

Premium pricing for top-line smartphones could be a barrier to the U.S. 5G upgrade, blogged NPD Monday. Just under 10 percent of consumers are spending over $1,000 on smartphones, and 5G phones are hitting the market at about $1,200. “Consumers are holding onto their smartphones for longer periods, which has presented a challenge for the smartphone market,” said analyst Brad Akyuz. “Manufacturers and carriers are expecting 5G to help reinvigorate the upgrade cycle, but pricing could present another hurdle.” Consumers in the top 10 U.S. markets account for 39 percent of $1,000-plus active smartphones, NPD said, with users in New York City and Los Angeles most likely to buy four-figure devices. Consumers in the top two markets are 29 percent of the U.S. population, over-indexing in $1,000-plus phones by 25 points. The two markets should be a primary target for carriers to advance 5G networks and for phone makers to educate consumers about the benefits of 5G, the research firm said. Awareness of 5G is high (see 1912040044) and purchase potential is strong, said NPD, with 73 percent of consumers aware of the technology at the end of first half 2019 vs. 44 percent a year earlier. In China, Xiaomi took an aggressive stance on 5G Tuesday. It unveiled a sub-2,000-yuan model under its Redmi brand (starting at $284). The 6.7-inch Redmi K30 5G, with four cameras, is based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765G gaming-centric 5G chipset.

The global smartphone market will stay on a downward trajectory in 2020, blogged Strategy Analytics Thursday. Shipments “under the worst case” will decline 3 percent from 2019 before rebounding in 2021, it said. The 2021 forecast assumes “the likelihood of global economic recession remains low,” the U.S. and China will sign a trade deal and that the U.S. will lift its trade restrictions on Huawei, it said. Samsung will remain 2020's market leader, followed by Huawei and Apple, it said. “We expect Huawei will see a big fall in overseas markets,” but a “resurgence” in China will help offset those declines, said SA: “Huawei will survive.”