Consumers should have the freedom to buy spare parts and “choose who performs repairs” when their devices fail, commented Californian Gary Linsky in the FTC’s Nixing the Fix proceeding, posted Monday in docket FTC-2019-0013. The agency is probing whether manufacturers’ third-party repair restrictions undercut the consumer protections in the 1975 Moss-Magnuson Warranty Act (see 1903130060). It’s accepting comments in the docket through Sept. 16. Right to repair is “good policy” for “keeping prices competitive and reducing waste,” said Linsky. As a former consumer electronics retailer, “I have seen countless examples of devices and equipment worth hundreds of dollars scrapped due to hindered access to repairs,” that easily could have been fixed “with a part that costs a few dollars at most,” he said. “Consumers think little about these impediments” when buying a device “but feel stuck when faced with a need for repair,” he said. “Without the access to parts and outside repairers the manufacturers are in effect leasing you the product until a fault occurs, at which time, by controlling repair access and price, they economically prematurely obsolete your device.” Most retailers have phased out repairs, and the “major national chains” tell their customers to fend for themselves with the manufacturer, said Linsky.

Nearly 14 million smart home controllers will sell in the U.S. in 2024, doubling from about 7 million this year, reported Parks Associates Friday. “Device manufacturers are increasingly aware of the negative impact of security and privacy concerns on smart home industry growth, so major players including Google and Amazon are designing device features to restrict accessibility to consumer data.” Parks estimates only 37 percent of U.S. broadband homes “trust that companies with access to their data will keep it safe,” it said. The development of facial and fingerprint authentication “allows device manufacturers to establish a level of security stronger than voice but still convenient to the consumer,” said Parks. “Ultimately, voice technology will develop, where unique voices can be used for biometric authentication in and of itself, but current far-field voice recognition technology is not yet up to the security challenge.”

The International Trade Commission is beginning a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations that Samsung mobile devices with the Samsung Pay feature infringe patents held by Dynamics, the ITC said Tuesday. In a complaint filed in July, Dynamics said Samsung's Galaxy S8, S9 and S10, among other devices, copy its patented technology for magnetic multifunction emulators and near field communication technology for executing financial payment transactions. The ITC will consider whether to issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders banning import and sale of infringing merchandise, it said. Samsung didn't comment Wednesday.

A set-top box energy conservation agreement among MVPDs, manufacturers, energy efficiency advocates, NCTA and CTA saved consumers about $1.6 billion in energy costs last year, said CTA Tuesday. Over six years, it saved $5 billion in energy costs and avoided 28.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, said an independent audit by D+R International. D+R said 97.8 percent of service providers’ set-top purchases in 2018 met the agreement’s tier 2 levels that became applicable in 2017, exceeding each party’s commitment to have 90 percent of its purchases meet those levels. Some 78 percent of the signatories’ 2018 purchases met tier three levels scheduled to take effect in 2020, two years ahead of schedule, D+R said. The new-unit average power usage of the most energy-intensive type of set-top, the DVR, has fallen by 48 percent since 2012, it said. Participants bought half as many new set-tops in 2018 than in 2014, likely attributable to subscriber losses and consumers’ growing use of apps vs. an operator-supplied set-top box, said the auditor. Consumers used more than 36 million customer-owned devices such as smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, personal computers, and streaming players -- Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV -- to watch video services via app last year, up 33 percent year on year, it said. “With the increasing shift toward apps for streaming, the savings will grow even more because many consumers will no longer need a set top box to watch their shows,” said Noah Horowitz, Natural Resources Defense Council senior scientist. NCTA General Counsel Neal Goldberg said the agreement’s flexibility enabled signatories to “save even more energy than initially projected while still adapting to changing technology and services.” Signatories include AT&T/DirecTV, Comcast, Charter, Dish, Verizon, Altice, Cox, Frontier, CenturyLink, Arris, Technicolor, NRDC and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy; CableLabs also played a role. An energy report on home broadband gear was released Monday (see 1908120051).

Huawei tablet shipments grew 4 percent in Q2 from the 2018 quarter, despite Commerce Department placing Huawei on the entity list in May (see 1907050003), said a Strategy Analytics tablet report Friday. But an intensifying trade war could foreshadow a shift in Android demand “from a bruised Huawei brand to its fiercest competitors, Samsung and Lenovo,” said analyst Eric Smith. Samsung and Lenovo shipments were ahead of the industry but showed declines of minus-1 percent and minus-6 percent in a category down 7 percent year on year, said Smith. In a widening trade war, “Lenovo could be among a group of Chinese companies that are targeted by the Trump administration,” he said. Apple iPad shipments dropped 7 percent year on year in Q2 to 10.7 million units, to 29 percent market share. New iPad Air and iPad mini tablets pushed average selling prices higher alongside continued strong demand for iPad Pro; ASPs grew year on year from $410 to $469, SA said. Bucking the trend, Amazon had 38 percent higher tablet shipments in Q2 to 2 million units, behind Apple (10.7 million), Samsung (4.9 million) and Huawei (3.9 million), it said. Trailing Apple’s 29 percent market share were Samsung (13 percent), Huawei (10 percent), Amazon (5.4 percent) and Lenovo (5 percent).

Apple’s “intentional recording of individuals’ confidential communications without their consent” using Siri voice-recognition software violates California privacy and unfair-competition laws, alleged a complaint Wednesday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in San Jose that seeks class-action status. A July 26 article in The Guardian reported Apple “has been recording individuals without consent and has been storing and sending those recordings to humans for review,” said the complaint. Siri devices continuously record consumers’ conversations, including when they fail “to utter a wake phrase,” it said. The complaint estimates the potential class to include all individuals who were recorded on a Siri device without their consent “from at least as early” as October 2011 to the present. It asks the court to order Apple to delete all recordings and to pay “nominal, statutory, and punitive” damages. Apple didn’t comment.

The marketing point man for Experimax, a chain of independent repair shops, alleges Google Ads recently began pulling down his franchisees' local advertising as a possible “handshake” with consumer tech companies that oppose third-party repair. “While customers find us organically very often, Google Ads allow us to stay competitive with larger retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and Apple,” commented Joshua Muir, Experimax brand development manager, in a post Friday in the FTC’s "Nixing the Fix" docket (FTC-2019-0013). The agency is probing whether manufacturer restrictions on third-party repair can undercut the consumer protections in the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. It had a July 16 workshop (see 1907160058) and is accepting comments in the docket through Sept. 16. “Limiting our ability to post ads with Google (which is, by and large, the biggest search company) is a hindrance to our growth,” said Muir, who supervises the advertising of 85 franchised Experimax locations in 29 states: “This seems more of a handshake between Google and electronics manufacture(s) than protecting the general population from scams, etc.” Experimax stores are “trusted, local, retail locations” that specialize in repairing computers, phones and tablets, said Muir. “Whether through my stores, a competitor, or by their own means, people should have the right to repair their products without needing approval from or being restricted by the manufacturer. I am not required to go to a branded car dealership to get an oil change, so why must anyone be required to go to the original manufacturer to get a battery or screen replaced in their electronics?” Google didn’t reply to emails. "No comment," emailed an FTC spokesperson Saturday after we asked if the agency will look into Muir’s allegations.

Q2 smartphone shipments declined 2.3 percent globally on “continued challenges” across most major world regions, said IDC Wednesday. Vendors shipped 333.2 million smartphones, a 6.5 percent sequential increase from Q1, it said. China and the U.S. had the sharpest quarterly declines, though the declines in China in the first half were “less severe” than those in the back half of 2018, “suggesting some recovery is underway in the world's largest single market,” it said. Apple had the worst Q2 decline, with iPhone unit shipments down 18.2 percent from Q2 a year earlier, said IDC. Apple CEO Tim Cook said on a fiscal Q3 earnings call Tuesday that iPhone sustained another double-digit revenue decline in the quarter, but the rate of erosion was less severe than in earlier quarters (see 1907310030). Apple maintained the No. 3 global position, but its 10.1 percent share was only 0.4 percentage points higher than that of fourth-place Xiaomi, it said. Samsung held firmly onto the No. 1 position with 22.7 percent share, said IDC.

Energous received FCC certification for a gallium-nitride-based near-field wireless charging transmitter for fast-charging earbuds, smartwatches, headsets and smart glasses, it said Tuesday. The WattUp NF330 transmitter underwent “rigorous testing” by Underwriters Laboratory and was determined to be compliant with regulatory requirements for RF, RF safety and electromagnetic compatibility, the company said. The transmitter delivers five times more charging power and nearly doubles system efficiency compared with Energous’ CMOS-based transmitter, said CEO Stephen Rizzone.

Summit Wireless is positioning its technology as a mainstream immersive sound option for consumers, available for as little as $1 as an embedded chip in smart TVs. Company engineers are taking IP from its chips, “enhancing it, and making it a licensable version” that can be designed into smartphones and smart TVs, “taking it to the broad market vs. the premium or performance market,” said CEO Brett Moyer Thursday. The Wireless Speaker and Audio technology is suited to gaming and esports, due to its 5 millisecond latency rate, he told the company's Thursday webcast. WiSA's latency is lower than Bluetooth, he noted. Moyer compared the WiSA Association to HDMI.org and Bluetooth Special Interest Group, with a charter to “make sure that all manufacturers know what to build so there’s interoperability” -- that a WiSA product from Harman will work with a WiSA-compatible LG product, for instance. The WiSA membership agreement has design interoperability requirements and marketing logo requirements so consumers "know what they are buying,” the CEO said.