Worldwide smartphone shipments reached 360.1 million in Q3, up 1.2 percent, ending a five-quarter streak of declines, reported IHS Markit Thursday. Huawei’s 66.8 million were its most ever, rising 28 percent year on year. Samsung held top rank, up 10 percent to 78 million. Huawei’s share fell globally due to U.S. sanctions (see 1903070041). It's prohibited from including Google Mobile Services on new smartphones, noted IHS analyst Jusy Hong. Launch of Mate 30 smartphones was the first sign of Huawei devices without Google services, and Huawei “will face increasing difficulties in some markets,” the analyst said. Huawei’s existing devices can still launch with Google, he noted. Its domestic sales in China, up 65 percent, “more than compensated for its overseas sales, which fell,” said Hong. Apple’s 45.9 million iPhones were a 2.1 percent decline, its fourth consecutive down quarter. Its share rose 2 points sequentially to 13 percent. Motorola, ranked eighth with 3 percent at 9.7 million. LG, at ninth, had shipments drop 28 percent to 8.3 million for 2 percent share.

The Commerce Department may propose export controls on emerging technologies within weeks and an advance NPRM on foundational technologies before year's end, after delays (see 1909040029). That could help ease concerns from industry that warns against overly broad, unilateral controls, Matthew Borman, deputy assistant secretary-export administration, told a Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee meeting Tuesday. "Some companies are starting to think about moving R&D offshore because they don't know what's going to come out,” said Borman. “These will be very specific. They will not be general categories.” There will be a 60-day comment period for both, twice that as proposed originally for the ANPRM, the official said.

Dec. 15 List 4B tariffs on smartphones and other electronics' timing couldn't "have been worse" for a consumer tech sector facing innovation and demand pressures, blogged Futuresource Tuesday. Tech companies need to be agile and resilient as global trade and geopolitical tensions have disrupted supply chains optimized for long-term cost efficiencies, said the researcher. It recommended “China Plus One” where companies active in China augment existing investments with a second facility. That’s beginning, with some companies announcing they’re transferring production facilities to Vietnam, it said: Trade disruptions offer opportunities for supply chain digitization.

Efforts to update broadcaster signal protections made limited progress at last week's meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), but are moving toward a diplomatic conference (DipCon), participants told us. In his draft meeting summary, Chairman Daren Tang said talks on definitions, object of protection and rights to be granted were held in informal sessions with a view to clarifying technical issues and delegations' positions. A revised version of the text will be on the agenda for the next SCCR meeting, in spring. Progress was made on several points, we're told, including: (1) Rights to be granted, which seeks to accommodate different legal systems. (2) How to protect certain types of transmissions in particular live events. (3) New language on rights management information, which involves the concept of watermark used in program-carrying signals to monitor the uses made of them. (4) Whether to retain or delete "transmission over computer networks." Talks "started off well," with many delegations pressing to finalize the text to meet WIPO General Assembly instructions aimed at getting to a DipCon in 2020-21, emailed European Broadcasting Union Head-Intellectual Property Heijo Ruijsenaars. Informal discussions involved definitions and the scope of the treaty but then stalled on "lengthy discussions on how to deal with the (rather exceptional) situation where the foreign broadcaster would have no other option than to rely on protection of its programming content, rather than on the protection of its signal," he said. This is a minor issue relevant only to the U.S., and, meanwhile, one of the "big issues" -- protection of online rights -- remains largely unresolved, he said. To not lose momentum, continued drafting work is needed between now and the next meeting, Ruijsenaars said. Nevertheless, the committee moved a step closer to its DipCon goal, he said. The text is "still a mess," but there was very little opposition to moving to DipCon, emailed Knowledge Ecology international Director James Love.

The U.S. government should investigate TikTok’s parent ByteDance and its acquisition of Music.ly, Open Markets Institute said Thursday, citing national security threats. OMI responded to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asking U.S. intelligence officials to investigate the Chinese company TikTok. More than 110 million Americans downloaded the app this past year, said Schumer and Cotton. “At best, TikTok is a direct source for the Chinese to harvest American user data; at worst, TikTok is an opportunity for the Chinese Communist Party to use algorithms to manipulate Americans to push an authoritarian agenda,” OMI wrote, asking the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to open a review. TikTok said it's not influenced or controlled by the Chinese government: "We remain committed to providing a safe and expressive app experience for our community."

IRobot U.S. sales declined 7 percent in Q3 because growth “remained subdued as the direct and indirect impacts” of the 25 percent List 3 U.S. tariffs on China “weighed heavily on consumers, retailers and suppliers,” said CEO Colin Angle on a Wednesday call. Tariffs forced iRobot to hike prices July 22 that resulted in “suboptimal sell-through” in August and September, he said. Sales recovered after the vendor "rolled back" pricing to “pre-tariff levels” in October, he said. The company regards these duties as “a short-term phenomenon that has temporarily stunted top-line growth and eroded profitability,” said Angle. “We plan to continue to limit our China exposure by moving production to Malaysia.” IRobot will have one Malaysian production line “operating at scale” for entry-level products by Jan. 1, said Angle. It will continue seeking “ways to move higher-complexity products outside of China, depending on what we’re seeing relative to the tariff situation,” he said. “Malaysia is playing a growing part of our strategy. We’re not holding our breath and waiting for tariffs to end or to be exempted.” The vendor filed for a tariff exclusion July 1 on the "retail-packaged robotic vacuum cleaners" it imports from China. It remains locked in a “Stage 2 -- Initial Substantive Review" hold at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. "With over 30,000 applications now awaiting review, it could take several more quarters before we learn whether our request for an exemption will be granted." USTR didn't comment. Shares closed at $49.06, down 9 percent.

The Bureau of Industry and Security amended export administration regulations to further restrict exports and re-exports to Cuba, said Monday's Federal Register. The amendments establish a 10 percent de minimis level for Cuba, make its government ineligible for certain donations, and clarify the scope of unlicensed telecom items the Cuban government can receive. BIS amended a license exception authorizing certain exports and re-exports intended to support people through improved living conditions, to clarify authorization of certain items for telecom infrastructure upgrades is limited to infrastructure that improves “the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people.” A license is required for exports and reexports to connect specific end users, BIS said.

Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm told analysts Thursday 5G is rolling out faster than expected, driven by the U.S. and northeast Asia. Ericsson and Nokia are the two top 5G equipment suppliers to the U.S. 5G is “happening even faster than we expected just a few months ago,” he said. The biggest market for 5G infrastructure will be China, “where deployments are expected to start near term,” Ekholm said: “We have invested to increase our market share, however it is still too early to assess possible volumes and price levels.” The IoT will be a strong point, Ericsson business growing “twice as fast as the estimated market growth of 20-25 percent per year,” he said.

Customs and Border Protection wants comment by Dec. 16 on CBP plans to update U.S. border handling of imports with suspected copyright violations, said Wednesday's Federal Register. The proposal is a result of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, which added pre-seizure disclosure requirements for possible Digital Millennium Copyright Act violations. TFTEA lets CBP make new disclosures to intellectual property rights holders.

Fitbit will shift production to "outside China" starting in January for “effectively all of its trackers and smartwatches” to escape exposure to the tariffs on Chinese goods, said the company Wednesday. "Those products will no longer be of Chinese origin and therefore not subject to Section 301 tariffs,” said Fitbit, without disclosing where it's moving its sourcing. Smartwatches and fitness trackers, comprising the entire Fitbit product line, were hit with 15 percent List 4A tariffs Sept. 1 as part of the broad category of 8517.62.00.90 goods that also includes smart speakers and Bluetooth headphones (see 1908130028). The company began exploring potential alternatives to China last year, said Chief Financial Officer Ron Kisling. It altered its supply chain and manufacturing operations with “additional changes underway,” the company said. Fitbit said it will give additional details, including the financial implications, on its Q3 call within the month. Fitbit devices are assembled in China from parts and components sourced from Taiwan and Singapore, but shifting final assembly outside China “has been a very big challenge for us,” testified Executive Vice President-General Counsel Andy Missan at a Section 301 hearing in June. The devices require “high-precision assembly and high volume,” he said then. "We have not been able to find those characteristics in other locations,” despite looking throughout Southeast Asia, he said.