Global smart home device unit shipments will grow 4.1% this year to 854 million, remaining “quite resilient” during the pandemic, forecast IDC Monday. Through 2024, that number will reach more than 1.4 billion, it said. Though the market lost some ground vs. pre-COVID-19 forecasts, smart home devices remained popular with consumers as they shifted spending from vacation, travel and restaurants. Video entertainment devices are expected to remain the largest category throughout the smart home forecast, generating 31.3% of all shipments in 2024 due to falling prices and advanced functions, including 8K video, higher refresh rates, HDR, large screen sizes and integration with smart assistants and streaming platforms. TVs are expected to hold 60% share in the category by 2024. In-home bandwidth requirements are growing as consumers spend more time indoors and add to the number of connected devices within the home, noted analyst Jitesh Ubrani. That will “force upgrades to the in-home network infrastructure and further drive the importance of Wi-Fi 6 in upcoming smart home devices." Market growth over the next few years will be limited by concerns about security and privacy, consumers' price sensitivity to upfront and ongoing costs of devices and services, and “the underlying uncertainty in labor and financial markets around the world.” Fear of missing out, along with security concerns, will drive demand for smart cameras, door locks and doorbells. Smart speakers are seen growing at a rate of 11.1% as emerging markets begin to adopt the voice-driven devices. IDC expects the category will be challenged for growth as smart speaker functionality gets incorporated into other device types and replacement rates stretch.

Huntkey bowed a fast charger ($16) for USB-C-equipped devices, including smartphones, tablets and notebook PCs. A dual-chip design allows it to adapt to global voltage inputs from 100V to 240V, said the company Friday: The 18-watt device can charge an iPad Pro in 3.5 hours.

Amazon’s hardware introductions (see 2009240052) Thursday “underscore a focus on the connected home as an entry into its ecosystem” Cowen analyst John Blackledge wrote investors Friday. They’re also “another opportunity” to leverage Amazon Web Services, he said. It's “going for multiple shots on goal with the burgeoning connected home, leveraging innovations in cloud computing (AWS) and machine learning (Alexa) that can be incorporated across nearly all of these devices.” Cowen estimates 31% of U.S. households own an Echo vs. 27% in Q3 last year. It predicts continued Echo share gains in Q4.

TCL's Signa smartphone began selling on Verizon Thursday. The prepaid $79 Android 10 device has a 5.5-inch 18:9 HD+ display, 8-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel selfie camera and 3000 mAh battery. The 32-GB phone has a dedicated Google Assistant button and supports a microSD card up to 256 GB.

Broadcasters will have “a lot" of new ATSC 3.0 deployments over the next five years, NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny told CTA’s virtual Technology and Standards Forum Tuesday. “You’re going to see a lot of stations that are taking advantage of the benefits of NextGenTV as it relates to better picture, better sound.” Sports broadcasting contracts will be up for renewal, and with that will come “increased pressure to start doing stuff in 4K,” he said. NextGenTV is now a “reality” in the U.S., said Matheny. COVID-19, "unfortunately," is “another reality,” he said. Broadcasters haven’t put NextGenTV “on the back burner” during the health crisis, he said. “Their commitment hasn’t wavered,” though the pandemic “has slowed the rollout,” said Matheny. Nine U.S. markets are live with 3.0, serving about 10% of TV households, he said. Stations in eight more markets have filed 3.0 license applications “with intentions to go on the air in the near future,” he said. “Things are changing rapidly,” though industry likely will fall 50% short of its 2019 NAB Show goal of launching in 60 markets by the end of 2020, he said. The CES 2020 “commitment” of LG, Samsung and Sony to debut up to 20 NextGenTV models collectively this year was “probably exceeded,” despite “quite a few challenges around getting products launched and shipped” during the pandemic, said Brian Markwalter, CTA senior vice president-technology and standards. Models run the gamut from sets priced below $1,000 to the most expensive 8K TVs, available both in OLED and "full-array" LCD, he said. CTA and NAB are “in the process now” of releasing the “next big revision” in the NextGenTV “test suite” for 2021-model TVs, he said. The suite involves 135 tests and more than 150 “unique assertions,” he said. TVs are required to pass to qualify for the NextGenTV logo, he said.

Microsoft will pay $7.5 billion cash for ZeniMax Media and its Bethesda Softworks, said Microsoft Monday. Bethesda “brings an impressive portfolio of games, technology, talent, as well as a track record of blockbuster commercial success, to Xbox,” it said. It expands Microsoft’s “creative studio teams” to 23 from 15 and enables Microsoft to bring Bethesda's franchises to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service the same day they launch for the Xbox console or PC, it said. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2021 ending late June.

The U.S. Court of International Trade should “set aside” the List 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports as “ultra vires” (“beyond the powers”) of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and order the duties refunded to U.S. importers, said tech companies Dana Innovations, Foster Electric, GN Audio, Scosche Industries and Sharp Electronics in five virtually identical complaints (in Pacer). They were among hundreds filed Thursday and Friday accusing USTR of overstepping Trade Act authority and violating the Administrative Procedure Act. The suits attempt to seize on a potential tariff refund opportunity, if floor-tiling plaintiffs prevail in their case (see 2009110041). The complaints are “timely,” said the dozens of them we studied, under CIT’s residual jurisdiction provision, coming before Monday’s two-year anniversary of USTR’s List 3 Federal Register notice. Though the HMTX case “may be a long-shot, you can never say never,” blogged trade expert Ted Murphy with Sidley Austin. “If you want to preserve your right to a refund, in case the flooring companies’ action is successful, you need to put a case on file at the CIT.” Scosche suffered “an actual, imminent injury that is fairly traceable to the implementation, administration, and enforcement of List 3 and/or List 4,” said the car audio supplier. The harms “can be redressed by a declaratory judgment and permanent injunction” ruling USTR’s actions unlawful under the Trade Act and “arbitrary and capricious” under the APA, said Scosche. Akin Gump filed the original suit for HMTX using as a template the complaint it drafted for CTA two years ago. Other lawyers modeled their actions after that. USTR didn't comment.

Verizon, which lowered smartwatch plan pricing earlier this week to coincide with Friday's release of Apple Watch Series 6 (see 2009150060), expanded connected device options in its Unlimited Plus wireless plan to support the growing number of connected devices, it said Thursday. Customers can add Unlimited Plus to their existing wireless plan for $30 monthly, and existing customers can upgrade their current unlimited connected device plan for $10 more monthly. In addition to unlimited 5G, the new plan includes 30 GB of premium 4G LTE data, up from 15 GB in standard Unlimited Plus, said Verizon, pitching the plan toward households’ increased Wi-Fi needs for remote learning or work. Unlimited data plans for tablets and hotspots are $20 monthly. Hotspot, laptop and tablet users get 50GB of mobile hotspot data on the 5G network monthly, then 3 Mbps for the rest of the month after exceeding allowance. Earlier this week, Verizon lowered existing smartwatch plan pricing to $10 monthly, including 15 GB premium data, for stand-alone or NumberShare plans.

Nvidia’s $40 billion agreement to buy Arm from Softbank (see 2009140053) “positions us in the right way for the next wave of computing” in the age of artificial intelligence, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress told a Deutsche Bank virtual conference Monday. Nvidia hopes to expand Arm’s patent portfolio into large “end markets,” including mobile and PCs, and to “turbocharge” the pace of Arm’s server CPU road map, she said. “This gives us the ability to reach even a larger overall developer community.” Nvidia estimates 20 billion devices with Arm-licensed technology are used globally, said Kress. Nvidia hopes it can win regulatory approval in “under 18 months,” she said. “I think the overall regulatory process will move through quite well. We believe the deal, in total, is pretty much pro-competitive.”

Amazon wants to fill 100,000 new jobs in its operations network, it blogged Monday. It's opening 100 operations buildings this month, including fulfillment centers, delivery stations and sorting facilities. Salaries start at $15 hourly.