Qualcomm touted its role in extended reality (XR), announcing Monday ecosystem support from OEMs, operators and platform providers for interactive augmented and virtual reality experiences connected to 5G smartphones using its Snapdragon 855 mobile platform. Benefits from 5G in XR include high data rates and low latency, it said. XR viewers can be optimized and commercially ready for the mobile industry this year, it said. The company will expand its HMD (head-mounted display) Accelerator Program (HAP) to include and help pre-validate components and performance between smartphones and XR viewers, it said. XR viewers will bring a point-of-sale bundling opportunity to OEMs and new experiences to customers as 5G uses emerge, Qualcomm said. Later this year, Qualcomm and its HAP collaborators plan to release a viewer performance and compatibility badge icon. It cited Acer’s Ojo HMD VR viewer with high-resolution displays and 6 degrees-of-freedom tracking and the nreal light AR glasses as designs with USB-C connectivity that can work with the platform. The nreal light AR glasses initially required a processing box tethered to a Snapdragon 845 processing box, it said. OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Black Shark are expected to have Snapdragon 855-based smartphones in 2019. The increased resolution, high bandwidth and streamlined form-factor of XR viewers connected to 5G handsets offer an “evolutionary step in immersive consumer devices,” said David Cole, CEO of immersive live sports and music provider NextVR.

Apple chip modem supplier Intel told Reuters Friday its 5G modem chip won’t appear in smartphones until next year. At Mobile World Congress, starting Monday in Barcelona, 5G phones will be announced or teased. Samsung announced plans to deliver a 5G phone in Q2 (see 1902200065). While Apple is Intel’s major customer for modem chips, the phone maker has reportedly had talks with chipmakers Samsung and MediaTek about 5G modem chips for iPhones to be released this year, and the company reportedly moved modem engineering into the division that makes its proprietary processor chips. Intel and Apple didn’t comment.

Royole, which launched the foldable phone market last fall, looked to get a bit of the spotlight Thursday following Samsung’s splashy Fold announcement. Royole said it will demonstrate for the first time at Mobile World Congress next week its “fully flexible displays” including it wearable FlexPai smartphone integrated in a top hat and shirt. It will also show the RoWrite smart writing pad. Royole sensors have a bending radius of 1-3 mm and are operational after 200,000 bends, the company said. Samsung said Wednesday its device will fold at least 200,000 times.

Global smartphone sell-through to end users “stalled” in Q4, rising just 0.1 percent to 408.4 million units, reported Gartner Thursday. Apple recorded its worst quarterly decline since Q1 2016, it said. IPhone sales fell 11.8 percent to 64.5 million units, it said. Apple saw iPhone demand weaken in most regions, except North America; the biggest decline was in China, where iPhone’s market share dropped to 8.8 percent in Q4 from 14.6 percent in year-earlier quarter, it said. The weak iPhone demand prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to issue his rare earnings warning early January, sending shares plummeting to a 52-week low (see 1901030036).

TiVo will be Sky Mexico’s primary metadata provider for its next-generation platform, TiVo said Wednesday. The TiVo platform will improve search and recommendations, it said. Sky Mexico previously had relied on multiple vendors for metadata.

Cirrus Logic announced Tuesday a smart power amplifier it said will improve the audio listening experience for mono and stereo applications on mobile devices, while conserving battery life. The CS35L41 supports stereo audio in smartphones and portable devices and is said to boost audio clarity and loudness with advanced power management. It’s half the size of other digital signal processing amps, said the company.

Samsung bowed its next-generation tablet Friday, first to incorporate Bixby voice control, as an “ideal hub” to control smart home devices. Samsung highlighted the tablet's smart home functionality, including scene creation through Quick Command, which enables a user to flip on lights and a TV simultaneously with one voice command. The Tab S5e has a 10.5-inch edge-to-edge display, is 0.2-inch thick and weighs 14 ounces. Battery life is given as 14.5 hours. An accessory keyboard is an option. The four speakers have auto-rotate stereo technology that adjusts to portrait or landscape orientation. Sound is by Harman brand AKG and the mobile device integrates Dolby Atmos sound. Spotify is preloaded and users get a free premium subscription to the streaming music service for three months. The Wi-Fi version will be available in Q2 at $399 with a cellular model due later in the year. Samsung also announced it’s expanding its experience stores, opening locations Wednesday in Los Angeles; Garden City, New York; and Houston. Like the company’s first experience center in New York City, the stores won't be shopping destinations. They're designed to educate visitors about Samsung TVs, SmartThings products, wearables, smartphones and tablets; offer support and walk-in repair service for mobile devices; and provide hands-on experiences. The centers feature virtual reality and 8K demos, 4K gaming lounges and stations for visitors to create AR emojis, it said.

InnoPhase's single-chip wireless IoT platform cuts "the power cord" and is "battery-based with a DTIM3 specification at least half that of leading lowpower Wi-Fi solutions." It has a transceiver for MAC/PHY and embedded ARM processor, said the fabless chipmaker Wednesday. Teknique likes being able to have Wi-Fi connectivity without a wireless hub, said that customer company's CEO, Ben Bodley.

Amazon agreed to buy smart home mesh network company eero, it said Monday. Tuesday, an eero three-pack, priced at $362 at Amazon vs. $399 at eero’s website, included an eero and two beacons billed as a tri-band mesh Wi-Fi system to replace traditional routers and Wi-Fi range extenders. An optional $99 yearly eero subscription brings recurring revenue potential. The eero website says the device plus subscription includes an ad blocker, a “SafeSearch” feature for Google search results, content filters, accounts for security apps and priority support. Dave Limp, senior vice president-Amazon Devices and Services, said eero’s team invented a Wi-Fi solution “that makes connected devices just work.” Customers can set up a system in under 10 minutes, share the network, program parental controls and run speed tests from the app. Eero communicates with the cloud to receive instructions and is “self-updating” and “self-fixing,” Amazon said. All employees will reportedly receive an offer to join Amazon.

Industry shipped nearly 105 million units of wearables globally in 2018, a 10 percent increase from 2017kiiiiilo, reported Futuresource Consulting Monday. Average selling prices are rising at a faster rate than unit growth on increasing demand for upscale smartwatches and the “parallel stagnation” of lower-priced activity trackers and sports watches, it said. Google’s recent $40 million buy of Fossil’s smartwatch patents (see 1901170054) leaves "the market anticipating a hardware release from Google or potential revamp of its Wear OS platform,” said Futuresource. It expects wearables shipments to exceed 145 million worldwide in 2022, driven "predominantly by replacement sales and the ongoing uptake of smartwatches and wireless watches.”