Wireless charging company Energous announced the first WattUp-enabled customer product to receive FCC approval for marketing and sale in the U.S. The company first said it planned to develop reference designs for embedded WattUp charging capabilities in SK Telesys products for the Asian and global markets in 2014. SK Telesys showed a personal sound amplification product (PSAP) and smart ID card using WattUp technology at CES 2017 (see 1701040018). Energous CEO Stephen Rizzone called the FCC’s approval of the PSAP, from SK Telesys partner Delight, a positive announcement for the company because it means the first WattUp-enabled consumer product moving into full commercial production “with anticipated availability in Q1.” Rizzone acknowledged multiple delays for the product, maintaining the “customer funnel is robust” for CE products in “growing vertical markets” for full production in 2019. PSAPs, used to assist with hearing loss, are available without a prescription and tend to cost less than hearing aids, said Energous. WattUp wireless charging technology allows users to recharge the Delight PSAP by placing it on the included WattUp charging pad. Energous is also working on over-the-air charging, but no products have been announced.

If BlackBerry’s $1.4 billion buy of cybersecurity company Cylance (see 1811160024) goes through, “we will keep them as a separate business unit for sure,” said CEO John Chen on a Thursday earnings call. “That has been decided,” he said, though he hasn't decided on the organizational plan “going forward.” With the FTC having cleared the transaction with a Hart-Scott-Rodino early termination notice (see 1812130063), BlackBerry and Cylance await the comment and review period ending late January on the joint voluntary notice they filed at the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., said Chen. He expects the deal will close “shortly after,” he said.

The consumer virtual reality hardware market will be a $5 billion global business opportunity by 2023, said ABI Research Thursday. It views 2018 as a “significant year” for augmented reality, with “with new entrants in the market, new smart glasses launched, new and improved platforms and portfolios, and generally more enthusiasm and curiosity from the public to explore the technology." Heavy market “fragmentation and scarcity of content” is plaguing consumer VR hardware growth, but it’s confident “this is decreasing over time.”

The lawyer who filed companion lawsuits alleging Apple and Samsung are shortchanging the public on the screen-resolution specs on which they market their smartphones won’t rule out targeting additional manufacturers. “That depends on what comes to us,” attorney C.K. Lee told us Monday, when asked if he plans more lawsuits. The iPhone X, XS and XS Max smartphones lack their “advertised” screen resolutions and screen sizes in violation of consumer protection laws in all states, alleged last week's complaint (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in San Jose (see 1812140052). Nearly three dozen models of Samsung smartphones dating to 2010 were marketed with “nominal” screen resolutions that “misleadingly count false pixels,” said the complaint against Samsung (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Apple and Samsung didn’t comment.

The global consumer IoT market for mobile services providers (MSPs) will be $6.6 billion by 2023, reported ABI Research Wednesday. “Consumer IoT is a nascent and fragmented market where connectivity is an essential enabler,” it said. “MSPs can play a key role in driving the growth of the consumer IoT market from tracking applications to the connected car.” By launching consumer IoT products with “flexible” business models, MSPs can help generate customer demand, which will attract more OEMs to produce more consumer IoT devices, it said: Tech companies “have been slow to target this nascent market.”

Global smartphone unit shipments are expected to decline 3 percent this year to 1.42 billion before returning to low-single-digit growth in 2019 and through 2022, said IDC Tuesday. It’s forecasting 2.6 percent year-over-year shipment growth in 2019: “Shipments are forecast to reach 1.57 billion units in 2022.” In China, the largest smartphone market, shipments are expected to decline 8.8 percent this year. Chinese growth will be flat in 2019 before returning to “positive territory” through 2022, the researcher said. The U.S. also is forecast to return to positive growth in 2019 with a 2.1 percent year-over-year increase, after experiencing a decline in 2018. "With many of the large global companies focusing on high-end product launches, hoping to draw in consumers looking to upgrade based on specifications and premium devices, we can expect head-to-head competition within this segment during the holiday quarter and into 2019 to be exceptionally high," said IDC.

The FTC is proposing amendments for improving “organization and clarity” of EnergyGuide labeling requirements that leave TV labeling rules virtually unchanged under Department of Energy TV test procedures, said a rulemaking notice Monday. One change would make it easier “to identify relevant covered products” under categories of appliances, furnaces and central air conditioners, lighting and plumbing, and will be “particularly” useful for categories like lighting, “which contain several different product types and exemptions,” it said. Another amendment would simplify the EnergyGuide label formatting and content rules for six classifications of appliances. A third change would remove "obsolete references" to rules on products marketed "decades ago" but no longer available. Comments will be due 60 days after Federal Register publication.

Eighty-three percent of smart TV owners connect their set to the internet, up from 70 percent four years ago, Parks Associates reported Tuesday. Smart TV ownership grew from 34 to 53 percent. “Rise of direct-to-consumer offerings and the blurring of lines between pay-TV and [over the top] are leading to increased fragmentation in the viewing experience, where consumers are having to face complex self-curating systems,” said Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, Nagra senior director-product marketing, ahead of a Parks video conference in Marina del Rey, California, next week. Service providers should embrace the cloud, act as aggregators and leverage data, he said.

January CES will feature a "whole new” exhibit area “focused on resilience,” CTA President Gary Shapiro told the American Legislative Exchange Council Thursday (see 1811290015). “Say what you want about whether you believe in climate change or not, but the fact is people are facing more challenges in terms of their environment,” he said. “More things are happening.” The two-hour Las Vegas Convention Center blackout last CES (see 1801110030) “incentivized” CTA's decision on resilience, as did an executive board meeting in Napa Valley held “in the dark,” he said. “Cold coffee, no telephone service and no electricity,” he said. “That’s when I decided we had to focus on resilience and redundancy a little bit.”

Building on a 2012 connected vehicle cloud partnership, Ericsson will provide its Connected Vehicle Cloud platform for Volvo Cars to enable digital vehicle services in 120 markets for five years, they said Thursday. The agreement covers connected digital services such as telematics, navigation and infotainment. The platform, via geographically distributed centers, conforms to global legal, security and privacy obligations, they said.