Holiday season spending online Nov. 1-Dec. 4 reached $38 billion, a 12 percent spike from the 2015 period, reported comScore. Citing the growing impact of mobile commerce (see 1611280033), the researcher said shopping via smartphones and tablets accounted for $597 million of spending on Thanksgiving (up 26 percent over 2015), $797 million on Black Friday (up 41 percent) and more than $1 billion on Cyber Monday (up 29 percent). Mobile commerce helped drive a 20 percent increase in overall digital spending for the three days, it said, with Cyber Monday ringing in as the largest digital commerce spending day on record at $3.7 billion.
Parents spend on average 9 hours 22 minutes a day with screen media, with 78 percent believing they're good media use role models for their kids, even as significant percentages worry about their kids' screen media use, Common Sense said in a study released Tuesday. "Parents are using media for entertainment just as much as their kids, yet they express concerns about their kids' media use while also believing that they are good role models for their kids," CEO James Steyer said. "If they are concerned about too much media in their kids' lives, it might be time to reassess their own behavior so that they can truly set the example they want for their kids." Fifty-six percent of parents worry their children may become addicted to technology and 34 percent think technology use hurts their kids' sleep. Forty-three percent of parents said they're "moderately" or "extremely" worried about their kids spending too much time online, 38 percent said so about their children over-sharing personal details, and 36 percent said so about their kids accessing online pornography and about exposure to violent videos or images. The results come from a national GfK survey of 1,786 parents of those age 8-18.
On Oct. 27, 2015, the stage was set for the much-scrutinized court hearing on FCC net neutrality rules and broadband reclassification under Title II of the Communications Act. That day, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit identified judges in the case as David Tatel and Sri Srinivasan, both Democratic appointees, and Senior Judge Stephen Williams, a Republican appointee. As Communications Daily first reported Oct. 28, Tatel was the most-watched judge in the case (see 1510280052). This Part III of our Special Report on net neutrality explores the hearing and continuing legal challenges. Part I was on the rules themselves (see 1609150017) and Part II on pleadings to the court that led up to Dec. 4, 2015, oral argument (see 1609230009). Part IV is on the court's eventual decision (see 1610210015).
Cyber Monday netted $540 million between midnight and 10 a.m. EST and was on track to reach $3.36 billion in online sales for the day, up 9.4 percent from a year ago, said Adobe Digital Insights. Mobile shopping since Nov. 1 continued its surge, accounting for $205 million of morning shopping, said the tech company. Holiday season online revenue rose 7.1 percent to $36.5 billion. As of 10 a.m. EST Monday, mobile accounted for 56 percent of Cyber Monday e-commerce site visits (46 percent smartphones; 10 percent tablets) and 38 percent of sales (27 percent smartphones; 11 percent tablets).
The rise in interest in 4K-capable streaming media players is helping drive Ultra HD TV adoption mainstream, said a Tuesday NPD report. Some 38 percent of consumers surveyed said they’re very or somewhat likely to use a 4K TV in the future, up five percentage points since Q1, NPD said. As of Q3, 87 percent of installed 4K TVs had active internet connections, showing an interest among 4K TV owners in streaming media. Recent 4K-capable streaming media device launches from Amazon, Google and Roku will boost the transition to 4K TV adoption, it said. In Q3, 32 percent of U.S. internet homes had at least one installed streaming media player, up by 7 million homes over the past year, said NPD. But only a limited number of streaming media player owners have used a 4K streamer, said NPD. An internet connection speed of 25 Mbps or higher is recommended for 4K streaming, and currently about 5 million U.S. households have the broadband infrastructure required, it said.
Qualcomm’s proposed buy of NXP Semiconductors will create “the semiconductor engine for the connected world,” said Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf on an analyst call Thursday. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2017, with Qualcomm buying all outstanding stock of NXP for $110 a share in cash, valued at about $38 billion.
A proposed judiciary procedural rule change that would allow federal law enforcement officials to go to any magistrate judge for a warrant to search thousands of computers outside their jurisdictions likely will take effect Dec. 1, "barring some extremely unlikely events," said George Washington University Law School professor Orin Kerr during a Privacy and Security Forum panel Tuesday. Kerr was a member of the U.S. Courts Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules that considered and ultimately approved the amendment to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Many privacy and civil liberties groups oppose the change, which they say would allow the government to hack computers anywhere in the world, including those owned by innocent people that are part of a botnet.
All episodes of new ABC series in the 2016-17 season, plus some returning series, will be available to authenticated users of the ABC app and ABC.com, the network said in a news release Monday. ABC also said the in-season stacking will be available via Hulu and some pay-TV on-demand platforms such as Xfinity and DirecTV. The company said with the relaunch of its app over the summer, it added full seasons of 38 past series, plus original and derivative short-form content.
Eighty-one IP-intensive industries contributed more than 38 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product in 2014 and supported about 30 percent of all jobs, the Department of Commerce said Monday in a report. The joint Patent and Trademark Office-Economics and Statistics Administration report said IP-intensive industries contribute more than $6 trillion to the U.S. GDP and support at least 45 million U.S. jobs. The report identified IP-intensive industries as those that use copyright, patent and trademark protections most extensively. IP-intensive industries’ proportional contribution to U.S. GDP increased from statistics in a 2012 Commerce report (see report in the April 12, 2012, issue), but those industries’ proportional contribution to overall U.S. jobs numbers dropped slightly, Commerce said.
Microsoft is claiming "a profound negative impact" on video game consoles like its Xbox 360S from Globalstar's proposed broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS). Those assertions could mire the proceeding before the FCC for months, satellite industry consultant Tim Farrar told us Wednesday. "Things were coming to a head one way or another -- either to move forward or say nothing will happen this year -- and this likely ensures the latter." Nintendo also raised red flags about possible TLPS interference (see 1607060042). Globalstar rebutted Microsoft's concerns.