Samsung applied March 7 to trademark the plain-text phrase “flap leather cover” for smartphone cases, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Samsung filed a similar application March 3 with U.K. trademark authorities, PTO said. Samsung didn't comment.
Though the consumer tech industry “condemns the use of forced labor” and “unequivocally supports” the Biden administration’s efforts “to end this scourge around the world,” there are concerns about the timing of import restrictions under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), commented CTA in docket DHS-2022-0001. Comments were due Thursday in response to a Department of Homeland Security notice in January on how best to comply with the UFLPA by preventing goods produced with forced labor in China from being imported into the U.S.
Two weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “we don't know how this evolves going forward, and it's really too early to tell what the overall impact of this on our business will be,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told a Morgan Stanley investment conference Thursday. “In this moment that reminds us why public conversation is important in the world,” said Agrawal: “It gives us this opportunity to showcase the value of Twitter to all of these people, but it also has us feel this immense responsibility.” Twitter has been “doing work proactively to be prepared for this moment” for years, he said. In 2019, it banned all ads from “state-affiliated media organizations,” and two years ago it started “labeling and de-amplifying all state-affiliated media entities,” he said: “We've been very, very transparent about any attempt that we've seen from state actors to manipulate the conversation on Twitter.” Former Chief Technology Officer Agrawal took over as Twitter CEO in November after Jack Dorsey abruptly left the company (see 2111290038).
OLED microdisplay producer eMagin is using direct-patterning technology to build “proof of concept” displays for augmented- and virtual reality headsets “with a tier 1 consumer electronics company,” said CEO Andrew Sculley on a Q4 earnings call Thursday. “The addition of advanced production machinery, which we expect to have online next year, will produce the displays “in production quantities at our fab,” he said. “Tool qualification will begin in the first half of 2023 as we prepare to shift from R&D to production.” Compared with white OLED microdisplays with color filters, the direct-patterning displays have more brightness and much better power efficiency, said Sculley. EMagin expects the direct-patterning technology will “ultimately replace current full-color OLED technologies,” he said. Peak brightness of 10,000 nits, which the direct-patterning OLEDs can achieve, “is an important threshold for VR headset customers, including the tier one for whom we have designed a high resolution VR display,” he said.
Netflix has no plans to introduce an ad-supported tier as Disney+ intends to do this year in the U.S. (see 2203080004), Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann told a Morgan Stanley investment conference Tuesday. “It's not like we have religion against advertising,” said Neumann. “We think we have a great model in the subscription business." Netflix will “never say never” to an ad-supported tier, he said. “It's hard for us to kind of ignore that others are doing it, but it now doesn't make sense for us.” Netflix hopes mobile gaming will be "a big part of our business in a decade," but "it's not going to be a big part of our business in the next 12 months," said the CFO. Netflix went from "saying we wanted to get in the games business to launching a games business globally inside of 12 months and having it work on Android and iOS and around the world," he said.
The global wearables industry shipped a record-high 171 million units in Q4, up 10.8% from the same 2020 quarter, as sustained demand for health and fitness trackers, plus hearables helped the market maintain its momentum, reported IDC Wednesday. Shipments for the full year 2021 totaled 533.6 million units, up 20% over 2020, it said.
It’s “no secret” that corporate awareness of cybersecurity is “high,” Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora told a Morgan Stanley investment conference Monday. “I can’t imagine five years ago, you’d be asking the CEO, how secure is your infrastructure? And are you worried about the risk of cyberattacks?” Arora thinks there's "more of a focus on getting security right than there ever was,” he said. “We’re woefully ill-prepared for what could happen to the technology infrastructure in this country and around the world.” The cybersecurity “debate” has evolved from “whether I could be hacked,” to “if I did get hacked, how am I going to get back up again?” he said.
Nvidia thinks it has fared better than others navigating the chip crunch because it “realized quite quickly that this would be a supply-constrained world and that it would be with us for many years,” Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress told a Morgan Stanley investment conference Monday. “Our initial onset of thinking through our supply chain started very early in that COVID period of time,” she said. “Our focus was not just about the next quarters out, but we stopped and paused to think about what it would mean for years in the future.” Nvidia has “already procured what we need” for 2022, “and we have also engaged in procurement for things for the long term,” involving anything “from wafers to substrates,” she said. Nvidia expects that supply will improve “each quarter of this year,” she said.
Disney research found many consumers “are actually more favorably disposed to services with ads than without ads,” Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy told a Morgan Stanley investment conference Monday on the rationale for adding an ad-supported Disney+ tier later this year in the U.S. (see 2203040042). “We have also had an incredible amount of advertiser demand ever since the launch of Disney+,” she said.
NXP Semiconductors employs about 100 engineers "based out of Russia," and it “serviced” about $25 million in revenue through its Russian distribution partners last year, Chief Financial Officer Bill Betz told a Morgan Stanley investment conference Monday. “So that's the direct exposure we have” to the crisis, he said. In terms of “indirect” exposure, NXP supplies chips to an automotive OEM in Ukraine that manufactures wire harnesses, said Betz. “They are shut down, paused for a couple of weeks” to find alternative sourcing, he said. NXP’s sourcing of neon used for lithography in semiconductor manufacturing “does not come from Ukraine,” said Betz. “We typically hold six to nine months' worth” of inventory in neon, he said: “So really, in the short term, no impact, but this is something that we are continuing to monitor very carefully, and we will adjust accordingly as we go forward.”