Strategy in TECH...
The latest data from market research firm Strategy Analytics shows that Amazon is still the king of the smart speaker market – selling more smart speakers than anyone else. But the data also showed something else rather surprising – Google has substantially closed the gap between it and Amazon, coming within about 5.5% of Amazon’s market share numbers in the all-important fourth quarter selling season.
Josh.ai announced this morning that it has partnered with Savant to bring their more intuitive voice command system to one of the leading control systems in custom integration. While there are many advantages to this partnership, a big one is bringing the seamless integration of voice commands to Savant’s renowned user-centric ‘scene’ feature.
In what is becoming a bit of a familiar refrain in tech these days, including our report just yesterday on Control4’s results, Sonos reported record results for their fiscal first quarter on Wednesday. The company beat analysts’ expectations for revenues ($496 million vs. $491M expected) and for earnings ($0.55/share versus $0.41 expected). And yet, their stock tanked fully 17% after the announcement. Not only that, but as of 11:00AM today, Sonos stock is down another more than 13%.
The headline caught my attention immediately – “Exclusive: Foxconn reconsidering plans to make LCD panels at Wisconsin plant.” This story, from the highly respected Reuters News Agency, follows a series of articles on Foxconn’s growing business struggles in the wake of a decline in sales to Apple. But it immediately raised a red flag with me…
I arrived at my destination, Amtrak’s South Station in Boston, right on time. As I approached the doors to exit the station, my eyes suddenly focused on a shocking scene. Not only was there a torrential downpour – that was not a surprise, it had been raining as I departed New Jersey early that morning as well – but added to that downpour were gale force winds. It was like something out of a cheesy Hollywood disaster movie. I saw debris flying by horizontally, people struggling with popped-inside-out umbrellas as they attempted to fight the winds and stinging rain to remain on their feet.
Just then, my cell phone rang. It was an irrepressably jovial Charlie Porritt, CEO of Russound, telling me cheerfully he was only a couple of blocks away and would be there to pick me up in a couple of minutes. I pushed the disconnect button and said out loud to no one in particular – “I’m not going out there!”
We have followed Foxconn for years now, first picking up on them in 2012 when news had emerged that a significant Apple supplier was having problems with employees committing suicide – eventually forcing the company to install ‘suicide nets’ on their taller factories and offices to help thwart further suicide attempts. Foxconn has continued on to become one of Apple, Inc.’s largest iPhone supplier of parts and assembly.
CES 2019 is over the hump, closing tomorrow. But the top tech stories are pretty big and pretty clearly defined – and will be quite exciting, when they appear…someday. The top tech stories include – LG’s rollable, bendable OLED displays, Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G – the next generation wireless tech, 8K TVs, autonomous vehicles – both car and motorcycle, and Apple & Siri strike back.
I had barely lit up the pixels with my post on Nortek’s holiday termination of their remaining independent sales representative groups, when I began hearing from a number of other sources about high-end specialty brand Bryston terminating their rep force as well. It’s like a New Year’s assault on sales representative groups…and they aren’t happy about it…
Our phones and email lit up over the last few days as word spread that Nortek Security and Control has fired all of the remaining Core Brands reps in the U.S., according to multiple sources. The timing of the terminations over the holidays only seems to add a sense of heartlessness to the action….a real-life ‘bah humbug’ that leaves the reps feeling cold.
I have to admit, Strata-gee was considering moving on from its Gibson Brands (Gibson Guitar) coverage, first started in 2012 when the company made several acquisitions as part of an ill-advised foray into the consumer electronics business. As delineated in our copious coverage, Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz turned to OPM (other people’s money) loading the company up with over half a billion dollars in debt to pursue a business in which the company had no expertise…ultimately resulting in Gibson’s bankruptcy filing in May of this year.
Gibson’s major creditors banded together, put together what some would call a pre-packaged bankruptcy plan and looked as though they would exit bankruptcy late November/early December. They were wrong. As they tried to power out of bankruptcy, they hit a brick wall – the United States Trustee who has filed a serious objection to their motion to exit bankruptcy.
