Strategy in TECH...
VOXX International Corp. announced its fiscal 2023, first-quarter results late Monday, reporting that it saw sales declines, deepening operating losses, and a swing to a net loss in the quarter. Shares in VOXX declined 9.44% in value in trading Monday – and after-hours trading in the early evening pointed to another nearly 3% decline in shares. By comparison, the S & P 500 saw overall shares decline 1.15% on Monday.
Snap One, the entity originally founded as SnapAV, and a company whose motto is “Founded by integrators for integrators,” recently demonstrated how they strive to be a better partner by providing their dealers with some really solid and helpful advice. One of their appreciative dealers forwarded me an email he had received from the company containing useful information on how to protect his business from fraud.
Major American and Asian chip makers warned this week that they may scale back their planned investments in building U.S. semiconductor production if Congress doesn’t finally move forward and pass the CHIPS Act. The CHIPS Act is legislation the administration seeks to build up a more robust U.S.-based semiconductor supply chain.
In a world where many brands are building “planned obsolescence” into their products such that after some period of time customers are forced to buy new versions of their products to replace the old, Bryston takes the opposite approach. Instead of forcing you into NEW models, the company wants to help keep past purchasers of Bryston gear in wedded bliss with their OLD “vintage” gear via a new Back to the Future product restoration service.
A broad group of global manufacturers in diverse markets from Ford to Samsung have seen their inventory levels swell as consumer demand weakens in the wake of surging inflation and destabilizing economic conditions, according to a new analysis by the Nikkei. According to their research, global manufacturing inventories have swelled to $1.8 trillion, a record total that is the highest measured manufacturing inventory level in the last ten years.
The Conference Board announced on Tuesday that consumer confidence in June, as measured by their Consumer Confidence Index, a key indicator of the state of mind of the U.S. consumer, has dropped to a reading of 98.7. This is the first time that the Index has been under its 100 reference level since a post-2020 pandemic recovery. Generally, a reading under 100 indicates a pessimistic consumer likely to cut back on spending.
This is the lowest reading for consumer confidence since February 2021.
You may have seen the recent announcement from Savant that they have broadened the distribution of their new energy management solutions to a pair of new, strategically significant distribution partners. You may have ignored this news, perhaps not recognizing the distributors who are both better known in the electrical/renewable contracting communities.
But if you are an integrator who specifies Savant products in your proposals, you should be really paying attention to what this company is doing with its powerful (pun intended) energy management strategy. It’s big!
Today Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) launched the all-new Px7 S2 wireless noise-canceling headphones, designed to replace the previous PX7 that the company says was an “award-winning” product. A premium grade set of headphones, B&W says the new Px7 S2 will “deliver the most detailed, natural and immersive sound available – the True Sound of the artist’s intent.”
Data released on Friday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development showed that sales of newly constructed homes actually increased in May. At the same time, the National Association of Realtors released new data on pending home sales which also showed a surprise jump in contracts in May.
What’s going on? Is the housing market mounting a comeback?
CEDIA announced yesterday its keynote speaker for the upcoming CEDIA Expo 2022 show who appears to offer an interesting departure from past more directly technical keynote presentations. This year’s presenter is Greg Durkin, a marketing and data guy who comes from an entertainment industry marketing background and appears to have expertise in content curation and data analysis.
