Strategy in TECH...
I hardly know where to begin, there’s so much to unpack here from a 20-page quarterly report and a 210-page annual report. Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. [NYSE: EEX] has released their fiscal 2019 fourth quarter and full year results…and it’s hard to overstate the level of turmoil exhibited there. What kind of turmoil, you ask? Read on…
AudioControl, a specialty electronics supplier with growing influence in the residential custom integration channel, has recently expanded into the commercial space with their CM Series of products. At ISE last week, the company announced a significant expansion of that lineup with three new 70-volt amplifiers that feature Dante digital audio networking capability built-in.
Sonance launched a unique new small-scale outdoor system at last week’s ISE in Amsterdam that they say is the perfect solution for what they call “petite outdoor spaces.” Consistent with their philosophy that the best systems combine wide, balanced coverage along with high-performance standards, this new little system will have you redesigning your outdoor living spaces to add more music with less clutter.
Savant Systems LLC held their 2020 Integrator Summit this year in conjunction with the International Builder Show in Las Vegas, NV on January 20-23. At that event, the company unveiled a large array of new products and new strategic partnerships, showing they intend to retain their innovative edge that has attracted so many integrator fans.
The U.S. International Trade Commission has announced that it is launching a patent investigation into various speaker and controller products offered by Alphabet Inc.’s Google brand. This investigation initiation is the result of a formal complaint made by Sonos, Inc. who makes similar products that compete with Google, and claims the tech giant stole their technology.
Sonos, Inc. this week reported a strong first quarter for their 2020 fiscal year. In fact, the company says it had a record quarter with strong revenue and profit gains.
I received a tip from a tech supplier here in the U.S. that the Coronavirus epidemic impacting China is a big problem getting bigger every day…and that our industry needs to think about – and prepare for – the impact on our supply chain. This week, Strata-gee surveyed several brands to learn their status on product supply…and what their perspective was on the near-term future impact of this epidemic taking place in China.
I wanted to take a moment to share with you a little bit of news about emerging developments taking place at Strata-gee. There are some significant things in the works – many yet to come – but a few we can talk about now.
Last week, Strata-gee reported that housing construction starts jumped mightily in December 2019 – but now we learn in a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that new home sales actually declined at the same time. Typically, analysts like to see both home sales and construction starts increase together as an indicator of a healthy economy.
Two new research reports from two different research groups came to basically the same conclusion – smart speakers (and IoT devices) show no signs of slowing down with eye-popping growth rates in just the last two years. One of the researchers, Comscore, is calling the trend, “The Smart Speaker Frenzy.”
