Rent-a-Center’s Q3 same-store sales grew 12.9% from the 2019 quarter due to a 71% increase in e-commerce transactions, said CEO Mitch Fadel on a Thursday investor call. The pandemic “accelerated” the finding that the “digital strategy is the right approach,” he said. The transition to e-commerce is “attracting new customers into lease-to-own,” and they tend to be “a younger demographic,” said Executive Vice President Anthony Blasquez. The supply-chain disruptions in electronics that Rent-a-Center experienced in Q2 improved “sequentially” in Q3, said Blasquez. “We feel like we're in good position to go ahead and meet the demand” for the holiday quarter, he said. Compared with supply-chain conditions in Q4 a year ago, “we're pretty close,” he said.

Global smartphone shipments declined 1.3% in Q3 to 353.6 million handsets, reported IDC Thursday. Though shipments decreased, the results outdid IDC's forecast of a 9% year-over-year decline, it said. It attributed the improvement to the reopening of global economies as COVID-19 restrictions were gradually relaxed. Though “an element” of pent-up demand fueled market growth in emerging markets like Brazil, India, Indonesia and Russia, “it was mainly the array of heavy promotions and discounts that accelerated growth in these markets," said IDC. The more developed markets of the U.S., Western Europe and China experienced big Q3 declines, it said. Samsung retook global leadership from Huawei with 22.7% share after shipping 80.4 million smartphones in Q3, a 2.9% increase from the 2019 quarter. Huawei’s shipments plunged 22% to 51.9 million handsets, sinking the vendor into second place with 14.7% share, said IDC: “The company continues to face challenges due to the ever increasing impact of the U.S. sanctions.” Wednesday, Sony reported the mid-September termination of image sensor shipments to Huawei would cause operating profit in that sector of its business to plummet for the fiscal year ending March 31 (see 2010280028).

EBay sees tens of billions of dollars of "untapped potential” in the global refurbished market through last week’s launch of its “new elevated experience for certified refurbished product” (see 2010210045), said CEO Jamie Iannone on a Q3 investor call Wednesday. Buyers can save up to 50% on branded, refurbished inventory compared with new goods, he said. EBay built in “assurances” to seed program adoption, including a two-year warranty, eBay money-back guarantee and “hassle-free, 30-day returns,” he said. “We are launching this program in partnership with globally recognized brands,” he said. “Not only does this program help with buyers’ budgets leading into the holiday season, it also helps to eliminate unnecessary waste by keeping products in circulation for many years to come.” Iannone thinks the program will expand the platform to many new buyers, he said: “It's a real sweet spot for eBay.”

IoT has a “long path,” Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle told investors Wednesday, and momentum is “starting to build” in the consumer market. “You are going to continue to see new technologies and new capabilities added,” he said. “Ease of use is also something that must get addressed for it to scale.” Wireless was over two-thirds of Silicon Labs’ IoT business in Q3, helping to drive overall revenue to the high end of guidance at $221.3 million, down from $223 million in the year-ago quarter but up from $207.5 million in Q2. Revenue from IoT products set a record at $133 million, up 16% from Q2, said Chief Financial Officer John Hollister. Customers are moving from separate microcontrollers to connected devices that add wireless or that integrate the two, said Tuttle. The company expects to gain traction in smart home, industrial and proprietary and consumer segments via its Zigbee, Thread and Bluetooth business.

Qualcomm began sampling its next-generation Immersive Home Platforms, successor to its mesh networking platforms, said the company Tuesday. Its Wi-Fi 6 and 6E products are due in the market next year, it said. For consumers who lack a mesh network, the Immersive Home Platforms ensure “high-performance” gigabit connectivity is available anywhere in a home, emailed Nick Kucharewski, general manager-wireless infrastructure and networking. FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly called Qualcomm’s Wi-Fi 6E announcement “great news” and a “massive game changer.” With some more work by the FCC this year, “we can expand unlicensed opportunities in band even further,” he tweeted. Pending FCC certification, consumers will get the benefits of Wi-Fi 6E in mobile, at home and in the enterprise, said Kucharewski. Tri-band Wi-Fi 6 platforms are designed to simultaneously leverage all three spectrum bands to support 2.4 GHz IoT-class devices and current legacy 5 GHz media devices and to enable “congestion-relieving migration” of node-to-node backhaul traffic from 5 GHz to the 6 GHz band, Kucharewski said.

Advanced Micro Devices set quarterly records in Q3 notebook PC processor unit shipments and revenue as “OEM sell-through doubled year over year,” said CEO Lisa Su on a Tuesday investor call. More than 105 AMD-based notebook models have launched in 2020 “as we expand our presence in segments like gaming, commercial and education, where we have traditionally been under-represented,” she said. “The PC market environment is strong. If you look at all the work-from-home, schools-from-home trends, I think that has certainly helped this year.” But “as we look into the first half of the year, it's a little bit early to be specific about 2021,” she said. As it reported Q3, the company announced it's buying Xilinx for about $35 billion in stock.

A fifth of consumers polled in 10 countries plan to do most holiday shopping in physical stores, with 47% splitting their time between online and brick-and-mortar, an Oracle survey released Monday found. It canvassed 5,100 consumers last month in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, the U.K. and the U.S., finding 16% plan to “make it as close as the parking lot, opting to retrieve orders curbside,” said Oracle. “Despite the challenging year, 58% of consumers expect to spend the same or more on holiday shopping than they did last year.” Nearly four in 10 say they plan to spend more this year on apparel and necessities, while 29% say similar about electronics.

Amazon Prime memberships ticked higher in Q3 to an estimated 126 million, and Prime members were 64% of Amazon shoppers in the quarter, reported Consumer Intelligence Research Partners Thursday. The researcher attributed much of the growth, after several quarters of slowdown, to COVID-19, with customers needing to order more items while working and studying from home. CIRP sees Amazon’s measured launch of the Halo body composition and activity tracker, with an accompanying subscription, as a possible future benefit to drive Prime membership growth.

Belkin’s Boost Charge Pro USB-C charger ($49), launched Wednesday, was designed to be about half the size of a standard 60-watt laptop power supply, said the company. It uses gallium nitride, allowing components to be positioned closer together. The charger, with overcurrent and overvoltage protection, is USB-C Power Delivery-certified for fast charging of compatible devices. Belkin pitched it for use with the iPhone 12, Google Pixel, iPad Pro and MacBook Pro.

CTA plans to charge a $149 fee to most who register to attend virtual CES 2021. The fee will apply to most attendees, including retailers, and journalists will be exempt, we were told Tuesday. The fee was described as an effort to defray expenses. Exhibitors will be offered a series of paid participation tiers, beginning with a basic package that starts at $1,200, up to a five-figure premium offer. The different tiers give exhibitors access to varying apportionments of Microsoft technologies to leverage for news conferences, virtual meetings and other CES activities under the “cloud platform” contract announced Monday (see 2010190043). "As with the live show, there will be a charge to participate and alumni groups will be granted a window to register for free," emailed a CTA spokesperson. "We will be sharing more details closer to registration," which opens Dec. 1, she said. "We will be offering three different exhibitor packages that meet the varying needs of our exhibitors for their CES digital activation." A stickler for auditing show attendance at physical CES events, CTA hasn't determined how the virtual event will be audited for accuracy in attendance, she said. "For live shows, CES has always been independently audited. We are still assessing options for an independent audit including recommended standards."