Retail consumer tech sales this year will fall 2.2% from 2019, the first decline since 2009, said CTA’s biannual forecast Monday. Tech industry sales revenue is projected to be $406.8 billion in 2020 “as consumers struggle with economic uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the association. The segment’s largest category -- smartphones -- will take a 6% hit this year, dropping to 153 million shipments worth $72 billion, said CTA. More than 14 million 5G smartphones are seen shipping in 2020, generating $11 billion in revenue. Software and streaming service categories are on track to reach a record of $86 billion, 14% growth, benefiting from stay-at-home orders, said CTA. Consumer spending on video streaming services is expected to hit $27 billion, up 23%. Audio is tracking toward $8 billion, up 21%.

Brands that used technology to transfer the in-store experience online more smoothly during the pandemic “reaped the rewards of customer loyalty,” reported KPMG Monday. It canvassed 11,000 U.S. consumers online. "With the move to online accelerating due to COVID-19, the nature of the relationship between brands and their customers has changed, bringing the need for commercial cadence to the forefront,” said KPMG. Respondents voted USAA their top brand, Costco No. 7. No tech brands made the top 10.

COVID-19 brought “the biggest workforce shift and reallocation of skills since World War II,” said ManpowerGroup CEO Jonas Prising on a Q2 investor call Monday. There’s evidence “this crisis is accelerating the technical and soft skills transformations that we have been tracking and predicting for some time,” said Prising. “Acute skills shortages” in tech, cybersecurity, software development and data analysts for “continue unabated,” he said. The need for a “skills revolution is here in force,” he said.

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) in “consumer-focused” sectors appear to “have been hit hardest” in the global COVID-19 pandemic, said a Facebook report co-authored with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Bank. They canvassed more than 30,000 Facebook-member owners, managers and employees in 50 countries late May, finding 54% of consumer-focused SMBs were shuttered between January and May, compared with 26% of SMBs at large that closed down. Micro-businesses, defined as SMBs owned and operated by a single individual, closed “to a greater extent than those with multiple employees,” it said. “Female-led SMBs have been disproportionately impacted,” said the report. They were seven percentage points “more likely to be closed” than their male-owned counterparts, it said. A “greater proportion of female business leaders operate micro-businesses with no employees” by a margin of 37% to 24%, it said. Female-led SMBs “are also concentrated in the sectors that have been most affected by lockdown measures,” it said.

GameStop joined the growing list of retailers requiring customers to wear masks inside stores, saying Friday the “safety measure” will take effect July 27 in all U.S. locations. The 10-day lag will give GameStop time to inform customers of the change, post signage and train employees on the new protocol. Best Buy, Costco, Target and Walmart are among the growing number of retailers requiring mask use in stores (see past two issues of this publication). GameStop didn’t respond to questions.

Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings denied the decision to share the CEO role with Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos (see 2007160073 and personals section, July 17) foretells his exit from the company or a reduction in his day-to-day duties. “I'm in for a decade,” said Hastings in a Q2 call Thursday (see materials here). “As co-CEOs, it's two of us full time.” Forecasting a 63% year-over-year decline in Q3 net subscriber additions to 2.5 million is based on "the context of what just happened in Q2,” said Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann. “We just added 10 million members, which is the largest growth we've ever had in a second quarter.” Lockdowns sent Q1 sub growth soaring. Newer members are “highly engaged,” said Neumann. “They're sticking around with us actually as well or better than pre-COVID.” When a Netflix user churns, “it's always temporary,” said Hastings. “It's just a matter of timing as our service gets better, as maybe their income increases, as the internet gets faster.” The streaming-device maker disputes of the sort that have kept Peacock off the Roku platform are “really unfortunate,” said Chief Product Officer Greg Peters, newly named to the dual role of chief operating officer. “It really impacts consumers when they can't watch the shows that they're thrilled to watch on the device that they have.” COVID-19 on-set “safety protocols” Netflix is installing globally “will become a permanent part of production,” said Sarandos. The time between the shutdown and ramping back up “was spent on scripts and development and preparedness,” he said: That will make the shoots “more efficient." The stock closed 6.5% lower Friday at $492.99.

About 12 million U.S. students pre-COVID “were in households without adequate internet access,” Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., told an Axios webinar Friday. In her travels around the country, Meng met “one too many kids who were unable to do their homework at home,” she said. “Much of the assignments, unlike when I was a kid, are given online or completed online.” When the pandemic hit, 55 million students were “not able to physically go to school, and many were not able to do their homework,” she said. It suddenly became “a very dire and time-sensitive issue,” she said. The Moving Forward Act (HR-2) would establish a $2 billion grant to localities for lending devices and hot spots to needy students, said Meng, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we are trying to figure out the fastest and the most efficient ways” of getting relief to students in need “without having to reinvent the wheel,” she said. It would allow students to “get online as soon as possible” after the legislation is signed, she said. It has bipartisan support and the backing of more than 50 organizations, she said.

T-Mobile and Sprint customers can get MLB.TV for free beginning Tuesday, said T-Mobile Friday. The perk includes a free one-year subscription to The Athletic; both services are regularly $59 annually. Spring training games will be played Tuesday and Wednesday; regular season games begin Thursday in the COVID-19-shortened MLB season.

COVID-19's supply chain disruptions and sharply lower demand sent Volvo’s Q2 revenue plunging 38%, including a 46% decline in vehicle sales, said CEO Martin Lundstedt on a Friday investor call. Volvo also incurred a 15% revenue decline in services, he said. “We are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lundstedt. “Even if we see positive signs in utilization of installed fleet and the demand of equipment and services, we also must be clear that numerous uncertainties remain,” he said. “The risks for further and repetitive lockdowns are still relatively high.”

LG Electronics Chief Technology Officer Park Il-Pyung will keynote the global news conference at IFA 2020 Special Edition, said show organizers Friday. The sharply downsized in-person event is Sept. 3-5 and will be livestreamed (see 2005190035). IFA didn’t say what date Park will appear or whether he will attend physically or virtually. Organizers didn’t respond to emails Friday. “LG will take part in IFA 2020 Special Edition and focus on the consumer situation in times of the new normal,” they said. Rival Samsung announced this month it was pulling out of IFA and will stage its own virtual event in early September (see 2007020030).