Smartphone Shipments Down Most Ever; Google Inches Closer to It’s ‘Find My’ System; Twitch May Let Viewers Snooze Some Ads; Tesla Beats Wall St Revenue Estimates

Smartphone shipments were substantially down in the holiday quarter just past. They were off 18.3%, and 11.3% less for the year 2022. According to idc.com, the holiday dip is the largest-ever decline in a single quarter. 2022 ended the year with shipments of 1.21 billion smartphones, the least since 2013. The research firm says the downturn was ‘due to significantly dampened consumer demand, inflation, and economic uncertainties.’ Even Apple, which up to now had been virtually immune to downturns, was off…but that was due to the lockdowns in China which limited the number of handsets they could have built for sale. IDC says vendors are being cautious this year, and you may see more generous trade-in offers and promotions, as phone vendors look to get sales back up…especially of the higher end models.

Google is rolling out a ‘store recent location’ toggle for Find My Device. It will be stored in an encrypted manner. Androidpolice.com reports that you can also use the feature to prevent Google from storing your phone’s last known location. The Find My Device feature, similar to what Apple and Samsung have, should be widely available later this year. The Find My will also be able to locate additional devices like ear buds even when they are not connected to your phone. Right now, they have to be connected in the present version. With the vast number of Android phones around the world, the Find My net should make it much easier to locate a lost or stolen phone running the Google software. 

Twitch viewers have long complained that they may be watching a creator and be at a key moment, and wham! An ad rolls, ruining the continuity while they sit through 3 minutes of ads. Now, bgr.com says Twitch is looking at rectifying the situation. Right now there is a pre-roll of 3 minutes of ads, then more later…again maybe right at an important point. Twitch is working on a tool for creators so they can ’snooze’ ads until you are past a climactic moment. Another tool will let creators snooze the pre-roll ads so long as they run the 3 minutes of ads sometime during the hour. Finally, they plan to launch Twitch Turbo later this year, which will let you enjoy an ad-free viewing experience…at a price, of course!

Tesla ‘beat the Street, edging by Wall Street revenue estimates for 4th quarter of 2022. Techcrunch.com reports that the EV maker ended up with $24.3 billion in revenue, which was a 37% increase from the same quarter of 2021, and a 13% uptick from the previous quarter. The company warned that profit margins will likely be down in 2023 as the company has cut prices on a number of models. Tesla says they are prioritizing more affordability. The stock went up after the announcement, then dipped, and is up today to 156. 

I’m Clark Reid, and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.