Despite Apple’s “hit” with the $399 SE, the company’s quarter will be "suppressed” due to smartphone weakness in the U.S., said eMarketer Friday, before the company's Thursday earnings report for the period ended June 30. Most analysts expect Apple revenue to struggle to match last year's numbers as a result, but services will likely remain a growth area, with people spending more time on their smartphones during the pandemic, said Yoram Wurmser. The research firm expects Apple’s share of U.S. smartphone users to remain flat, at a 45.6% share by year-end; Android’s share will be 53.8%, dominating smartphone usage through 2022.

Logitech, a COVID-19 pandemic related sales beneficiary, teamed with Herman Miller on “high-performance” gaming furniture and accessories line (see 2007210047). Typical esports athletes and streamers sit at desks nearly three times as long as a typical officer worker. The companies found players’ postures could have a negative impact on performance “and potentially damage their health over time,” said Herman Miller Chief Marketing Officer Tim Straker. Also last week, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter called gaming a Logitech “compelling growth" story, “as people continue to work from home to prolong safety, particularly in the U.S. where [coronavirus] cases have continued to rise and spike regionally."

The daily share of time spent consuming audio content on digital devices in Q2 by U.S. listeners 13 and older surpassed that of listening on traditional, linear devices -- a first -- Edison Research reported last week. Before COVID-19 disruptions, 55% of the daily total share of time spent listening was done on traditional, linear devices, and 45% on digital devices; during Q2, digital jumped to 53%. Digital devices in the May study include smartphones, computers, internet-connected TVs and smart speakers. Traditional devices include AM/FM receivers, SiriusXM receivers, CD players, turntables and TV channels. Results showed an acceleration of a trend that was occurring pre-pandemic, said Director-Research Laura Ivey.

Counterfeiting isn’t a new problem, but “getting worse” and proliferating online, Patent and Trademark Office Director Andrei Iancu told the National Association of Manufacturers Thursday. The pandemic “has shown just how dangerous inaction can be,” he said. E-commerce’s “appeal of contact-free, front door delivery is undeniable,” he said. “Increased prevalence” of counterfeit goods sold online brings “increased dangers” during a pandemic, he said. “It is nothing short of grotesque that in the middle of this pandemic -- the worst international health crisis in a century -- criminals are taking advantage of scared and unsuspecting consumers. Frankly, the last thing our first responders should worry about is whether their” personal protective equipment is real.

Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., led filing Friday of the COVID-19 Emergency Telehealth Impact Reporting Act. S-4289 would require the Department of Health and Human Services to assess metrics, including utilization rates and hospital readmission rates, for patients who received healthcare via telehealth programs expanded during the pandemic. “I will fight for continued healthcare cost reduction and increased access to underserved Americans by making many of the coronavirus telehealth flexibilities permanent,” Young said in a statement. “However, for this effort to succeed Congress must first evaluate how current flexibilities are impacting our healthcare system, and more precisely assess their potential for long-term success.” Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Angus King, I-Maine, are co-sponsors. Reps. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Peter Welch, D-Vt., earlier filed a House version, HR-7695.

Cloud and network infrastructure and PC capabilities were "vital in allowing businesses and people to continue to work, learn, stay connected and provide critical goods and services,” said Intel CEO Bob Swan on a Q2 investor call Thursday: Those trends helped Intel generate $19.7 billion revenue, exceeding forecasts by $1.2 billion. The company is making “significant progress” boosting its factory CPU capacity and improving its supply chain, he said. “We’re on track to return to more normal levels of PC inventory as we work through the second half of the year.” The downside is “yield” delays in its 7-nanometer chip process technology that's pushing commercialization schedules about “12 months behind our internal target,” said Swan. “We’ve root-caused the issue and believe there are no fundamental roadblocks, but we have also invested in contingency plans to hedge against further schedule uncertainty.” The stock closed down 16% Friday at $50.59. The “global problems we face are bigger than any one company can solve alone,” said Swan. It established 2030 “corporate responsibility goals” that call for a “collective response to revolutionize health and safety” and make technology “fully inclusive,” he said. The $50 million it committed to a “pandemic response technology initiative” typifies Intel’s “unique ability to partner and collectively solve critical problems.” The initiative will speed access to technology for patient care, said Intel. Chief Financial Officer George Davis said to expect "the weak economic environment will impact our commercial PC business, particularly the desktop.” The chipmaker expects the PC market to decline by high-single digits year over year in Q3, the CFO said.

The International Trade Commission “is working on technology that will permit virtual hearings,” Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Dee Lord told Sharp and Vizio lawyers in a June 24 telephonic hearing, according to a transcript (login required) posted Thursday in docket 337-TA-1201. Lord is running the ITC’s Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Sharp allegations that Vizio, its panel maker Xianyang CaiHong Optoelectronics, and TV set assembler TPV infringe five Sharp LCD patents (see 2005210041). The ITC picked Webex Meeting as its videoconferencing platform for Section 337 hearings and conferences “involving confidential business information,” said a July 20 update to its COVID-19 procedures. It’s working as quickly as possible to implement the software, but use of the technology will be at the discretion of individual ALJs, it said. “I'm not sure that I will conduct a virtual hearing in every case,” Lord told the attorneys. “We have had to make some significant adjustments at the ITC in the way we do business,” she said. “We have to assume that we're not going to have a live hearing, and we may not have a hearing procedure that's anything like what we're used to.” ALJs and ITC staff “are all trying really hard to make these investigations work,” she said. “I think so far we have been succeeding pretty well.” As issues arise due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “we will deal with them,” said the ALJ. “It's impossible to foresee what may happen at this point.”

The National Consumer Law Center and five other groups appealed to the FCC Friday the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau’s June declaratory ruling Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules don’t apply to peer-to-peer texts to cellphones. NCLC and the Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Action, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Public Knowledge and the National Association of Consumer Advocates urged CGB last year to deny the P2P Alliance petition (see 1907120056). The ruling “repeatedly characterizes the statutory definition of” an automated telephone dialing system “in ways that deviate from the statutory language, and conflict with each other, with the Commission’s rulings, and with prevailing case law,” they said in docket 02-278. The decision “fails to reconcile its interpretation of an ATDS with recent decisions in” the 2nd and 9th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal. They said the decision “ignores the actual automated capacity of the P2P systems and fails to apply the TCPA’s fundamental principle that the definition of ATDS refers to the ‘capacity’ of the ‘equipment’ used by the caller, not on how the individual calls are sent out.” NCLC Senior Counsel Margot Saunders cited pandemic and election texts.

Verizon took a 14 cents a share COVID-19 hit, said Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis on a Friday investor call. The carrier said the pandemic sent revenue declining 5.1% to $30.4 billion mainly due to lower equipment sales amid store closures and the pandemic's impact on “customer behavior.”

The FCC will allow workers who are teleworking now to continue doing so until at least June 2021, and delayed its move to new headquarters until September 2020 over concerns about staff being infected with COVID-19 during the packing process. That's according to interviews with staff, the employee union, and a memo emailed to workers Friday by Chairman Ajit Pai’s Chief of Staff Matthew Berry. (Our earlier news bulletin on this is in front of this publication's pay wall here and the other one is at 2007240038).