On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

The Apple fiscal Q4 2019 (ending 28 September 2019) has revenues grow by 2% Y-o-Y to $64 billion, with international sales accounting for 60% of the record total. iPhone sales are down, but services are at an all time high.

“We concluded a groundbreaking fiscal 2019 with our highest Q4 revenue ever, fueled by accelerating growth from Services, Wearables and iPad,” Apple CEO Tim Cook says. “With customers and reviewers raving about the new generation of iPhones, today’s debut of new, noise-cancelling AirPods Pro, the hotly-anticipated arrival of Apple TV+ just two days away, and our best lineup of products and services ever, we’re very optimistic about what the holiday quarter has in store.”

Gartner reports global end-user spending on wearable devices is set to total $52 billion in 2020-- an increase of 27% over 2019 spending on pace to reach $41bn, with most spending going towards smartwatches and smart clothing.

“More users coming into the smartwatch segment are replacing wristbands with smartwatches,” the analyst says. “While brand leaders, Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch command premium pricing in the smartwatch segment, lower-priced players such as Xiaomi and Huawei will counterbalance high-priced smartwatches with lower cost smartwatches. We expect average selling prices of smartwatches to decline -4.5% between 2020 and 2021.”

Nvidia follows on the leak of the Shield TV Pro with the announcement of two Shield products-- the next-generation Shield TV and the aforementioned Shield TV Pro, both featuring the Tegra X1+ processor.

“These new models provide a big step up for Shield, which has consistently delivered groundbreaking innovations in the living room since its introduction 5 years ago,” the company claims. “They deliver unquestionably best-in-class entertainment, supported by Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision and our breakthroughs in using AI to improve video streaming playback.”

As mentioned earlier, the 2019 Shield TV comes in two flavours. The regular model is designed to be be as slim as possible, allowing users to hide it behind entertainment systems. It has gigabit ethernet and dual-band wifi for "lightning fast" connectivity, and includes 2GB RAM and 8GB storage (expandable via microSD slot). On the other hand the Pro model is based on the previous Shield TV design, and carries 3GB RAM, 16GB storage and x2 USB ports, allowing users to run a Plex media server and connect external storage or other USB devices.

Razer announces the Junglecat-- a pair of game controllers users can snap on either side of a smartphone, making them very similar (if not outright identical) to the Joy-Con included with the Nintendo Switch.

The controllers slot in a specific case currently available for a selection of four phones, namely the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S10 Plus, the Huawei P30 Pro and, perhaps obviously, the Razer Phone 2. Razer promises “instantaneous response with a reliable, low latency connection to your smartphone" via Bluetooth Low Energy, as well as native support with many games.