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

Wearable device shipments in Europe are up by 154.4% Y-o-Y to 13.4 million units in Q2 2019, IDC reports, with earwear accounting for 52.3% of shipments followed by watches (26.4%) and wristbands (20.7%).

The top 5 countries in Q2 2019 are the UK, France, Germany, Russia and Italy. Russia sees the fastest Y-o-Y growth than the W. countries. The trend continues on a regional basis, since E. Europe shipments are up by 215.9% Y-o-Y while W. European growth clocks at 144.9% Y-o-Y. That said, W. Europe still makes 80% of shipments.

As mentioned earlier, earwear is the most popular category, with "outstanding" Y-o-Y growth of over 400%. Brands adding more connected products. Vendors are set to learn more about and engage more with customers, allowing them to learn customer profiles and create a broad installed base. The result is better future product development and a sustainable services strategy, a recurrent theme across all form factors in the wearables market.

HTC announces a lower-cost version of the Exodus 1 blockchain-capable smartphone-- the Exodus 1s, a version featuring less powerful hardware but still capable of running a full bitcoin node, a first according to the company.

Having a bitcoin node does mean the phone can mine for cryptocurrency. Instead, it allows the Exodus 1s to hold an entire bitcoin transaction ledger, allowing it to verify and relay cryptocurrency transaction without need for a 3rd party. It is a fairly compute-heavy task demanding connection to a wifi network and, preferably, plugging the phone into the power adapter. It also requires at least 400GB of storage (via microSD card), since the ledger takes around 260GB and grows at a rate of 60GB per year.

It sounds like a headline from a satirical publication-- "Vatican launches Click to Pray eRosary." But no, the eRosary is a very real device, an "interactive, smart and app-driven wearable device" developed by Acer in collaboration with, yes, the Vatican.

Launched on October, the Catholic month of the rosary, the eRosary is described as "a tool for learning how to pray the rosary for peace in the world." It is a wrist-worn device consisting of ten consecutive black agate and hematite beads, with a cross containing all the actual tech. Users pair it with a companion smartphone app for access to an audio guide, "exclusive" images and personalised content, all about praying the rosary.

Master & Dynamic launches a pair of followups to the MW07 wireless earbuds-- the MW07 Plus and MW07 Go, with the former being a direct successor to the MW07 while the latter are a smaller and lighter options.

The MW07 Plus promise to fix the chief complaints involving the original wireless earbuds, namely battery life and Bluetooth range. M&D claims the battery life of the MW07 Plus clocks at an "unparalleled" 40 hours (with use of the included charging case), while Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity promises a 30m connection range. Custom 10mm Beryllium drivers push signature M&D sound, and beamforming noise reduction mic arrays handle voice duties.