Amazon acquires connected camera maker

BOSTON >> Amazon has bought an Andover, Mass.-based company that makes internet-connected doorbells and security cameras.

Blink announced on its website Friday it was being acquired by the Seattle e-commerce giant. Terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed. The move could help Amazon compete in the fast-growing home security camera market and against similar devices made by Nest, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet.

Amazon unveiled its own Cloud Cam security camera in the fall. It also launched a new Amazon Key service for people in some U.S. cities to allow a door to be unlocked when they’re not home so packages can be left inside.

Blink tells customers “nothing changes for now” as it continues to sell its own recently launched products under the Amazon umbrella.

Analysts cut iPhone X forecasts

Analysts have lowered Apple Inc.’s iPhone X shipment projections for the first quarter of next year, citing signs of lackluster demand at the end of the holiday shopping season.

Sinolink Securities Co. analyst Zhang Bin said in a report Monday that handset shipments in the period may be as low as 35 million, or 10 million less than he previously estimated. “After the first wave of demand has been fulfilled, the market now worries that the high price of the iPhone X may weaken demand in the first quarter,” Zhang wrote.

JL Warren Capital LLC said shipments will drop to 25 million units in the first quarter of 2018 from 30 million units in the fourth quarter, citing reduced orders at some Apple suppliers. The drop reflects “weak demand because of the iPhone X’s high price point and a lack of interesting innovations,” the New York-based research firm said Friday in a note to clients.

Apple has been counting on a redesigned 10th-anniversary iPhone to boost shipments as its market value advances toward $1 trillion.

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ON THE MOVE

>> Hawaii Public Radio has hired Andy Baker as its new corporate relations associate. Baker has more than 35 years of experience in marketing, sales and promotions in Hawaii, including serving 12 years at Eagle Distributors as well as Anheuser-Busch Sales of Hawaii.

Bank of Hawaii has announced the following promotion:

>> Vera Wright, a fiduciary support services manager, has also been promoted to executive vice president from senior vice president. She started with Bank of Hawaii in 2011 and has served as vice president and manager of TSG’s Tax Department and was then promoted to senior vice president in 2013. Prior to Bank of Hawaii, Wright was tax manager at Hood & Strong, a regional public accounting firm in San Francisco.

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