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Sharp rolls out high-res IGZO LCDs destined for tablets, laptops and monitors
Well, a week (or two) is a long time in the technology industry, and despite that joint venture with Sony heading south, it's not all bad news for Sharp. According to a press release from the panel maker, it has begun production of the world's first screens based on IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) technology. These screens are said to promise twice the detail as existing panels of similar transparency, which also translates into a hefty 90 percent reduction in power consumption, reports PC World. Sharp did kindly share some sample specifications, such as a 7-inch tablet display touting a 1280 x 800 resolution equaling 217 ppi, and a 32-inch 3840 x 2160 screen at 140 ppi, to give you an idea of what we can expect. There's no indication yet as to any devices where we might see them showing up, but as the firm claims it's ramping up production "to meet market demand" we guess we'll find out soon enough...
NTT, Sharp, Gainax make a Japan-only Neon Genesis Evangelion phone, get your plane tickets now
If someone offered you the chance to buy a Neon Genesis Evangelion NERV-branded phone, you'd jump at it right? After all, there's nothing better than pretending you live under constant threat of alien attack, or that the teenage clone of your dead mother could turn into a giant and... moving on. Sharp, NTT DoCoMo and Gainax teamed up to produce this SH-O6D with a custom case, new hardware buttons and a (as yet unfinished) skinned version of Gingerbread that resembles the readouts you're likely to see in the depths of Tokyo-3. See America? This is how you appeal to fans, by making the tiniest amount of extra effort, rather than just slapping a logo on the bottom of whatever regular handset you're selling.
Sony and Sharp joint venture hits a rocky patch, Sony cuts off capital
When Sharp sold off some of its LCD manufacturing business to Hon Hai Precision we knew the company had fallen on tough times, we just didn't realize how bad things truly were. That joint venture it formed with Sony, well, it's all but over at this point. The two companies have amended their deal with each other and Sony has decided not to inject any more capital into the project. That's not entirely surprising since the relationship was already starting to show signs of strain, but the partnership could crumble at any moment. A study period has been designated, through the end of September, to decide what the future holds for the two regarding the production and purchase of large panel LCDs, but at any time Sony can simply demand that Sharp buy back its shares and leave the venture. For Sharp's sake, we certainly hope Hon Hai is in this for the long haul. Check out the legalese stuffed PR after the break.
Hon Hai Precision snaps up 10 percent of Sharp in display tie-up
For those unaware, going at it alone in the cutthroat display business isn't exactly a recommended business approach. To wit, Sharp -- once a mainstay in the LCD industry -- has just sold an approximate 10 percent stake of itself to Taiwan's Hon Hai Group. Sharp will be issuing new shares worth $808 million to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., and we're told that it'll go down as the largest investment ever in a Japanese company by a Taiwanese one. Moreover, Hon Hai will grab half of Sharp's 92.96 percent stake in its LCD panel factory in Sakai, Japan. Though it may not be obvious, seeing Sharp accept this fate is hugely symbolic, and it's happening just as the company gets ready to eat "multibillion-dollar losses" for this fiscal year -- which just so happens to be the 100th anniversary of its founding. Sharp executive managing officer Takashi Okuda said this during a news conference in Tokyo: "We have tried to do everything by ourselves, but the environment is tough." Here's hoping for a better tomorrow, though.
Sharp's bigger and better HDTVs for 2012 start hitting store shelves
Right on schedule, Sharp let us know it's begun shipments of Aquos 7-series LED HDTVs in 60- and 70-inch sizes. With MSRPs of $2,300 and $3,300, respectively, the 745U models have edge LED lighting, 3D, WiFi and SmartCentral UI built in featuring apps including Netflix, Hulu and Facebook. The 8-series models will bring the company's latest Quad Pixel Plus 2 Quattron tech when they start shipping towards the end of this month as well as full-array LED backlighting and an ultra-slim bezel design. Check after the break for sizes, specs and prices, and let us know if these models have shown up in your neck of the woods yet.
Sharp intros underwhelming RW-T110 Gingerbread tablet with NFC, not much else on board
Last year, we saw Sharp bust out an array of 7-inch Android slates, including that NFC-packing RW-T107. Now, the Japanese company is adding a slightly larger member to the family, dubbed RW-T110. This 10.1-inch Gingerbread slab (sorry, Ice Creamers) is sporting a 1GHz TI OMAP processor alongside 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage, a 1280 x 800 display as well as an NFC chip. Additionally, the biz-oriented slate is powered by a 6,240mAh battery, which promises to get you up to nine hours of continuous video payback time. The RW-T110 will be hitting Japanese shelves on March 27th, and while there's no info on whether Sharp plans to launch it in other markets, we doubt you'll miss this run-of-the-mill "Big Pad."
Sharp executive officer Takashi Okuda to take over as president next month
In a move similar to the ones seen at fellow struggling Japanese electronics giants Sony and Panasonic, Sharp has announced a change at the top, swapping out president Mikio Katayama (kicked upstairs to the position of Director, Chairman) for current executive officer Takashi Okuda. The move will go into effect April 1st, giving him the keys after a fiscal year 2012 to forget comes to an end. According to his biography he's been with the company since 1978, although your guess is as good as ours about what he can do to turn around the company's fortunes -- although getting that 8K Super Hi-Vision LCD into production ASAP would be a great start.
Super High Aperture: it's why the new iPad's Retina display is so dense
Super High Aperture. Heard of it? Probably not, but thanks to Apple, you'll probably long for days when you didn't in just a few months. According to an in-depth look from the folks at DisplaySearch, the aforesaid technique is the primary reason that Apple was able to shove 2,048 x 1,536 pixels into the 9.7-inch panel on the new iPad. Not surprisingly, it wasn't Apple that conjured up the magic; instead, it was crafted by engineers at Sharp and JSR (a display materials maker from Japan), but it'll be the iPad that makes an otherwise geeky achievement something that the mainstream covets. According to the science behind it, SHA is "a method of increasing aperture ratio by applying approximately a 3 [micrometer] thick photo-definable acrylic resin layer to planarize the device and increase the vertical gap between the [indium tin oxide] pixel electrodes and signal lines." Reportedly, there are also "at least twice as many" LEDs in the panel compared to that on the iPad 2, further suggesting that there's way more battery within the new guy than the last. Technophiles need only dig into the links below to find plenty more where this came from.
IDC: iPhone becomes top-selling cellphone in Japan over the Fall quarter, gives Sharp a run for its money
Think the iPhone is popular in the States? Well, the device is taking off in Asia as well. Based on a report from research firm IDC Japan, Apple snagged the largest share of mobile phone shipments in the country for the quarter at 26.6%, ending the market dominance of local manufacturers. Popularity of the iPhone 4S rose during the period from October to December and propelled the device maker past Fujitsu / Toshiba's mark of 18.3% and third place Sharp, coming in at 15.7%. Sharp still owned the top spot for 2011, though, with 20.1% of total shipments while Apple finished the year third with 14.2%. For more stats on the Japanese smartphone market, hit the source link below to read on.
Sharp working with Japanese government on Home Energy Management System standard (video)
Sharp is partnering, not with another major player in the consumer electronics field but, with the Japanese government to create a standard based on its Home Energy Management System or HEMS. The platform allows users to not only monitor their energy consumption, but also reduce their electrical burden through home automation tools. With the aid of a tablet or smartphone, home owners can dim lighting and televisions or control thermostats, while monitoring how such changes affect energy consumption in real time. Sharp plans offer the system commercially with a router and WiFi modules that sit between appliances and your electrical outlet. The next step is getting regulators to agree to the standard so that non-Sharp products can become part of the ecosystem. Check out the video after the break.
Sharp AQUOS SH-06D arrives from Japan, we go hands-on (video)
Sharp's AQUOS SH-06D will most probably never leave the Land of The Rising Sun. That doesn't stop us, however, from lusting after its 4.5-inch screen. This 720p display also manages 3D, spread across a slinky 10mm frame that houses NTT DoCoMo's recently launched NOTTV streaming broadcast system. The device arrives in pink, white and blue options -- all provided with a matching dock and built-in aerial. Like several eastern phones with the ability to tune into live TV broadcasts, the AQUOS SH-06D also totes its own extendable antenna built into the side. The device itself, despite its largely plastic build, felt solid in our hand, although the minuscule power and volume buttons proved difficult to manipulate at times. The screen technology is still a closely guarded secret, but it aims to bring both 3D functionality alongside a crisp HD display performance during two-dimensional antics. Viewing angles are great -- a welcome trend we've seen on plenty of handsets at this year's MWC -- but the heavily customized Android 2.3 skin took away some of that sheen. Applications are stowed away into several drop-down menus that took some getting used to -- regardless of any language barrier. Sharp hasn't revealed any plans to join its Japanese competitors in the frenzied global smartphone market, but some import options wouldn't go amiss. See why in our hands-on right after the break. Sean Cooper contributed to this report %Gallery-149082%
2012 HDTV pricing leaks out for Panasonic, Sony, Sharp and Samsung
The madness of CES 2012 is long over and now that we've seen all of the new HDTVs, it's time to find out when they're actually going on sale, and for how much. HDGuru has just dug up advertised pricing for some of the new models from Sony (BX, EX and HX lines) and Sharp (640, 745, 844, 847 and 945), while US pricing and ship dates for Panasonic's new plasmas have been revealed by Value Electronics. For Samsung, some of the new HDTVs have already showed up for preorders at retailers like Vanns, including the top of the line 75-inch ES8000 priced at $7,999, while a more reasonably sized 46-inch model is $2,699. Sony's prices range from $399 for the KDL-32BX320 to $2299 for the KDL-55HX750, while Sharp's range from LC-46-L540U for $1,099 to the LC-80LE844U for $6,499. Most of the ship dates are still TBA, although Panasonic is planning to unleash the ST50 later this month, followed by the UT50 and GT50, then the top of the line VT50 in May. While we wait for official announcements, you can hit the source links below for more details, and let us know if you've seen any other 2012 model information peeking out early.
Panasonic 2012 Q3: $9 billion loss, Sanyo writedowns, restructuring
Panasonic's released its 2012 quarterly report (its financial year runs from summer to summer) and concedes it's been as bad for them as it was for Sony and Sharp. It's blaming the Japanese Earthquake for damaging its supply chain, a strong yen for keeping prices high, plus having to write-down the costs for its acquisition of Sanyo. The company's promising to restructure (in the face of stern competition from Samsung and LG) to become a "green innovation" business as well as to streamline its operating costs. It's predicting a quarterly loss of $9.2 billion as it takes the hit for this turmoil, and it doesn't look like things will improve with an anticipated further loss of another $2 billion at the end of the (financial) year.
Sharp struggles with TV competition, Q3 2011 results reveal 86 percent drop in profit
It's pretty tough out there for TV manufacturers. Sharp's reporting its financial results for April-December last year, announcing a profit of 9.14 billion yen ($120 million), a drop of 57.37 billion yen since the same period in 2010. Despite announcing a whole gang of new displays for the year, Sharp has cut its profit forecast correspondingly, down to zero for March 2012. According to Reuters, the company was expected to post healthier results, having recently finished a new manufacturing plant and apparently strong demand for its high-end AQUOS TVs, although it's perhaps not strong enough.
Sharp to cut LCD production in Osaka plant by half
Remember that brand-spanking new production facility in Sakai City, Osaka that Sharp just christened a few years back? Japan's Nikkei business daily reports that Sharp will be cutting output at that factory by a whopping half for a month or maybe longer -- its second major reduction in a year. The Sakai factory typically makes 1.3 million 40-inch panels per month but was running at 80-90 percent capacity after being idled in April. Sharp continues to be impacted by the same cutthroat competition in the LCD market that has affected Japanese rivals like Hitachi and Sony as the high yen continues to push up pricing for domestically produced goods while dragging down overseas revenues. Sharp, which recently announced its 2012 lineup, is now thinking about reconfiguring the plant to make panels with higher resolutions and other features during the slowdown.
Sharp 8K Super Hi-Vision LCD, 4K TV and Freestyle wireless LCD HDTV hands-on
We got a hint of Sharp's plans during its CES 2012 press conference two days ago, but really nothing can prepare you for the sight of the company's 7,680x4,320 resolution 85-inch Super Hi-Vision 8K LCD. No matter how close we got, we still couldn't see the pixels, and the video reels being demonstrated showed an almost unimaginable level of detail. The worst part of it was, seeing that first almost ruined the experience of checking out the ICC 4K demo at the other end of the booth. We can say this -- after seeing Super Hi-Vision there's really no going back. Make an appointment to see those 33MP broadcasts from the London Olympics now. Also a concept, but packed in a more conventional design, were Sharp's Aquos Freestyle LCDs. These featherweight flat-screens were also featured in the press conference, and pack wireless HD streaming inside capable of extending up to 98 feet. The 20-incher in the video above even has a battery good enough for two hours of completely wireless 1080p viewing. While Sharp called them concepts, the displays seemed incredibly polished, so check them out in the gallery below because you may see them on shelves someday.
Sharp unveils an 80-inch touchscreen for the boardroom
For the corporate types, Sharp is taking its massive Gen-10 1080p LCDs and adding a touchscreen as well as integrating presentation and video conferencing technologies like Skype, WebEx, GoToMetting. There is even a package that includes an optional compact whiteboard PC preloaded with Windows 7 and drivers for the display. The 80-inch touchscreen display will be available in late February for $13,795, but the press release after the break doesn't mention a price for the 60 or 70-inch versions.
Sharp to deliver first 80-inch Quattron 3DTV, 20 more new HDTVs
So you wanted an 80-inch TV, but you also wanted 3D? No problem, come April, as Sharp has announced plans to release the LC-80LE844U for $6,499. Another thing unlike the LC-80LE632U released late last year, the new model features the new for 2012 Quattron Pixel Plus II. The entire 2012 Sharp lineup features built-in WiFi and Sharp's SmartCentral that delivers streaming options like Netflix, Hulu, many others and an AirPlay like feature called Beamzit. The feature still missing from the 80-inch is local dimming, only available on the 60 and 70-inch 9 Series. A full breakdown and listing of all the models of each series, along with the press release, after the break.
Sharp adds two new Blu-ray players, soundbar and a number of compact audio solutions for 2012
Sharp has two new Blu-ray players to add to its lineup, both with built-in WiFi to enable access to the new SmartCentral -- a feature that provides access to many of your favorite streaming features like Netflix and Vudu. The BD-AMS10U is due in March for $179, the BD-AMS20U is $199 and due in April and adds Mobile High-definition Link. A new soundbar also graces the presence of the press release after the break that also lists more than a couple mini, micro and slim audio components.
Sharp's new XV-Z30000 HD DLP projector puts 3D video on the wall of your choosing
Sharp's putting out a plethora of new devices at CES, and among them is an addition to its existing 3D DLP projectors called the XV-Z30000. It's a 1600-lumen 3D projector that throws a 1080p image on whichever wall you point it at, and keeps the quality up thanks to a 50,000:1 contrast ratio. Connectivity comes courtesy of dual HDMI inputs and its got home automation control compatibility from all the big players along with LAN control as well. The XV-Z30000 comes with two sets of 3D glasses, and will be available for $5,000 in March 2012.
