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Sharp Starts Mass Production Of IGZO Displays

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 04:15:28 +0000

Sharp has started mass production of displays that are made out of IGZO (indium, gallium, and zinc). Analysts said that this type of display are candidates for use in upcoming Apple products for their smart TV. Sharp is one of the world’s largest producers of LCD panels. Sharp started producing displays using the technology last month in Kameyana (central Japan).

Sharp’s new display has twice the detail of existing panels at the same transparency. The high-resolution devices can be designed that require less power and space for backlighting. Sharp said that the new displays cut power consumption by around 90%.

Sharp has been suffering from massive financial losses lately and they originally constructed their factories to make massive panels that are suited for large-screen TVs. Their profits continued to fall because of falling demand and cheaper competition. Sharp still sells TV models at 80 inches large.

Sharp is now retooling their production lines to focus on small panels for smartphones and tablets. Hon Hai Precision Industry invested $806 million into Sharp and took a major share in a factory that makes large panels for TV screens.

Apple “iTV” Product Rumored To Be Launching In Q2 or Q3 Of 2012

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:37:51 +0000

Ever since Steve Jobs was quoted in his biography by Walter Isaacson about how he has been able to “finally crack it” when it comes to the television set, people have been speculating when Apple would release the product into the world. Supply chain sources with DigiTimes are reporting that the Apple iTV would be launching in Q2 or Q3 of 2012. Suppliers are expected to be ramping up the materials in Q1. It is believed that Sharp will be manufacturing the TV sets for Apple. [DigiTimes]

Japanese Company Mmbi Raises $618 Million To Launch Smartphone Broadcasting Service

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:32:12 +0000

Mmbi has raised $618 million in funding as they prepare to launch a smartphone broadcasting service. The investors in this round are from their 11 corporate partners, which includes Fujitsu, Sharp, and Fuji Media Holdings. Their new partners will also provide media business expertise. Mmbi is a subsidiary of mobile communications company NTT DoCoMo. They have issued 962,000 new shares and the 11 partners took 196,620 of them. Other existing shareholders took the other 765,360 shares. [Variety]

Dynex, Haier, Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba, Etc. To Make Remote Controls With A Netflix Button

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:38:33 +0000

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) sent out a press release today about how several electronics companies are going to make remote controls with a prominent red Netflix button on it. That button would connect you to Netflix on Internet connected TVs. The electronics companies include Dynex, Haier, Memorex, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba.

“For members who want even more convenience when instantly watching TV shows and movies streaming from Netflix, the answer is about to be right in their hands,” stated Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt. “No more turning on the TV, going to a home screen and searching for the Netflix icon. With the Netflix one-click remote, it’s simply a matter of pushing the Netflix button to instantly watch any of the vast selection of TV shows and movies available to stream from Netflix.”

[TechCrunch]

Dell Suing Hitachi, Sharp, and Toshiba For LCD Price Fixing

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:27:05 +0000

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) has filed a lawsuit against Toshiba, Hitachi, and Sharp for price fixing of LCD displays. The lawsuit was filed at a U.S. district court in San Francisco. Dell did not decide what they are seeking as a result of the lawsuit. This isn’t the first time Sharp faced a similar charge. In November 2008 LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa pleaded guilty for LCD display price-fixing conspiracy. [ZDNet]

Microsoft Like Turtles

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:25:07 +0000

The zombie kid isn’t the only one that likes turtles. Microsoft does too. At least that is what the Project Pink phone prototypes indicate. Above are the first screenshots of the devices, called the Turtle and the Pure.

The Turtle and the Pure phones will be made by Sharp. Sharp was the company behind the Sidekick hardware, made by Danger. Danger is a telecommunications company that Microsoft bought a couple of years ago for $500 million. Rumor also has it that the Turtle and the Pure will have their own app store and will complement the Zune.

Epson Admits To Price Fixing, Fined $26 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:09:43 +0000

Epson Imaging Devices has plead guilty to price fixing LCD screens that were sold to Motorola. As a result, the company will be paying $26 million for the conspiracy. Epson Imaging Devices is a subsidiary of Seiko Epson. Motorola used the LCD panels for their Razr mobile phone devices between 2005 and 2006.

During the time of the conspiracy, Epson was called Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices. The U.S. Department of Justice accused Epson for meeting with competitors and agreeing to set the prices of LCDs that were sold to Motorola.

This past December, LG made a similar confession to the U.S. DOJ. LG was sentenced to pay $400 million for price-fixing LCDs. Around the same time Sharp paid $120 million for the same charge. Sharp fixed the prices of LCDs that were sold to Apple, Motorola, and Dell.

About one month later, Chunghwa Picture Tubes plead guilty and was forced to pay $65 million. This past May, Hitachi paid $31 million for selling fixed-price LCDs to Dell.

Sharp Releasing AQUOS DX2 HDTVs With Integrated Blu-Ray Recording In Japan

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:30:03 +0000

Last year Sharp introduced the world’s first HDTV with Blu-ray players. Ever since then Sharp has been on top of their Blu-ray game. This year Sharp is releasing a new TV that has Blu-ray recording capabilities. The problem is that the DX2 series of TVs made by Sharp are only in Japan so far.

The 1080p AQUOS HDTV is available in 40″, 46″, and 52″. The 720p AQUOS HDTV is available in 32″ and 26″. The AQUOS TVs will be able to burn about 30 hours of HD video on dual-layer Blu-ray discs. The price of the HDTVs range from ¥170,000 ($1,740) from the lower end to ¥480,000 ($4,946.40) on the higher end.

[via Engadget]

Sharp AQUOS SHOT 933SH With 10MP Camera Hitting SoftBank Mobile This Summer

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:49:29 +0000

Some of the mobile phones that are being released in Japan before the U.S. are just plain cool. Check out the touchscreen Sharp AQUOS SHOT 933SH. This phone has a 10 megapixel camera with a low-noise CCD sensor. The screen also works as point-and-shoot mode for the camera. The screen is a 3.3″ WVGA display with global roaming capabilities. If they bring this sleek-silver device to the U.S., I think it would sell very well here.

[via Engadget]

Sharp Mebius PC-NJ70A Laptop Has LCD Trackpad

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:13:53 +0000

Sharp has introduced a new laptop that features an LCD screen as the trackpad. The Sharp Mebius PC-NJ70A has an LCD built in to the trackpad. The screen can output 854×480 and the brightness automatically adjusts to ambient light. The trackpad also can be used as a secondary display for programs.

Surprisingly the PC-NJ70A is not a laptop, it is a netbook. Having a trackpad like this instantly distinguishes this netbook from the rest of the competition. Other features include a 10.1″ display screen, 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, 3 USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, Bluetooth, WiFi and multicard reader. The netbook runs on Vista which may require some sort of RAM upgrade since 1GB is not enough.

Although a price has not be announced for the U.S. market yet, rumor has it that it will cost $800 in Japan.

[via Geek.com]