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CNet: Sharp plans to launch a Blu-ray recorder with a 1-terabyte hard drive, as it competes with the HD DVD camp.

The model will have the largest storage capacity of any Blu-ray player thus far.

The 1-terabyte model, capable of recording 127 hours of high-definition digital programming, will go on sale December 1 in Japan for about 300.000 yen (1.835 euro).

Sharp also plans to offer eight more new Blu-ray recorder models by year’s end in Japan in a bid to replace VCRs and conventional DVD machines.

The Osaka-based company said Wednesday it has no specific plans at the moment for overseas launch of these products.

Toshiba already offers an HD DVD recorder with 1 terabyte of storage.

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TWICE: Sharp and Pioneer have agreed to form capital and business ties, with plans to join forces on the development of next-generation consumer electronics products.

Pioneer said it will issue 30 million new shares to Sharp for $357.3 million on Dec. 20. The private placement will make Sharp the top shareholder of Pioneer, with a 14.28 percent stake. Sharp will sell 10 million, or 0.9 percent, of its outstanding shares from its treasury stock to Pioneer for $172.3 million that month.

The two companies said they will combine their expertise to jointly develop products in next-generation DVDs, audio, car electronics and displays.

In next-generation DVD products, Sharp currently produces blue-violet laser diodes for Blu-ray Disc players while Pioneer contributed drive module technology to the development of the optical disk format.

The companies also plan to jointly develop new network-related products for in home electronics applications.

In mobile electronics, which is a Pioneer strength, the companies look to create new business opportunities by combining Sharp’s technology in small- and medium-size displays, communication and sensor technology with Pioneer’s car navigation technology and other car electronics technologies. In imaging applications, the two look to expand both companies’ display businesses and develop new A/V products based on future display technologies such as OEL displays.

Pioneer, which ranks ninth in the Japanese consumer electronics industry according to a Nikkei report, plans to procure LCD panels from Sharp to add televisions smaller than 42 inches to its lineup.

Pioneer, which has seen three consecutive years of losses, posting a net loss of $58.6 million in fiscal 2006, will use the $189 million net gain from the capital tie-up with Sharp to rebuild operations including the plasma TV business, which ranks third in the domestic market.

Sharp, the sixth-largest Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer according to Nikkei, will reduce its reliance on LCDs by developing products using Pioneer’s optical disc, car navigation and audio technologies. Sharp, the leading Japanese LCD TV maker, derives more than 70 percent of its group operating profit from LCD businesses.

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HDTV UK: Three of the world’s largest screen manufacturers, Sony, Sharp and Hitachi, have shown that consumer electronics corporations do have a conscious.

The three manufacturers are working together to study the development of technology that will reduce power consumption from LCD TVs.

Environmental concerns have never been higher on the agenda. Although the latest LCD screens use less energy than similarly sized CRT models, manufacturers are creating ever-increasing screen sizes with higher resolutions – which means power consumption is also rising.

The aim is to halve the power consumption of flat screen TVs by the year 2011. Technologies being studied include the use of energy saving methods for image display, and the use of LEDs for backlighting screens.

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Akihabaranews: Sharp announces the arrival of a new range of “affordable” HDTV to be called “Aquos D”.
What you can get is a 32 or 37 or 42 inches Full HDTV featuring the LCD 120Hz for top notch smoothness, also on the list: 3 HDMI, 2000:1 contrast and 450cd/m2 brightness.

The price is set between 1650 and 2350€.

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VNUnet: Japanese electronics giant Sharp has developed a new LCD which incorporates optical sensors in each pixel.

The company claims that the technology provides a more efficient way of making multi-touch sensitive screens such as those used in Apple’s iPhone.

“The panel allows users to rotate maps through 360 degrees at the touch of a finger and to easily expand and reduce images,” said Eiichi Katayama, an analyst with Japan’s Nomura Securities.

“In our view, this is a remarkable technology that should find its way into a wide variety of applications including PDAs and portable navigation devices.”

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VNUnet: Sharp Electronics announced yesterday at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin that it is preparing an LCD TV plant in Poland to help meet demand from European consumers.

Europe is currently the biggest LCD TV market and will make up one third of the global market for LCD TVs by 2011, according to Sharp.

Almost 10 million LCD TVs were sold in 2006 in the four largest European markets for consumer electronics, namely the UK, Germany, France and Italy.

To help meet this demand, Sharp’s target is to achieve an annual production of 10 million LCD TVs by 2011.

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Akihabaranews: Sharp Corporation has further refined the essence of its LCD technologies and brought them together to develop a prototype LCD TV that far surpasses existing models in terms of image quality, thin-profile design, and environmental performance. Sharp is focusing its vision on the world to come and working to create the television of the future.

The shift to digital broadcasting continues to advance around the world, and in this environment, demand for LCD TVs is growing rapidly on a global scale. Outstanding features such as thin profile, high-resolution image display, and low power consumption make LCD TVs attractive both as primary televisions in living rooms and as personal TVs in private spaces.
At the same time, as broadcasting and communications shift to digital format, an environment is now in place that enables viewers to watch noise-free high-definition video images simply and easily.

Under such circumstances, consumers in the future will be seeking even higher image quality, larger screen sizes, completely new designs that will revolutionize living spaces, and advanced environmental performance.

The prototype LCD TV developed at this time brings together Sharp’s unique, one-of-a-kind LCD technologies nurtured over long years of experience in this field to achieve unprecedented, mind-boggling levels of performance and design with a thickness of 20 mm (main display section; 29 mm at the thickest part), contrast ratio of 100,000:1, and power consumption of 140 kWh/year in a 50-inch class TV.

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DigiTimes: Sharp filed a lawsuit alleging infringements of five of its patents on LCD-related technology by Samsung.

The complaint alleges that the following products infringe LCD-related patents that are owned by Sharp.  In the complaint, Sharp requests that the Court award compensatory damages to Sharp and prohibit the sales of the infringing products.

Sharp also requests a jury trial.

Sharp holds numerous LCD-related patents in Japan, the United States and other countries as a result of its extensive research efforts, and licenses its patents for general LCD technologies to LCD panel manufacturers. Sharp has negotiated in good faith with Samsung for an LCD patent license since 2006, but has regrettably been unable to resolve this matter through negotiations. As a result, the company was compelled to file the current lawsuit to protect its intellectual property.

The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

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HDTV News: Sharp has predicted that full high-definition LCD (liquid-crystal display) TVs will take hold of the majority of the US market, leaving no room for plasma TVs.

LCD technology is already dominant in Japan. The company expects the price of large screen LCDs to fall by around 25% in 2007 due to increased competition, with the price of smaller screens bottoming out.

Sharp, Samsung and LG.Philips have all recorded increased profits in the LCD market with LCD outpacing plasma by five to one this year.

LCD TV shipments are expected to grow 76 percent to 74 million units in 2007 according to Brothers Holdings Inc. while shipments of plasma TV sets are expected to grow 30 percent to just 13 million units.

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SmarthouseNews: Sharp has announced that it will establish a new LCD panel plant and facility for the mass production of 10G LCD panels and thin-film solar cells.

The LCD panel plant will be the first in the world to use tenth-generation (10G) glass substrates (2,850×3,050mm), 60 percent larger than the 8G substrates used at Kameyama Plant No. 2.

A 10G glass substrate will yield six LCD panels in the 60-inch class, eight panels in the 50-inch class, or 15 panels in the 40-inch class, making it possible to fabricate LCD panels for large-screen TVs with extremely high levels of efficiency.

Construction is slated to start in November of this year, with production operations scheduled to start by March 2010.

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AV Zombie: Sharp has announced the world’s slimmest large screen LCD TV. Its innovative Aquos G Series models are just 81-millimeters thick, and come in screen sizes from 26-52-inches.

By way of comparison, the brand’s current R Series models are 85-mm thick. The new screens are also lighter than previous generations, tipping the scales at between 4 to 9 kilograms less than current models, making them ideal for wall-mounting.

Sharp Europe will debut the super-thin TVs at this year’s IFA show, which runs between August 31 and September 5, in Berlin.

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AV Zombie: Sharp says that it is the only consumer electronics brand to be awarded a European Union Commission Eco-label for its TVs.

The company’s LC-AD5E range, along with the LC-20SD5E, have been lauded as being environmentally-friendly.

Djelloul Kitter, Sharp’s head of regulatory compliance and environment, declared: “Sharp’s commitment to environmental protection is evident in not only our 40th EU Eco-label award but also in the many other international energy-efficiency awards we receive.”

Green credentials are quickly becoming the hottest topic in the CE boardroom.

A recent European confab of Sony marketers and PR departments agreed to promote the subject to top billing, promising a media blitz on the topic later this year.

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