CES: Sharp touts subtle TV advances, but will consumers care?
Giant electronics manufacturers have the advantage of continuing to invest during a downturn. Sharp Electronics is no exception. But it remains to be seen if shell-shocked consumers will go for technologies that add only subtle quality improvements to TVs. At its press event at the International Consumer Electronics Show today in Las Vegas, Sharp has announced something called Superlucent Super Advanced Superview panel technology, which makes an image on a liquid crystal display TV brighter and more vibrant.
Sharp will also have connected TVs that can log into the Sharp Aquos Network portal with web widgets such as a Navteq traffic report map. Users can plan their commutes while watching TV morning news. But Aquos Network doesn’t yet make web video available to viewers. I can’t say there was anything really earth-shaking in this press conference.
DisplaySearch, a market researcher, expects dollar volume of LCD TVs to fall in 2009 by 16 percent to $64 billion, but it expects a recovery in 2010. Accordingly, Sharp has begun construction of a new factory — featuring a tenth-generation technology that can fit eight 50-inch panels on one sheet of glass — for making LCD panels. It will be operational in March, 2010 and will be able to make larger LCD TVs more efficiently and cheaply, the company says. Sharp will also make solar panels at the same site.
Mike Troetti, president of Sharp Electronics Marketing Company of America, said Sharp was one of the top three LCD TV companies based on December sales. Overall, its sales are up 10 percent in units over last year, with the highest growth in 40-inch screens and up as well as in 32-inch screens specifically. He thinks the coming digital TV transition — when the U.S. shifts from analog to digital TV signals on Feb. 17 — will lead to sales of smaller TVs as families replace TVs in bedrooms or kitchens that don’t have access to high-definition signals via cables. In the past, Sharp has focused on large screens that are 40 inches and up. It continues to do so but is maintaining a line of 32-inch TVs too.
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About the Author, Dean Takahashi
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.