Sharp Announces New Mobile AQUOS

Sharp announced they have developed a new LCD, based on ASV (Advanced Super View) technology found in the companies AQUOS line of TVs, for mobile handsets which features the industry’s highest (as of April 17) contrast ratio of 2,000:1 with a wide viewing angle of 176 degrees and a high-speed response time of 8 ms. According to the statement, by September 2007 the company will start shipping samples of this new 2.2-inch at 240 x 320 (QVGA) screen, targeted for 1Seg digital-tv enabled cell phones in Japan. Sharp started this trend with their 902SH model for Vodafone Japan in 2004 and their popular 905SH cycloid style design launched here in June last year, just in time for the World Cup. They have since followed-up with the so-called “2nd model” 911SH.

We have seen several other examples of this converged effort for mobile - porting established LCD technology - coming from Sony (Bravia) and more recently the 903iTV (PEAKS) by Panasonic as well. From a branding and so-called economy of scale point of view, considering the parent Co.’s R&D costs, these efforts make perfect sense and certainly appear to be increasing. The image quality on current ‘legacy’ models is already very impressive, especially for watching 1Seg. digital-tv and playing Flash games, so no doubt the market is looking forward to see the next-gen. upgrade.

As always, we’ll be ‘watching’..