Sharp Corporation

For other uses, see Sharp.

Sharp Corporation
シャープ株式会社

Company type	Public
Traded as	TYO: 6753 Osaka SE: 6753 Nagoya SE: 6753
Industry	Consumer electronics
Founded	1912 (1912) (Tokyo)
Founder	Tokuji Hayakawa
Headquarters	Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Ryuji Okuda (President) Mikio Katayama (Chairman)
Products	Televisions, audiovisual, communication equipments, home appliances, information equipments, ICs, solar cells, mobile phones, calculators, notebooks
Revenue	¥2.455 trillion (2012)
Operating income	¥−207.56 million (2012)
Net income	¥−376.07 million (2012)
Total assets	¥2.614 trillion (2012)
Total equity	¥625.89 billion (2012)
Number of employees	57,200 (2012)
Website	sharp-world.com

Sharp Corporation (シャープ株式会社, Shāpu Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employed around 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first inventions, the Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil, which was invented by Tokuji Hayakawa (早川 徳次) in 1915. Since then it has developed into one of the leading electronics companies in the world.

Sharp acquired a controlling stake in Pioneer Corporation in 2007. On 25 June 2009, Sharp and Pioneer agreed to form a joint venture comprising their optical businesses, called "Pioneer Digital Design and Manufacturing Corporation".

History

In 1912, Tokuji Hayakawa (早川 徳次) founded a metal workshop in Tokyo. The first of his many inventions was a snap buckle named 'Tokubijo'. Another of his major inventions was the Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil in 1915, from which the Sharp Corporation took its name. After the pencil business was destroyed by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, the company relocated to Osaka and began designing the first generation of Japanese radio sets. These went on sale in 1925. In 1953 Sharp started producing television sets.

In 1964 Sharp developed the world's first transistor calculator, which was priced at ¥535,000 (US$1,400). It took Sharp several years to develop the product as they had no experience in making computing devices at the time. Two years later, in 1966 Sharp introduced its first IC calculator using 145 Mitsubishi-made bipolar ICs, priced at ¥350,000 (about US$1000). Its first LSI calculator was introduced in 1969. This was the first pocketable calculator priced at less than ¥100,000 (less than US$300), and turned out to be a popular item.

Other notable achievements include the first LCD calculator in 1973. LCD technology continues to be a key part of Sharp's product range, in both the component and consumer-appliance sides of the business. Sharp shared a close working relationship with Nintendo during the 1980s, and was granted licensing rights for the manufacture and development of the C1 NES TV (1983, later released in North America as the Sharp Nintendo Television), the Twin Famicom (1986), the Sharp Famicom Titler (1989), and the SF-1 SNES TV (1990). All of these units are considered collectors items on the secondary market.

Sharp's Mobile Communications Division created the world's first commercial camera phone, the J-SH04, in Japan in 1997. In 2008 Sharp collaborated with Emblaze Mobile on the Monolith, "...an ambitious project to design the ultimate holistic mobile device". The project was never brought to market. Key software developers were later picked up by other companies.

In March 2012 the Taiwan-based electronics company Hon Hai (commonly known as Foxconn) agreed to acquire a 10 percent stake in Sharp Corporation for US$806 million, and to purchase up to 50 percent of the LCD displays produced at Sharp's plant in Sakai, Japan.

Products

See also: List of Sharp mobile phones

The Sharp AQUOS SH-12C mobile phone (Japanese market).

Core technologies and products include: LCD panels, solar panels, mobile phones, audio-visual entertainment equipment, video projectors, Multi-Function Printing Devices, microwave ovens, air conditioners, cash registers, CMOS and CCD sensors, and flash memory.

The first commercial camera phone was also made by Sharp for the Japanese market in November 2000. Recent products include the ViewCam, the Ultra-Lite notebook PC, the Zaurus personal digital assistant, Sidekick 3, and the AQUOS flat screen television.

Sharp manufactures a variety of consumer electronic products. These include LCD televisions, sold under the Aquos brand, mobile phones, microwave ovens, Home cinema and audio systems, air purification systems, fax machines and calculators.

For the business market, Sharp also produces ranges of projectors and monitors and a variety of photocopiers and Laser Printers, in addition to electronic cash registers and Point of sale technologies.

Sharp is a pioneer and innovator in the field of multi-functional devices (MFD) having won many awards from BLI and BERTL - the two major authorities providing competitive intelligence and test reviews in the print industry. SHARP's latest products - MX2600N and MX3100N have once again broken new ground with the launch of version 3 Open System Architecture (OSA3). This feature enhances productivity further still by letting third party developers directly integrate their business applications with the MFD.

Sharp Solar has for a number of years been a leading supplier of silicon photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. Now, it offers solar TV. In Q1 2010 they were rated the #1 producer of solar PV systems, in terms of revenues.

Operations

The current Sharp world headquarters in Osaka, Japan.

The Sharp factory in Taki, Mie, Japan.

Net sales for the year 2003/4 were $16.8 billion. The Corporation employs 46,600 staff, of which around half live outside Japan. It operates from 64 bases in 30 countries and its products are distributed in 164 countries worldwide. Many of its regional subsidiaries trade under the name "Sharp Electronics".

Sharp was among the Top 100 R&D Spenders in a list published by the IEEE Spectrum magazine in 2002.

Headquarters

• 22-22, Nagaike-cho, Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan (Global)
• 1 Sharp Plaza Mahwah, New Jersey 07430, USA (North America)
• 3 Stockley Park, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK (Europe)

Environmental record

In November 2011 Sharp was ranked in 11th place by Greenpeace’s re-launched Guide to Greener Electronics that ranks 15 electronics manufacturers according to their policies and practices to reduce their impact on the climate, produce greener products, and make their operations more sustainable.

Sharp scored 3/10 and received most of its points on the Products criteria where the company was praised for the energy efficiency of its products with all of its TVs meeting the latest Energy Star standard. It also gained some points for having a relative long term target to reduce CO2 emissions by 2 percent (per production unit) compared to the previous year, yet sets out no clear target for absolute reductions. The company is also praised for its public support for a clean energy policy, after advocating the Japanese Government to increase the use of renewable energy.

Sharp scored least points in the guide in the Sustainable Operations category, scoring no points for chemical management due to not communicating commitments made on phasing out hazardous substances in its supply chain. The guide also notes that Sharp have lacked any initiative to address the issue of conflict minerals and the exclusion of paper sourced from suppliers involved in illegal logging or deforestation.

Sponsorship

Sharp was the principal sponsor of Manchester United Football Club from 1983 until 2000, in one of the lengthiest and most lucrative sponsorship deals in English football. Sharp's logo was on the front of United's shirts during these 17 years, during which the team won seven Premier League titles, five FA Cups, one Football League Cup, one European Cup Winners' Cup and one Champions League.

Further reading

• Sharp Officially Launches Mobile Phone Range in India in Dec 2010

External links

• International website