Isaiah's Tech

For now, i am skipping the Casio press conference, so let's head over to Sharp.

Daisuke 'Doug' Koshima takes the stage first and mentions that they are confident that they will "weather the storm." He is talking about the economic crisis and Sharp plans to be a strong competitor in 2009. Doug Koshima mentions that their new facility in Sakai City is expected to be done by 2010. He mentions that they feel that LCD will remain dominant in flat-panel technology in the near-future. Their TV's will be in full HD (1080p), thin, use LED backlighting, while still remaining energy efficient. OLED technology is promising but is not completely ready yet. The Limited Edition Sharp Aquos LCD TV has an "unprecedented picture quality" and has a huge screen. It maintains these things, while still being ultra-thin and being 30% more energy efficient than before. He leaves the stage.

In comes, Michael Troetti. He told us that Sharp was one of the top 3 LCD manufacturers throughout December. In 2008, they had a 10% increase in unit growth. Michael mentions that LCD prices drop every year... I didn't know that... The Sharp Aquos LCD TV will have 1080p HD, while using the standard 120hz technology. "Sharp has the unique position of being a leader in both LCD and Blu-ray technology." The Aquos Advantage program was introduced in 2007 and is free for large-screen Aquos owners. So far, there are more than 150,000 members in the Aquos Advantage. He mentions that they are the "official HDTV of Major League Baseball." He ends his speech talking about recycling their products and about the environment. I started to yawn a bit. He leaves.

Bob Scaglione enters. He mentions that their 108 inch LCD TV is still the largest LCD display. Reveals the Sharp Aquos with a built-in Blu-ray player. I talked about that here. Their TV's will be using Superlucent Advanced Superview Panels over the standard Conventional Panels. Their Sharp E77U will have 1080p, use 120Hz and will have 5 HDMI inputs. The E77U will come in 4 different sizes: A 65, 52, 46 and 40 inch model. The Sharp E67U series will also have 1080p and will support 2 sizes of 40 and 32 inches. The 32 inch model will be projected towards video-gamers and it will have a new Vyper Drive technology, whatever that is. The E67U will also have 4 HDMI inputs. The Sharp Aquos Blu-ray players will have: a low power consumption, Aquos Pure mode and 2 models, the BD-HP22U and BD-HP16U. These players will support Bd-rom profile 2.0. The Sharp Aquos home theater system will have a built-in Blu-ray and will project sound using a 5.1 channel audio. He concluded by showing 2 new Sharp iPod docks.

Question time. They clarify that the release date on the Blu-ray players will be in February. Sharp mentioned that 32-inch displays may be benefiting from the economic crisis because it is a decent size for everyday use. I notice that everyone asking questions have weird accents and i understand why the Sharp representatives have a hard time understanding / answering the questions. Someone asks if there are going to be cheaper LED backlighting models. The obvious answer was, of course, yes, in the future. Another question was if Sharp will be releasing Blu-ray recorders in 2009. They answered no and said because of certain copyright protections, so they will be concentrating on Blu-ray players. Sharp predicts that in 2009, people will make the shift from 32 to 42 inch sets. They are, obviously, backing the Sharp Aquos 100%.

Sharp Press Conference: http://www.g4tv.com/ces2009/press_conf_detail.aspx?video_key=35865
Sharp pictures: http://www.gadgetell.com/tech/comment/new-sharp-products-2009-press-conference/