Sharp to Launch Compact Portable, Water-Resistant TV

Tokyo, Aug. 27 (Jiji Press)--Sharp Corp. <6753> said Monday it will launch on Sept. 20 a compact portable liquid crystal display television set that can be used anywhere inside the house. Users will be able to check recipes that they found on the Internet on the screen of the TV while cooking and watch TV programs in the bathroom. The new TV from the company's Aquos series is water-resistant and water-repellent, and thus can be operated with wet fingers. The Aquos Portable TV will have a screen size of 12 or 16 inches. The 16-inch model, weighing about 1.36 kilograms, will likely have a retail price of about 86,400 yen. The company released a portable TV in 2011. But it pulled the plug on the product only after two years, because the TV was unpopular due partly to its large screen sizes of 20 inches and more. Sharp designed the new TV so that images on its screen can be viewed clearly from various angles while making it smaller and lighter. The company expects sales of compact portable TVs in Japan to reach 220,000 units in fiscal 2018. Sharp aims to win a share of 50 pct in the domestic market for such TVs in 2020. It is also considering launching compact portable TVs overseas. END