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Sharp To Quit Making Personal Computers
cylonlover writes "Sharp has reportedly decided to pull the plug on their PC operations — not entirely shocking given that the company has not released any PCs at all in the past year. The company will apparently 'focus on marketing its Galapagos tablet devices coming out in December, along with providing content such as e-books, music and video for these products.'"
Sharp made PCs?
Microsoft to stop making automobiles.
I've never even seen a single computer from Sharp. In fact, I've never heard of Sharp making PCs before.
Apparently they're going to focus on a new line of tablet PCs.
I'm still very unhappy with the amount of software support and updates we got for the Zaurus SL-6000 (zero support and updates) which was a very expensive piece of kit.
Because of my experience with the Zaurus I no longer take chances with hardware and would rather go with the established leaders even if it's technically inferior.
Yay me! ^^
In other news, Sharp was selling PCs.
Had no idea Sharp was even in the PC game.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Anybody remembers their amazing calculators like the PC-1211 ? aka the Tandy TRS80-PC1. This calculator was programmable in BASIC, in the very early 1980s they were the way to get a hand on a programmable computer if you were a destitute high-school student. I never got one but I got its competitor the Casio FX702P in 1982 when I was in year 11 I think. Very capable beasts with K7 backup and printers...
Way back when, I was considering buying my first computer (an Amstrad), for word-processing, I came across the Sharp 1410 'dedicated word processor'. I can't find a picture online, but it was an electric typewriter, with a 10(?) line LED screen, and some embedded software applications; a word processor, spreadsheet. You could save to 3.5" floppies. Thinking back, I still think that was a good choice for a student. Brother seems to be the only firm making typewriters now, and the dedicated word processor appears to have disappeared as an option.
My first computer ended up being an iMac 350.
Before they got into making x86 PC "clones" like everyone else, they had an 8-bit computer line as well as the X68000 which was basically the high end gaming PC of the late 80s. It shipped with Human68K which was on the surface similar to MS-DOS except that it used a 768x512 text display with kanji. The interesting part was the hardware. It had dual 1.2MB 5.25" floppy drives, a YM2151 (4 op, 8 channel stereo FM synthesizer like the one used in Capcom CPS1 arcade machines and many others) and ADPCM chip for sound, and a 10MHz 68K. Then for video it had 512KB of memory for "text" arranged as 4 bitplanes (like the Atari ST or Amiga), another 512KB for bitmapped graphics which could hit 512x512 with 64K colors, and 32KB of SRAM for 4bpp character based graphics (2 independantly scrolling background layers and 128 16x16 sprites). In other words, it rocked, and it cost 400,000 yen.
Most people who are ok with the limits of an all-in-one, in that they cost more and aren't so upgradable, just get a laptop. They work well, and you can pick them up and take them with you. They can also easily have an external keyboard, mouse and monitor hooked to them when placed on a desktop.
That's the real issue is that all-in-ones are a very small market because something already pretty much offers what they do and more. Laptops are great if size is the concern, desktops are great for systems that stay in one spot. Only if you demand something larger than a laptop, but you can't have a desktop, is an all-in-one really needed. That is just not many people.
In fact the only reason the iMacs are as popular as they are is because of the lack of consumer Mac tower, something Mac users have clamored for for years. If you need more power than a Mac mini gives you, and that is not hard to need, then an iMac is your only choice unless you are willing to drop $2500+ on a workstation. If Apple introduced a consumer level, $1000ish tower like everyone else has, the iMac sales would drop. A few people would still like them, all-in-ones do sell, including non-Apple ones (MSI makes all-in-ones), bu they are a small market.
Sharp had a cutting edge 'personal mobile tool' in the Zaurus, they just didn't seem to know what they had, or how to support it. The PC tablet is a dreadful road to go down - I've tried those too, but unlike the Zaurus, there is nothing to recommend them...
Well and MS for developing two smartphone OSes simultaneously instead of focusing on one. "Who could possibly have forseen that was a bad idea." /sarcasm
That and Google doing the same thing with Android and Chrome OS.
Sharp weren't really into that market anyway, particularly with the strong competition from companies like Toshiba and Samsung. Still, Dubli might have a few on the books left.
You can forget Galapagos. I looked it up and its designed to be an e-reader yet it has an LCD screen. What a load of crap. This makes it a poor second to an ipad at best.
Call me up when you have the technology we're all waiting for: decent size, decent form factor, colour e-ink which is affordable. Something thin with a bit of flex - after all flexing your book is part of the pleasure of reading.
I'd even settle for two colours only if that helps.
I don't hear anyone arguing against the idea that Chrome OS is all but dead.
Netwalker? The name alone tells me that Sharp lacks a good marketing department. Search engines crawl. People browse. Who'd want to walk the web, Spiderman?
Please keep making displays. I never cared about your PC's anyway. But your displays kick butt!