Slashdot Mirror
Sharp Warns That It Might Collapse
angry tapir writes "Japan's Sharp, a major supplier of LCD displays to Apple and other manufacturers, has warned that it may not survive if it can't turn around its business. The Osaka-based manufacturer said there is "material doubt" about its ability to continue operating in its earnings report filed Thursday. Sharp added, however, that it still believes it can cut costs and secure enough credit to survive. Its IGZO technology for mobile displays is likely to be a key element of its business strategy."
Sell their LCD's to apple at a higher cost why should apple be the only one making a premium off the screens?
This would be an opportune time for Apple to buy Sharp, re-organize the beast then ramp up displays and other parts for its booming business. If Sharp collapses, Apple will be in trouble - guaranteed.
The 24-month chart is probably more informative than your 3-month chart. I realize it kind of spoils your intended narrative, though.
Like any stock, Apple's shares have seen significant corrections before - especially in the modern market.
#DeleteChrome
Basically the only people not buying AAPL are people who lack any vision.
When I hear that said about a stock, I'm inclined to research shorting it.
My impression of Sharp may be anachronistic, I don't know if the company is still what it used to be, but I think of them as manufacturing really terrific products, particularly portable electronics (remember these?), but hardly selling them or anything at all outside of Japan. Even within Japan I guess their marketing wasn't so good. Sorta the anti-Apple - poor marketing, but great and often pretty open products.
The #3 television manufacturer in the world, Sony, announced on Friday it's cutting its medium-term TV sales goals in half.
Four days earlier, #5 Panasonic (Matsushita) announced it's cutting its flatscreen TV production in half.
Sharp is ranked #4. Apparently all three of the Japanese manufacturers bet too big on TVs and are getting trounced by Korean rivals Samsung (#1) and LG (#2).
Part of Sharp's problem's are twofold. Their investment in R&D accounts for a lot of their debt. And of course Japans overall problem with the Yen.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/11/05/sharp-statement-lost-in-translation/?mod=WSJBlog
You won't find a Dell logo inside the Dell display either. What's your point?
Blank until
Stores often calibrate displays according to what they are currently trying to push. using tricks such as lower res vs high res video, warm colours and poor calibration to guide you to what they want you to buy. Always check online before browsing displays for real agnostic reviews.
There are very few large scale LCD manufacturers. Arguably the 2 biggest names are Sharp and Samsung, Apple are actively pushing away from Samsung and looking to Sharp so it would be very nasty for apple. The collapse of Sharp would have a big impact on who makes your tablet, smartphone and television screens in future and potentially the market prices of those devices as shortages or lack of competition will potentially affect prices.
Big Japanese mobile companies always take a long time to turn around if something happens. They all still don't understand why the iphone is successful since all the management level there was brought up in a time when NTT had a monopoly and the companies produced mobile phones nearly exclusively for NTT/docomo (imode), which in turn force fed the mobiles to the customers.
I liked Sharps products, learned programming on a MZ-80B. I always wanted to buy a zaurus, one of the first linux-based PDAs, but it was mainly sold/available inside Japan. When i lived in Japanlater, i bought a sharp netwalker T1 (only available in Japan).
The netwalker demonstrates all of Sharps shortcomings in a technically not so bad device:
-Target the Japanese market only from the beginning
-make no advertisements about the special features it has (e.g. standard usb host port, interesting pointing device layout)
-make a half-assed decision of using Ubuntu on it (for *two* devices they used the ARM port of Ubuntu)
-leave it unpolished, with easy to fix show-stopper bugs, trusting that the Japanese will always buy Sharp
1. No, not nearly enough unless they want to spend pretty much all of it. Sharp is huge, and selling to a foreigner would require massive amount of extra funds to essentially bribe a lot of japanese legislature.
2. Sharp has problems with money flow due to current banking environment and crisis hitting its sales and profit margins hard, in addition to increasing competition. It's not really ready to collapse, that statement was most likely aimed at helping it secure low cost loans with governmental backing, as is the way of things in Japan.
3. Expertise in question simply doesn't exist. This is what Sony tried once, threw a LOT of resources at the problem and failed in a spectacular margin. Biggest problem is completely different corporate culture, japanese and american simply do not mix.
Many people nowadays think that money solves everything. It really doesn't. What money can do is support inefficiency until it runs out. But it won't fix the problem causing the drain.
Apple is more likely to buy Sharp and try to keep the entire supply chain in-house.
But a "Sharp Apple" could leave a bitter taste
Without Monster Cables, the other displays are going to be cubic but far less rounded, the contrast less warm, and the colours markedly less spatial. I'm no expert, but even my unprofessional eye can spot these differences if I'm told up-front that Monster cables are being used.
-- Using the preview button since 2005