Sharp Firms Up Appliance Leadership

Sharp, the country's leading distributor of washing machines, firms up its market dominance in washing machine and refrigerators with higher market shares by 2013 in line with the Japanese company’s overall thrust to increase its overseas presence rather than its domestic base.

Naotaka Ohtsuka, Sharp Philippines group deputy general manager for health and environment systems, divulged this as the local unit marked its 30th year and 100 years for Sharp Corp.

Ohtsuka said the company aims to make its overseas markets contribute 50 percent of its total business. At present, Japan sales contribute the bulk of 60 percent of total. Asean accounts for 25 percent of its total overseas business.

Ohtsuka said the company aims to cement its market share for washer and twin tub washing machines to 30 percent in 2013 from 26 percent market share for 2010 fiscal year.

For the refrigerator market, the company aims to capture 22 percent market from 14 percent in the 2010 fiscal year. These growth projections would mean the company would have cemented its number one position in these sectors by 2013. For airconditioners, the company expects to gain 12 percent market share by 2013 to be the country’s top three in this product line.

Sharp will be introducing hole less tub, which technology would prevent the formation of black moulds that could attach to clothes.

The company has also a strong presence in the CRT television series although its LCD and LED TV series are expected to grow stronger than the vanishing CRT line.

To mark its centennial celebration, Sharp vows to continue introducing innovative products that would address environmental and health issues.

Already, its appliances are incorporated with plasmacluster ion technology that suppresses harmful airborne elements to promote a clean indoor environment. These are found in Sharp air purifiers, ion generators, air-conditioners and refrigerators.

Sharp’s new UV2A technology in its Quattron LCD TV also does its part in creating a more power efficient TV, the fast that it is the first in the industry to have the proprietary RGB+Y technology, which means it can easily handle advanced picture quality and maximum color precision that only Sharp can provide.

Sharp’s poly-crystalline silicon solar panels are now in use at a CEPALCO operated farm in Cagayan, the first solar farm in the country.

The PSC panels and the newer thin-film panels are widely utilized in other parts of the world for navigational systems, satellites, skyscrapers and other commercial applications.