Japanese electronics firm Sharp is set to become the latest TV brand to embrace OLED, and could release its first such models within the next few months.
A report from Nikkei Asian Review says Sharp is planning to debut two OLED TVs in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes, with a starting price of around 300,000 yen (£2,100) for the smaller model. The TVs, which will be equipped with OLED panels sourced from LG Display, could go on sale as early as March, the report added.
Sharp is a popular TV brand in Japan, where it sold more televisions than any other company in 2018, although it has since fallen to third place behind Panasonic and Sony, which also sell OLED TVs.
That Sharp is looking to OLED to reverse that decline isn’t surprising. Several TV manufacturers have introduced their first OLED TVs in recent week, including Xiaomi and Vizio, while Huawei is also planning to do the same. Many experts believe OLED will be a lucrative market, but Sharp may face some obstacles as it’s generally seen as a manufacturer of low budget goods, and the cheapest OLEDs on the market haven’t always fared so well.
Hisense is a prime example of that. The Chinese firm was one of the first brands to start selling OLED TVs, but its budget models didn’t sell so well, with reports that the TVs suffered from a buggy smart platform and inferior viewing quality. Hisense has now exited the OLED TV market altogether in order to focus on its ULED display technology.
If Sharp does release its first OLED TVs this year, they wouldn’t be the company’s first OLED TVs. Last year the company showed off an interesting prototype of a 30-inch, 4K rollable OLED TV at the Inter BEE 2019 show in Makuhari, Japan.
