Sharp

Sharp Corporation (シャープ株式会社, Shāpu Kabushiki-gaisha^?) (TYO: 6753 ) is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, founded in 1912. It takes its name from one of its founder's first inventions, the Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil, which was invented by Tokuji Hayakawa(早川 徳次) in 1915 [1].

After the pencil business was destroyed by the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, the company relocated to Osaka and started designing the first Japanese radio sets. These went on sale in 1925. In 1953 it started production of the first television sets in Japan. Other notable achievements include the world's first all-transistor desktop calculator in 1964 and the first LCD calculator in 1973. LCD technology continues to be a key part of Sharp's product range, in both the component and the consumer-appliance sides of the business.

The first commercial cameraphone was also made by Sharp for the Japanese market in November 2000.

Sharp's logo became iconic between 1982 and 2000 when English football club Manchester United displayed it on their shirts as part of a sponsorship deal. Because much of these 18 years were something of a golden era for the club, with a (coincidental) decline in fortunes happening once Vodafone became the new shirt sponsors in 2000, some fans now term this period - particularly 1993-1999, as The Sharp Years.

Core technologies and products include: solar panels, mobile phones, audio-visual entertainment equipment, LCD panels, projectors, photocopiers, microwave ovens, cash registers, CMOS and CCD sensors, and flash memory.

Recent products include the ViewCam, the Ultra-Lite notebook PC, the Zaurus personal digital assistant, Sidekick 3, and the Aquos flat screen television.

Net sales for the year 2003/4 were $16.8 billion. The Corporation employs 46,600 staff, of which around half live outside Japan. It operates from 64 bases in 30 countries and its products are distributed in 164 countries worldwide. Many of its regional subsidiaries trade under the name "Sharp Electronics".

As a semiconductor maker, Sharp is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders and among the Top 100 R&D Spenders in a list published by the IEEE Spectrum magazine.