![TVPixel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/TVPixel.jpg)
The Sharp Aquos is a product brand name for
LCD television
Liquid-crystal-display televisions (LCD TVs) are television sets that use liquid-crystal displays to produce images. They are, by far, the most widely produced and sold television display type. LCD TVs are thin and light, but have some disadvantag ...
s and component screens, originally sold by
Sharp Corporation
is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products, headquartered in Sakai-ku, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Since 2016 it has been majority owned by the Taiwan-based Foxconn Group. Sharp employs more than 5 ...
of
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and also used by licensees.
History
It encompasses small, portable models (e.g. the 13" B series) up to large home-theater screens (e.g. 65" high-definition widescreen models), as well as component screens for portable devices including mobile phones. Aquos was first released in 2001 with 13", 15", and 20" 4:3 sizes starting, pricing at $1,799.99, $2,999.99, and $4,999.99 respectively. Since then, the Aquos brand is Sharp's premium LCD line (as Sharp also makes non-Aquos LCD TVs that sell for less), and recently they have been the first series of LCD HDTVs to feature integrated
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
Disc players with the BD-60U and BD-80U series debuting in 2009. Some Aquos LCD TVs are notable for displaying color in a
RYGB color space known as
Quattron
Quattron is the brand name of an LCD color display technology produced by Sharp Electronics. In addition to the standard RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) color subpixels, the technology utilizes a yellow fourth color subpixel (RGBY) which Sharp clai ...
, which adds a yellow component, as opposed to the standard
RGB color space
An RGB color space is any additive color space based on the RGB color model. An RGB color space is defined by chromaticity coordinates of the red, green, and blue additive primaries, the white point which is usually a standard illuminant, and t ...
used by most color televisions.
Aquos televisions run a
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
-based operating system. Sharp's
SmartLink technology was incorporated into the Aquos LC-15L1U-S.
From 2015 to 2018, Sharp-branded TVs sold in the United States were made by Chinese manufacturer
Hisense
Hisense Group is a Chinese multinational major appliance and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. Televisions are the main products of Hisense, and it is the largest TV manufacturer in China by market ...
. In 2019, Sharp regained its licensing and brand, buying back its assets from Hisense. Sharp-manufactured Sharp TVs have been back on the market since late 2019.
Mergers and acquisitions
In 2015, Sharp's North America TV business was sold to China based
Hisense
Hisense Group is a Chinese multinational major appliance and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. Televisions are the main products of Hisense, and it is the largest TV manufacturer in China by market ...
, allowing them to sell TVs in the United States. The intention to acquire was announced in July 2015. Sharp Corporation was subsequently acquired by Taiwan based Foxconn in August, 2016. In 2017, the new owner of Sharp,
Foxconn
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan and Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng, New T ...
filed a lawsuit against Hisense concerning quality of TVs sold under its Sharp branding citing the TVs "violate FCC rules on electromagnetic interference emissions, and
..Hisense gave consumers deceptive information about picture size, brightness levels and the 4K resolution." This lawsuit was dropped in early 2018.
Between 2015 and 2018, all Sharp brand TVs sold in the United States were made by Chinese manufacturing company Hisense. As of late 2019, Sharp Corporation has regained the license from Hisense and now continue making Sharp branded TVs.
See also
*
Blue Man Group Sharp Aquos Theatre
The Blue Man Group Theatre (previously named the Blue Man Group Sharp Aquos Theatre until 2012) was an indoor theatre located at Universal Orlando Resort's CityWalk, which housed a live show and residency by the Blue Man Group, featuring their ...
*
TFT LCD
A thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD) is a variant of a liquid-crystal display that uses thin-film-transistor technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in cont ...
*
Liquid crystal display television
Liquid-crystal-display televisions (LCD TVs) are television sets that use liquid-crystal displays to produce images. They are, by far, the most widely produced and sold television display type. LCD TVs are thin and light, but have some disadvantag ...
*
Digital television
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...
*
High-definition television
High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
*
Plasma television
A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display that uses small cells containing plasma: ionized gas that responds to electric fields. Plasma televisions were the first large (over 32 inches diagonal) flat panel displays to be released ...
References
External links
*http://www.aquos.com
*https://web.archive.org/web/20020601204331/http://www.aquos.co.uk/
Aquos
The Sharp Aquos is a product brand name for LCD televisions and component screens, originally sold by Sharp Corporation of Japan and also used by licensees.
History
It encompasses small, portable models (e.g. the 13" B series) up to large ho ...
Linux-based devices
Television sets
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