38 - Sharp Corporation's UK Research Investment: Sharp Laboratories of Europe Ltd

Summary

SHARP CORPORATION

SHARP HAD BECOME a major manufacturer of electrical and electronic products by the early 1980s. The company was founded in the 1920s by Hayakawa in the Tokyo region and made relatively simple products like belts and the famous ‘Ever Sharp’ propelling pencil. (The latter gave its name to the eventual Sharp Company in a desire to have a more English-sounding name for its export ambitions.) Hayakawa formed the electrical company and moved to Osaka to escape the consequences of the 1923 Kanto earthquake, which killed his wife, and other members of his family.

The first electronic product was a radio, (before the war), and although Hayakawa did collaborative research with NHK (the Japanese equivalent to the BBC) from the 1930s he produced his first commercial black and white television after the war, which was a first for Japan. In the 1950s, Hayakawa Electric as the company was then called, continued to make various brown and white goods such as televisions, radios, microwave ovens, refrigerators and air conditioners.

In 1964 Sharp (now so named) made and marketed the first electronic calculator based on the newly-invented transistor from the US. This first was recognized four decades later by the Science Museum in South Kensington. Sharp grew its business through the manufacture of colour televisions, calculators, and electronic components such as eproms (electrically programmable memories) and LEDs (light emitting diodes) and semiconductor lasers. Sharp was the first company to mass-produce a calculator with a liquid crystal display, which greatly reduced the amount of battery energy for its use.

By the 1980s Sharp was manufacturing a wide range of sophisticated electronics products such a laptop computers, organizers, small LCD (liquid crystal display) televisions and was expanding its operations into most of the major consumer counties, particularly the US and Europe. In 1988 turnover was close to 10bn US$ and expenditure on R&D amounted to 10% of this. Sharp's technology scaled new heights in the 1990s when a decision was taken to discontinue the manufacture of conventional cathode ray tube televisions and concentrate on those based on LCD. This almost single handed stimulated first the Japanese and then world markets in flat panel televisions to the extent that 40 inch plus sets became common place by the middle 2000s and have eclipsed the conventional versions in most major consumer markets.