Sharp aims for more than 10% of China LCD TV market

Japan's Sharp Corp aims to raise its share of China's massive LCD TV market to more than 10% on a unit basis, becoming the biggest foreign player, the head of the company's Chinese operations said on Friday.                                           

Sharp, which competes with Samsung, LG Display and Sony Corp in flat-screen TVs, shipped 4.8% of all LCD TVs for the Chinese market in the first quarter of 2010, according to research firm Display Search.                                           

"We want to raise our share to double figures on a unit basis as soon as possible," Nobuyuki Sugano told a group of reporters in Tokyo, adding that Sharp, which has an upmarket image in China, already boasted about 10% of the market in the biggest 100 Chinese cities.                                           

The company is targeting shipments of 2.4 million units in China in the year to March 2011, which would raise its share to just over 6% in a market expected to reach 39 million units in that period.     
 

Sharp also plans to open a design centre in Nanjing soon, in an effort to offer products suited to the local market, Sugano said. The company aims to almost double the number of stores in China offering its Aquos brand televisions from 5,200 to 10,000 by March next year.                                           

Sharp forecasts total China sales across all products of 450 billion yen ($5.15 billion) in the current year to March 2011, compared with 365 billion yen last financial year.