After concluding that turning a profit from stand-alone products was too difficult, Sharp has announced that it will no longer sell and manufacturer PCs, neither laptops nor desktops, according to Nikkei. The company did not say when it would cease all PC production, but it did stress that it would do so very shortly. Surprisingly, Sharp says that this is just a "strategic" move and that it may one day return to the PC market. Sharp's PCs did get a positive reception from consumers, but the company still decided to give up on selling PCs in Japan.
Instead, the company will concentrate on its newly developed e-book technology and accompanying content (e-books, music, and videos); its Galapagos Tablet is scheduled to hit Japanese stores this December. Sharp will also continue to provide ultra compact devices, including its Netwalker series.
Sharp made its mark in the PC industry by using proprietary technologies for LCDs and chips. In the 1990s, it developed the world's smallest and lightest notebook PC equipped with both an internal hard drive and a floppy disk drive. Last year, the Japanese consumer electronics company offered a notebook PC that let users draw images by hand, but it has not released any new products since. Customers will continue to receive support services for their purchased products, according to the company.