sharp 32-inch 4k igzo lcd monitors made in china

Sharp’s professional-use PN-K321 LCD monitor heralds an entirely new generation of displays that incorporate Sharp’s cutting-edge IGZO* technology. This technology offers two major advantages: extraordinarily high resolution and energy efficiency. At 3,840 x 2,160 pixels (4K Ultra-HD), the PN-K321 boasts four times the resolution of 1080p full HD. Users can now view the content of four full HD screens on a single, seamless display. This super-high resolution makes the monitor ideally suited to a wide range of professional applications in settings where detailed information needs to be displayed with tremendous precision. IGZO technology supports increased pixel transparency and reduced current leakage, resulting in lower power consumption.

The PN-K321 owes its stylish and slender design to IGZO technology and edge-lit LED backlighting. Measuring only about 35 mm at its thickest point, this sleek and lightweight monitor blends in effortlessly in almost any location. The PN-K321 comes with a stand and offers a choice of landscape or portrait installation*, allowing users to select the mode that best suits their display content and application.

Apple has made clear its intent to support ultra high-resolution displays with the latest Mac and OS X products, but without a 4K display of its own (yet) the company sells only one UHD monitor as a go-along with its flagship Mac Pro: Sharp"s PN-K321.

Still largely the domain of professionals and well-heeled prosumers, 4K displays are expensive and often considered overkill for the everyday consumer. In fact, with the current OS X 10.9.2, browsing the Web and checking email on a 3,840-by-2,160 pixel monitor is a less than ideal experience.

From resolution to color gamut, these ultra high-definition monitors — specifically the 32-inch Sharp PN-K321 — offer specs far surpassing those of mass produced displays, and for that you pay a premium. They are tools, not consumption devices.

Being a monitor targeted at professionals, the Sharp puts function over form. This is not to say the display is ugly, but its unassuming exterior design and no-frills construction may make it less appealing to the average user accustomed to flashing lights and glossy screens.

Where a Dell or Samsung product would have bright front-facing LEDs or a polished bezel, the PN-K321 makes do with matte finishes and a muted color palette. The bezel is neither ultra-slim, nor is it unduly thick, but just the right width to adequately provide support for the 4K panel below.

For those users who prefer portrait orientation, the Sharp can be mounted upright by removing four hex screws on the back of the unit. The setup is more permanent than other products as there is no way to easily switch between landscape and portrait, though we don"t imagine many users will need to do so with such a large screen.

An official number for panel life expectancy is not published, but because it is a professional product, Sharp tells us lifetime is one step below tolerance for a 24/7 duty cycle. Basically, it is more likely that a new resolution standard will be adopted before the monitor needs replacing.

For anyone who hasn"t seen a 4K monitor in action, the Sharp is quite the spectacle. Even for pros accustomed to working with super high resolutions, this display is special and what we would consider best in class.

Sharp was the first manufacturer to successfully roll out efficient indium, gallium, zinc-oxide (IGZO) thin-film transistor technology, which lets more light generated from the LED backlight to pass through the LCD and onto the user. Combined with bright, even edge-lit backlighting and a matte LCD panel, the IGZO PN-K321 offers startling results.

We can"t help but imagine what a full-array backlight with local-dimming would do for color consistency and brightness, though adding such components would no doubt increase thickness, thermal levels and power requirements. As it stands, the IGZO panel, manufactured by Sharp"s Seibi factory in China, grossly outperforms the competition.

Product specifications claim an output of 350 candelas per square meter (cd/m2) and a contrast ratio of 800:1. Compared to other high-density screens we"ve seen (and even some 1080p monitors) the Sharp is noticeably brighter and can easily be viewed even in sunlit rooms.

Perhaps more important than sheer brightness, Sharp did a great job in enhancing backlight transmission without degrading color accuracy, something that has been troublesome for other brands. Without the correct color saturation — and a wide color gamut — a bright display is not even worth looking at for most professional applications.

We ran the usual battery of tests when trying out the Sharp, connected to the all-new redesigned Mac Pro and late-2013 MacBook Pro with Retina display.

In addition, the upcoming maintenance update adds new "pixel-doubling" scaling that solves a lot of the issues we saw in graphical and native app assets. After testing out the new features, we can say 10.9.3 will be a drastic improvement over Mavericks" current 4K support.

As for apps themselves, Final Cut Pro X and Photoshop are joys to use at high resolution. As expected, working with native 4K footage on the Sharp is significantly better than lower resolution displays. Intricate details and flaws are easy to spot, while the huge pixel count offers a large easel on which to work.

We found positive results for Photoshop and Illustrator as well. Once again, the 4K resolution is a boon for detail-minded professionals looking to squeeze perfection out of every pixel of their work. In most cases, we found ourselves manipulating images without the need for in-app magnification as the smallest details were readily apparent.

As for basic apps like Web browsers and Mail clients, the software has not yet caught up to 4K. We saw undersized formatting, font issues and aberrations not befitting UHD displays. OS X 10.9.3 makes things much more usable, however.

Put simply, if you"re in the market for a 4K monitor, Sharp"s PN-K321 is the one to get. Even Apple chose the display to showcase the new Mac Pro"s abilities in its retail locations and is the only 4K display option to "add to cart" when purchasing the new pro-level desktop from the Online Apple Store.

While we did not experiment with older Macs, the PN-K321 takes a powerful graphics card to drive. As noted by Apple, only the new Mac Pro and late-2013 Retina MacBook Pro can officially handle 4K output. As with many cutting-edge products, the display is not built to be an all-around general purpose device and is unlikely to work perfectly with older software and hardware. If you do have the right equipment and suite of professional software, however, Sharp"s monitor is highly recommended.

Overall, after spending some quality time with the PN-K321, we came away with the impression that Sharp"s pro A/V team poured a majority its R&D money into panel tech rather than creature comforts; in bleeding edge display technology, not modern design. Whereas other brands cobble together parts from various manufacturers, Sharp tells us the technology in the PN-K321 — from the IGZO chip to the LCD array — was developed entirely in-house. And we are more than OK with the results.

As a side note, Sharp has just announced a touch-enabled version of the PN-K321, dubbed the PN-K322B, that we are told is shipping out to distribution channels. With an edge-to-edge glass design and funcitonal rocker/slider stand, the multitouch version looks to have a lot of potential. Pricing is set at $4,675.

Sharp"s PN-K321 has a manufacturer"s suggested retail price of $3595 and it"s currently available at only a handful of select online electronics stores. As of press time, the lowest prices we could find were $2,990 from B&H Photo (tax-free outside of NY) and $3,088 from Amazon.com (tax-free outside AZ, CA, KS, KY, MA, NC, NJ, NY, ND, PA, TX, and WA.). It"s also available at MacMall for $3,079.99 (tax-free outside of CA, NY, IL, WI, MN, CO, TN, NC and GA).

When you"re surrounded by huge 4K TVs cranked to retina-damaging brightness, it"s easy to get desensitized to the high resolution. But, when you are standing in front of a 32-inch monitor (31.5-inch to be exact) at that same resolution, it"s a whole different story. In the gargantuan halls of CES, Sharp is showing off the 4K-resolution low-power IGZO LCD panels it announced November last year. They had two touchscreen versions on show -- one for Windows 7 and another for Windows 8 -- as well as one non-touch model. The touch versions were also slightly different in that you can lie them horizontally if you need to. Honestly, the resolution and color reproduction on the panels were absolutely incredible. They looked so good, in fact, that I fantasized about tearing it from the table and making a break for it, if only for a second.

That"s the only way I could end up "owning" one, as the non-touch model will be "at least" $5500 when it launches in February, and the touch models will be "at least" $1000 more when they arrive sometime in Q2. They aren"t really intended for general consumption, anyway, but for the medical sector, serious design pros and other commercial uses. The pics we got of them can be found in the gallery below, but unfortunately, it was hard to do the displays justice in the crowded, dimly lit Sharp den. %Gallery-175376%

LAS VEGAS--Sharp kicked off its media event at the 2013 International CES on Monday by revealing the future of the electronics giant"s display portfolio.

Specifically, that strategy is being spearheaded by IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) technology as Sharp unveiled a 32-inch 4K resolution IGZO LCD monitor.

Kozo Takahashi, executive vice president of Sharp Corporation, remarked during Monday"s press conference that IGZO is the "key to future of next-generation organic LED (OLED) displays."

But IGZO isn"t being reserved just for TVs as executives highlighted new mobile devices sporting IGZO screens that were already unveiled in Japan last year.

Takahashi asserted that Sharp "will be first company to mass produce IGZO," but he acknowledged that "IGZO wasn"t made by Sharp alone." He cited Corning -- the maker of Gorilla Glass -- in particular as a major partner to help produce these IGZO displays for TVs, smartphones and tablets.

After reviewing the Sharp PN-K321 Ultra HD monitor, the CRN Test Center liked its 3,840-x-2,160 resolution for medical imaging, CAD/CAM, video production and other intended applications at a list price of $7,395. But at its new price of $5,250, we like it a whole lot more. With the new list price announced Friday, Sharp expects the PN-K321 to be selling on the street for around $4,000. That"s $1,000 for each of the full HD windows it can display on its single 32-inch IGZO panel.

That"s IGZO, folks, another acronym to start hearing about. IGZO stands for indium gallium zinc oxide, and it was developed by Sharp as a thinner, more translucent and responsive alternative to the amorphous silicon used in most of today"s LCD panels. A thinner active layer means more light can pass through more pixels, which means greater-resolution displays with faster refresh rates that use less energy to run, and require less cabinet space to keep cool.

That"s according to Steve Brauner, senior product line manager for professional displays at Sharp. During a phone briefing with the CRN Test Center, Brauner explained that without a new technology, today"s thin-film transistor (TFT) displays had hit a wall. "To increase the number of pixels, you have to increase the light that goes through," or darken the viewing environment, Brauner said. "That"s why viewing high-resolution X-rays requires a dark room." Each pixel has a transistor behind it, so displays packed with pixels also are packed with light-blocking transistors. "The IGZO TFT dramatically reduces the size of the transistor, allowing more light to pass through," he said.

Side effects of the new technology actually have useful benefits, said Brauner. Aside from reducing the required light intensity, Brauner said that IGZO enables more light to be distributed more evenly to the edges of the screen. The panel also has persistence characteristics that enable it to maintain unchanged portions of the display without the use of the graphics processor. While this characteristic isn"t in play on the desktop, it"s expected to greatly benefit battery-operated devices. Apple is reportedly considering IGZO in its next-gen iPhones.

To test Sharp"s new monitor, the CRN Test Center fired up our latest Haswell-based test fixture, an Intel DZ87KL-75K Extreme Series desktop board wielding an Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz dual-core processor running 64-bit Windows 7 Pro on 4 GB of high-performance RAM. Intel"s latest processor and chipset support the new Thunderbolt spec as well as DisplayPort 1.2. Ultra HD can be driven by anything with DisplayPort 1.2, and Sharp"s monitor also can function through one or both of its HDMI inputs.

The Intel board"s single HDMI port drove Sharp"s new monitor at 30Hz with full resolution. Performance using Intel"s on-board GPU was adequate for displaying graphics and manipulating digital images. The 3,840-x-2,160 images on the Sharp Ultra HD monitor displayed side by side with a very good 1,920-x-1,080 monitor were most striking; the bright colors, sharp contrasts and photo-realism were impressive. But, Intel"s HD Graphics 4600 GPU couldn"t quite keep up with high-resolution video streaming and media playback we were flinging through its HDMI port. Even when playing hi-res media in a single window, we got choppy video and gravelly audio.

Fortunately, Sharp also included an AMD FirePro W600 workstation graphics card for testing. This put the PN-K321 in a whole new light. We opened four windows and put one in each corner. In two of the windows we ran high-resolution videos using the VideoLAN"s VLC 2.0.8 media player. In another, we launched a Blu-ray quality video using Microsoft"s Media Player, and in the fourth, we streamed videos from YouTube. All content ran smoothly, although the cacophony of sounds had us reaching for the mute button.

Next we brought up the CRN Test Center"s standard test images, and after a few adjustments to brightness and contrast, we found Sharp"s Ultra HD to be well within acceptable limits. Gradients of color and black-to-white exhibited no banding, black level and white saturation were visible throughout the spectrum, and sharpness tests were the best we"ve seen.

With HD screens becoming as common as high-end cell phones, we see 4K or Ultra HD as the next logical step in digital-display evolution. And with IGZO technology, Sharp has made major strides, and the CRN Test Center recommends the Sharp PN-K321 at its new price of $5,250. It includes a tilt-swivel stand and three-year warranty. In the channel since March, it"s sold through major tech and pro-video distributors. In addition, the company this week announced the PN-K322B, a 10-point multitouch version with lay-flat stand to be available in the fall; pricing was not disclosed.

Will the next MacBook Pro refresh sport a 4K display, one 4,000-ish pixels wide? If Apple wants to ensure that its flagship laptop does indeed feature such a massive resolution screen, Sharp has just the LCD it needs.

The beta-test screen uses Sharp’s IGZO technology - IGZO being short for Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide. IGZO is an alternative to the amorphous silicon used to make the transistors embedded in most current LCD panels. Electrons can move more freely in an IGZO circuit than an amorphous silicon one.

The upshot: displays made of IGZO transistors don’t have to be as thick as regular LCDs, allowing more light from the backlight to pass through, allowing you to fit a less bright and less power hungry backlight than traditional LCDs need.

So far only pre-production samples are available, but Sharp said it expects to begin rolling the screens off the lines en mass at its Kameyama Plant No. 2 from February 2014.

Sharp has had more than its fair share of troubles of late and was last year forced to seek financial assistance from Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, which just so happens to be one of Apple’s key suppliers, though primarily for iDevices. Foxconn spent $800 million earlier this year on a 9.9 per cent stake in Sharp’s LCD factories.

IGZO transistors have high electron mobility and much lower leakage current characteristics than the two dominant silicon TFT processes. IGZO TFTs are smaller, so displays can have higher resolution with less loss in light transmission. Based on the license from the Japanese Science and Technology Agency, Sharp’s breakthrough is the large-scale manufacture of IGZO panels, effectively moving the technology into the hands of manufacturers and consumers. Furthermore, Sharp Corporation and Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. jointly developed a new oxide semiconductor (IGZO) technology with high crystallinity.

Low power consumption is critical for portable devices. IGZO TFTs have dramatically lower leakage current when the TFT is off. When static, non-video content is being displayed, IGZO can also operate in a mode where pauses are inserted between the drive/refresh cycles, with almost no flicker. The result is further reduction in power consumption. Designers can then build devices with increased battery life, smaller size or both.

An IGZO TFT can pass 20 to 50 times more electrical current than an equivalent amorphous silicon TFT. That’s far more than the LCD cell actually needs, so it can be much smaller. Smaller size is essential to retain brightness, or the body of the transistor would block too much light in a smaller LCD cell. The required current to operate each TFT is lower too, so the mesh of printed wiring that interconnects the transistors and defines the walls of the cells can be thinner. This contributes to overall brightness, as well.

Higher resolution in portable devices can be very costly in terms of power consumption. Consumers always want the least weight and the greatest battery life. IGZO is the ideal solution.

The graph below shows the dramatic benefits of IGZO compared to the other competing TFT technologies. The curves illustrate the amount of current flowing as the gate voltage, which switches the transistor from its off state to its on state, is increased. For comparability, Sharp engineers standardized the size of the transistors.

IGZO has electron mobility nearly as high as LTPS, but its leakage current is vastly lower. The ratio of on-current to off-current is a phenomenal 109, essentially a billion to one. Low leakage current, combined with physically smaller size, makes it a clear winner for smartphones and tablets.

Low leakage current creates the potential for a new operating mode for LCD panels. Currently, the panel needs to be refreshed or “driven” continually because leakage current causes the cell to discharge. Too long a delay in refreshing the image would cause undesirable effects such as flicker or color shift. Although video images need to be refreshed continually, static images such as menu screens, documents and still photographs don’t. Because IGZO LCD panels can retain their active state longer, it’s possible to save additional power by skipping drive cycles. The benefits for tablets and phones, which often display static menus and pages, are obvious.

Because the drive need not be continuous in an IGZO display, touch-sensitive displays can become more sensitive. Noise is a natural byproduct of any transistor switching on and off, and the millions of them in a display create a steady background noise, as shown in the graph on the left, below. The voltage spike caused by touching the panel is hard to detect. By interleaving the drive and touch detection cycles, touches are much easier to detect, as shown in the next graph. For conventional finger-detection displays, the touch-sensing layer of the panel can be thinner. Touch panels tend to have difficulty detecting stylus input because the signal generated by the stylus tip is small compared to that of a fingertip. With the pauses, however, stylus detection becomes easier and more accurate, which is critical as resolution and display density increase.

KDDI, a Japanese telecommunications company, has just released the AQUOS Pad, which uses a 7-inch IGZO display. Preliminary testing suggests that its low power consumption gives as much as three times the battery life of previous model tablets.

The Aquos Phone Zeta, released from NTT Docomo, is the first smartphone with an IGZO display. Now shipping in Japan, it has a 4.9 inch 1280 x 720 display and equally rich camera, processor and memory features to make it a premium phone with excellent battery life, over four and a half times more than a previous year’s model.

Softbank Mobile will also be releasing a smartphone in Japan with an IGZO display in March. The products mentioned above are manufactured by Sharp Corporation.

Users of professional monitors are a breed apart from most business users. They include photographers, graphics designers, engineers using CAD, radiologists, video editors, and even analysts with complex charts and high-density numeric data. Some of these users employ multiple monitors when what they really need is higher display density. Sharp has unveiled its landmark PN-K321 monitor, a 32-inch (31-1/2 inch diagonal) 4K (Ultra-High Definition) monitor, with QFHD 3840 x 2160 resolution. It will be available in Japan in February. This new monitor applies IGZO’s smaller device geometry to a current problem, a real product when many others are just showing very limited products.

Today’s prototypes are tomorrow’s products – realities, not dreams. And the ones that Sharp has shown to date are tantalizing, indeed! In the latter part of 2012 Sharp displayed a 6.1-inch LCD with an astounding 498 pixel-per-inch resolution, 50 percent greater than one of the most highly touted displays of 2012. They also displayed a 13.5 OLED inch screen with the same 3840 x 2160 resolution as the 32-inch (31-1/2 inch diagonal) monitor above. On the smaller screen, that’s 326 pixels per inch, a resolution that has to be seen to be appreciated.

Sharp has also demonstrated flexible displays, using IGZO to drive OLED (organic light-emitting diodes). OLEDs don’t require backlight and their application overlaps with LCD in some areas, but each has specific strengths. Remarkably, IGZO improves the performance of both technologies.

For those who have seen the prototypes, tomorrow can’t come soon enough. The demand for resolution in all applications, from smartphones to wall-sized displays, is strong and getting stronger every day. Sharp has equipped its world-renowned Kameyama plant to produce IGZO panels, in ever-increasing size and volume.

Sharp has invited its designers, engineers and scientists to dream big, to think about a world without constraints on connectivity, with sensitive biometrics, with technologies that extrapolate the potential of IGZO, with materials that haven’t even been invented yet.

They have envisioned a future in which any working surface in your home or office can be both a display and touch-sensitive input device. Your bathroom mirror (or any room or appliance) can recognize you and adapt or adjust itself to your needs or preferences. Because IGZO lives behind glass, has extremely low quiescent power requirements, and can work cooperatively with sensitive measurement and sensing technologies, your environment can monitor your health and welfare as never before. An area on the floor can replace your bathroom scale; it can check your pulse, your temperature, calculate your body mass index, and more.

A myriad of IGZO transistors and sensors woven into a fine, fabric-like mesh can become part of our clothing. It can monitor our workout and help to diagnose our illnesses. Sensors in the kitchen can verify the freshness of our food and give us real-time information on nutrition.

The low power requirements of IGZO make self-powered devices more of a practical reality. Small devices may be solar-powered, running on ambient light. Devices that require more power may be charged wirelessly.

Japan’s Sharp Corp and Taiwan’s Foxconn are set to sign a merger deal this week after repeated delays, with the two sides set to agree on a smaller bailout than originally planned for the troubled Japanese electronics maker, two sources familiar with the talks said.

First reports of Foxconn’s interest in purchasing Sharp’s display division emerged last September, when it was reported that Apple would come on board as an investor. Foxconn made a $5.3B bid in January, and it was initially reported that the deal had been concluded last week.

Plans for iPhone assembler Foxconn to acquire Sharp, allowing it to move into making displays for future devices, now appear in significant doubt. Initially reported in Japan as a done deal, the

Sharp Corp on Friday scrambled to salvage a sale to Taiwanese electronics assembler Foxconn as its stock plunged and investors questioned whether the companies could restore trust to make their proposed marriage work after an 11th-hour breakdown in talks …

Japanese companies Sharp and Sony took second and third places, with 13 and 12.3 percent respectively, while Samsung was in sixth place at just 5.7 percent.

Apple currently uses a mix of three manufacturers for its iPad mini displays: AUO for the non-Retina model, and LG and Sharp for the Retina displays. The report claims that Apple is dropping AUO altogether, and cutting back its orders with Sharp, giving the resulting business to Samsung.

According to a DisplaySearch analyst report published in the Nikkei, via CNET, both LG and Sharp are having trouble ramping production of the iPad mini’s 7.9inch Retina display.

The report states that Sharp is struggling to produce any level of output at all. This corroborates with a Digitimes report from earlier this week. Apparently, Sharp’s Oxide TFT process is to blame for the low yield rates.

ASUS today revealed that it will launch a 31.5-inch 4k monitor late next month, its 3840×2160 pixels allowing four 1080p HD videos to display full-size on the same screen without overlap. A 4k monitor in such a small package is made possible by using an IGZO panel, whose smaller transistors enable greater pixel density, and is likely to be in the same league (and possibly from the same manufacturer) as the 32-inch Sharp panel we saw at CES.

The Wall Street Journalis out with a report today, citing sources close to Apple’s suppliers, on the company’s development of its much-rumored HDTV set. While the majority of the story is what we’ve heard from both analysts and past reports, according to WSJ, Apple is currently “still in the early stage of testing” but also in the process of evaluating several TV set designs with component suppliers. One of those suppliers is apparently Sharp:

Officials at some of Apple’s suppliers, who declined to be named, said the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has been working on testing a few designs for a large-screen high-resolution TV… Two people said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., 2317.TW +0.63% which assembles the iPhone and iPad, has been collaborating with Japan’s Sharp Corp.6753.TO +7.80% on the design of the new television.

Sharp is announcing a 32-inch 4K monitor today that uses its LGZO LCD tech expected to hit the Japanese market in February 2013. The roughly $5,500 PN-K321 monitor sports a 3,840-by-2,160 resolution and HDMI and DisplayPort inputs. According to Sharp, it will also be the thinnest monitor frame on the market at just 35mm. Even if analysts were wrong about a full-fledged TV set from Apple next year, these new Sharp displays would certainly make a pretty Thunderbolt display.

Sharp will put its IGZO displays in the hands of consumers in the near future, as it recently announced its first 7-inch tablet to take advantage of the technology’s low-power consumption features. Apple decided to not go with Sharps’ IGZO displays for its latest round of iPad launches. It instead sourced display components from AU Optronics, LG Display, and Samsung, but several reports in the past indicated Apple is interested in the technology. Apple was even recently rumored to be potentially making an investment in the failing company—much like Apple partner Foxconn previously agreed to.

According to a report from IDG, Sharp has not so surprisingly announced in its recent earnings report there is “‘material doubt’ about its ability to continue operating.” While Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn previously agreed to buy an 11-percent stake in the company, today’s report noted those negotiations continue to drag on and risk falling through as Sharp’s stock price continues dropping. To turn the company around, rumor has it Sharp will focus on its IGZO technology and displays for smartphones and tablets, while possibly seeking investments from Apple in the process:

Sharp added, however, that it still believes it can cut costs and secure enough credit to survive. Its IGZO technology for mobile displays is likely to be a key element of its business strategy…The company, whose stock has been downgraded to junk status by ratings agencies, continues to seek investments from outside companies, with media reports in Japan linking it to companies including Apple and Intel.

As far back as November 2011, Apple was rumored to invest in Sharp’s display factories in Japan. Earlier reports indicated Sharp’s IGZO displays could possibly be used in Apple’s new 7.8-inch iPad mini, but recent teardowns of the device confirm Apple is using display components from Samsung, LG, Display, and AU Optronics. Sharp, however, remains a key Apple component supplier, and it recently confirmed it is back to producing “adequate volumes” of iPhone 5 displays after facing weeks of delays leading up to the device’s launch. In August, a report from Reuters suggested Apple could provide Sharp with financial incentives to speed up production and help with high costs cutting into the company’s margins on displays.

Sharp recently announced its first tablet to use the IGZO display technology. The displays are expected to go into mass production by the end of the year, so it’s certainly possible next generation iPads could take advantage.

We heard reports in the past that Apple passed on Sharp’s IGZO display tech for the third-generation iPad due to Sharp not having the tech ready in time. Going with Sharp’s IGZO tech would have allowed for a thinner display assembly, a brighter display with less LEDs, and the ability to use a smaller battery or extend battery life specs as a result. It could have also helped shave off some of the increased weight and depth of the new iPad. These are all things we witnessed first hand when we got up close and personal with a few IGZO demos at IFA this year.  Sharp is announcing today its first 7-inch tablet to use the display technology, claiming the 1,280-by-800 IGZO display allows for 2.5 times the battery life from the tablet’s 2,040mAh battery (via ComputerWorld).

With the iPad mini launch coming later this month, it is a possibility the tech is finally ready for Apple to take advantage. Sharp also has 10-inch and 13-inch variants of the IGZO displays, but the 7-inch would of course make a lot of sense for iPad mini given what we already know about the device. Apple’s ability to increase battery life, or simply have the ability to use a smaller battery (in a smaller form factor) while maintaining battery life specs, is just one benefit. Another big benefit for Apple would be narrow borders: rumor has it—which is something we also talked about a lot in the past—the iPad mini will have a much narrower border than previous-generation iPads. Sharp told us its IGZO LCDs can be built with a bezel under 2mm, and it was showing off a demo display with a 1.75mm border at IFA. That would definitely fit the bill for the narrow-border, one-handed experience we expect from iPad mini. expand full story

We had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Sharp today at its IGZO display booth. While they would not say which Apple products would incorporate their new displays, they did seem to insinuate these were the best displays on the market, and Apple is the type of company that uses the best displays.

We heard a lot about a possible 7-inch or 7.85-inch iPad, and today there are more roughly translated reports, coming from Chinese publication MyDrivers.com (via UnwiredView), that claim Apple has a 7.85-inch iPad using a Sharp IGZO panel. There have been several reports in recent months claiming Apple is working on the device, and the The Wall Street Journalreported in February that Apple was testing displays roughly 8-inches in size. Apple looks to be at least testing these screen sizes, but we have no solid proof that anything is planned as of yet. Previous reports indicated a possible October launch for a 7-inch iPad under $250. expand full story

Jefferies & Co.’s Peter Misek is a very outspoken analyst regarding Apple’s rumored HDTV. He first claimed in November that Sharp is preparing production lines for the “iTV,” but he later said the company plans to build roughly 5 million units beginning this spring with a product launch slated for Q4 2012.

Sharp will encourage the application of its new high-resolution LCD panels to high-definition notebook PCs and LCD monitors—which are both expected to grow in demand—as well as to mobile devices. Sharp will also contribute to creating markets for attractive new products.

More news concerning a rumored television set by Apple that several analysts and some media outlets have been calling for feverishly. According to a blog post published by The Tokyo Timesnews site,Apple has commissioned Sharp to begin manufacturing large displays for an Apple-branded television set. Sharp should ramp up production in January:

American technology giant Apple is shifting partnerships in Japan towards Sharp, eyeing the production of a brand-new TV range which may be called iTV.

It’s a huge deal for Sharp because they spent significant amounts of capital to try and expand capacity and upgrade their facilities. It gives Apple a partner that they can control manufacturing and secure supply at a lower price.

IGZOSharp, the ailing Japanese consumer electronics company, is about to start mass production of its Super IGZO panels for mobile devices that will have a higher resolution and consume up to twenty percent less energy than the company"s standard IGZO panels, which already use just a fifth as much power as standard liquid crystal displays.

Super IGZO panels will go into mass production in early 2016, according to a report Friday by Nikkei. The panels will be manufactured at Sharp’s Kameyama Plant No.2 located in Mie Prefecture as the ailing company seeks to replace “some unprofitable television panels” on the conveyor belts.

Boy, is LG Display on a roll today. Not only has the company"s website inadvertently pre-announced a supposedly upcoming iMac refresh featuring an 8K resolution Retina screen, but a well-informed LG Display related official ostensibly said Apple is also “creating iPads with a 12-inch display,” based on a very power-efficient oxide LCD screen technology, Taiwanese publication ETNews reported Monday.

Oxide LCD, also known as IGZO, requires a fraction of power compared to LCD IPS screens on current iPads, while rendering more vibrant colors and deeper blacks with quick response times and high color saturation.

Apple has begun offering a 32-inch Sharp Ultra HD LED monitor in its European web stores. The 4K monitor, which retails for £3,499.00 (or roughly $5,700 USD), has been available since November, but this is the first we"ve heard of Apple selling it.

The display uses Sharp"s IGZO technology (Indium gallium zinc oxide) and has a resolution of 3840 x 2160. It offers a 1.07 billion color palette, an 800:1 contrast ratio, and comes with DisplayPort support (though it doesn"t include the Mini DP adapter)...

We already heard that Apple was looking to both LG Display and Samsung as the primary iPad mini screen supplier Sharp has been experiencing issues producing high-resolution 7.9-inch IGZO panels, causing limited supplies at launch. A new report alleges Sharp"s LCD panels are actually suffering from burn-in problems, prompting Apple once again to seek help from arch-rival Samsung...

Apple has long been rumored to be adopting Sharp"s sophisticated IGZO display technology for iPhones and iPads, but the reported ongoing yields issues have prevented it from making the switch over concerns on maintaining a minimum level of capacity.

Now, one of the benefits of using IGZO display technologies is vastly reduced power consumption. So, has Apple switched to IGZO panels for the iPad Air or not?

Apple has long wanted to make a switch from the traditional LCD IPS display technology utilized on iOS devices to Sharp"s cutting-edge IGZO technology.

Unfortunately, Apple"s been unable to offer an IGZO iPhone because the struggling Japanese giant had been facing tremendous technical hurdles preventing mass production of these sophisticated panels.

According to the latest supply chain chatter, Sharp has now successfully commercialized production of IGZO panels for smartphones and will begin manufacturing them at its Kameyama Plant Number 2 before the end of 2013...

According to a new report, upcoming iPads and MacBook laptops should feature significantly better battery life thanks to their use of IGZO display panels. The technology, which uses indium gallium zinc oxide, was co-developed by Sharp and Semiconductor Energy Laboratories.

Apple has long been rumored to adopt the use of IGZO display panels in its mobile products, but production issues and other barriers have prevented this from happening. But if today"s news holds true, that could change as early as this year thanks to supply chain advancements...

Be that as it may, it would be very atypical of Apple to pull the current-generation model from shelves after just six months. Even as the company switches to a bi-annual refresh cycle, it will still want to continue offering the iPhone 5 at a reduced price after the next-gen model becomes available. According to a new report, these supply cuts are actually the result of Apple considering IGZO displays for upcoming iOS devices...

Sharp, one of Japan"s three struggling consumer electronics giants (the other two are Sony and Panasonic), showed off its IGZO panels at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Last we heard, Apple was hoping to use IGZO tech in upcoming products. It"s interesting Sharp"s demonstration included Corning, the maker of the iPhone"s cover glass that in its third-generation boasts 40 percent higher scratch resistances and 50 percent better overall strength. Sharp"s IGZO technology requires only a fraction of energy compared to traditional LCD screens and provides richer, livelier colors, deeper blacks and overall sharper images while maintaining the thinness of in-cell display tech featured on the iPhone 5...