By Wang Shen
Foxconn has invested in the Sharp Corporation to develop a smart home system with the focus on an 8K resolution and plans to combine it with 5G communication technology, as reported by the Yicai Media Group on Thursday.
8K resolution is the current highest ultra high definition television resolution in digital television and digital cinematography.
On August 12, 2016, the Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd., the parent company of the Foxconn Technology Group, invested 388.8 billion yen (about $3.8 billion) in the Sharp Corporation for 66 percent of its shares. Foxconn planned to shift the company’s strategy from traditional to intelligent manufacturing and started the transformation of its industrial internet service.
In 2017, the Chinese color TV market was depressed, but Sharp was the fastest growing TV brand, which was due to Sharp’s advantages of its century-old reputation and advanced technology of an 8K resolution. Combining Foxconn’s supply chain with Sharp’s strategy of a lower price but a higher quality, Sharp had regained its lost market share.
Sharp’s resources concentrated on merchandising, developing new products and marketing. To help Sharp improve itself, Hon Hai took charge of purchasing and manufacturing, used Foxconn’s resources to increase productivity, as well as to accelerate the commercialization and marketization of its technology.
The 8K resolution is a hot topic this year, which has helped to accelerate its promotion. As estimated by IHS Markit, the leading source of information and insight, the number of 8K televisions in the market will reach 100,000 units in 2018, and the number will increase to 2.6 million units by 2020.
During the Appliance & Electronics World Expo 2018, Sharp published the 8K camera and tried to break the bottleneck in the application of an 8K resolution into various industries. Chen Zhenguo, the vice president of the Foxconn Technology Group, suggested that the 8K camera and television would be used in the fields, such as the preservation of cultural relics and modern agriculture, and would be widely applied to medical treatment and intelligent manufacturing.
Sharp Corp. will finally achieve the combination of the 8K resolution and 5G technology. Foxconn and Sharp hope to change people’s lives from various aspects, including work, education, entertainment, social network, safety, health, property transaction and so forth.
At present, Sharp is not only focusing on the color TV industry but transforming itself into a provider of a smart home system. In the plans of Foxconn and Sharp, the smart home system should be based on AIoT, which means artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). AIoT refers to artificial intelligence products with strong learning abilities, which could integrate artificial intelligence as well as develop its capabilities with Foxconn and Sharp’s hardware manufacturing capabilities.
