Sharp Eyeing US Return of Premium Aquos Brand, Says Sanduski
Sharp is planning to bring higher-end TV models to the U.S. market under the Aquos brand, after announcing Tuesday a line of mainstream 4K and HD Roku TVs for its 2022 return to this country, Sharp Home Electronics President Jim…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Sanduski emailed Tuesday. The Japanese electronics firm hoped to return to the U.S. market with its own high-end TVs in 2019 but scrapped plans (see 1910090016) when it couldn’t meet a holiday season deadline. Sharp’s initial focus in 2022 is on mainstream models in small, medium and large screen sizes, he said. Sharp chose Roku’s operating system for its smart TV platform in the U.S. (see 2201030051) due to its No. 1 market share and marketing partnership opportunities, Sanduski said. The agreement isn’t exclusive, and Sharp markets Android TVs in other parts of the world, but its focus for the U.S. is on Roku TV, he said. The mid- to large-size Roku TVs are being assembled in Mexico by Foxconn, which owns two-thirds of Sharp; the smaller models are being imported from China, he said. Sharp isn’t exhibiting at CES 2022 “for a variety of reasons,” he said, but it plans to be on the CES show floor “at a future date.”