Sharp to release 'Freestyle Aquos' lightweight, ultra-thin LCD TVs

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Sharp Corp. said Thursday it will release from Sept. 15 eight types of ultra-thin "Freestyle Aquos" liquid crystal display televisions that give users greater freedom to choose a household location for installing the gadgets.

The Japanese electronics maker apparently aims to prop up the sluggish domestic TV market after last-minute demand to replace analog TVs ceased in line with the end of analog terrestrial broadcasting last month.

The lightweight models -- which come in display sizes of 60, 40, 32 and 20 inches and in three different colors -- can be more easily hung on the wall than existing flat-panel TVs, Sharp said.

The thickness of the new 32-inch model from the wall to the display's edge, including that of a hanging bracket, is only 4 centimeters with the model weighing 5.5 kilograms, down 30-50 percent from Sharp's existing 32-inch models, it said.

Customers "can choose where to place and how to use them," Sharp Executive Officer Tsuneo Nakamura told a news conference in Tokyo.

Users will not have to consider how to connect their televisions with antenna cables, as the new displays can receive signals wirelessly from separate tuners set up in other locations, it said.

The 32-inch model is expected to retail for around 110,000 yen, with the 40-inch model around 150,000 yen, Sharp officials said, adding it set a combined monthly sales goal of 45,000 units for the eight models in the initial year of their marketing.

According to research company BCN, sales of flat-panel TVs in August are falling steeply, with the volume hovering at about 60 percent of the year-earlier level.

Sharp plans to position the Freestyle Aquos as its mainstay TV product with the aim of having it account for 30 percent of its total TV sales in fiscal 2012 starting next April.