Sharp has unveiled a television built into a liquid-crystal display that can double as a digital-photo frame via a PC card slot.
The TV set, added to Sharp's low-cost Aquos line of LCD TVs, is part of the company's aim to build flat-panel TVs into a core profit maker.
"You no longer have to turn on your PC to see digital photos. It's an alternative to PCs that fits more nicely into a living room," Toshishige Hamano, a Sharp corporate executive director, told a news conference in Tokyo.
LCD TVs are thin enough and light enough to hang on a wall or move around easily, and manufacturers hope their slender frame will make them a hit in Japan's notoriously cramped living spaces.
But Sharp, which aims to stop using conventional picture tubes in its televisions by 2005, said the market is growing more slowly than it had expected, forcing it to trim its domestic LCD-TV sales targets for the fiscal year of March 2002 to 600,000 units. Sharp's original expectation was 700,000 units.
The 13-inch model will go on sale August 1 in Japan for about US$830, slightly pricier than a conventional 13-inch Aquos.
Sharp also unveiled its Smartlink device, which can transmit wireless TV and video signals to a TV set at distances up to 98 feet, enabling viewers to move the screen to any part of the house.
The Smartlink is made up of two devices a little bigger than a paperback book: one attached to the screen and the other to a TV tuner, DVD player, satellite-broadcast tuner, or other receiver or playback device.
Sharp added that, unlike Sony's wireless Airboard launched in September, the Smartlink can hook up to any television or other device with a video slot.
The Smartlink will go on sale in Japan on August 3 and will list for about US$400.
