Society

Japan's Sharp bets on VR hardware as 'metaverse' takes off

Mar 08 (Nikkei) - Years of quietly developing high-powered virtual reality displays is starting to pay off for Japan's Sharp as the company make an aggressive bet on the "metaverse."

Sharp forayed into VR development in 2016, when it was acquired by Taiwanese electronics titan Foxconn and began devoting more resources to higher-margin, niche markets like virtual reality and automotive solutions.

The segment finally started to generate meaningful revenue for Sharp last year, sources familiar with the company's progress said, with monthly shipments of high-end VR displays exceeding 1 million units since the October-December quarter. The company has also become the single biggest supplier of displays for the Oculus Quest 2 headset made by Facebook parent Meta, sources added.

Revenue for Sharp's VR display shipments came to more than $200 million for all of 2021, based on an estimated cost of around $50 per display, according to Nikkei Asia's analysis and interviews. Displays and processor chips are most expensive components in VR devices.

VR demand has been surging due to the growth of remote working and higher gaming demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, while a slight easing in the global chip and component shortage that has plagued the tech industry has allowed producers to keep up. ...continue reading

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