Saving a Sinking Ship: Samsung Bails Struggling Sharp

Apparently, not only Google has a plan for world domination.

Samsung has bought a 3% stake worth $112 million to stave Sharp which is experiencing financial difficulties lately.

This move by Samsung is seen by analysts as adding fuel to the fire in the Samsung-Apple rivalry. Sharp supplies a third of Apple's display panels while most of Samsung's display panels are manufactured by affiliate Samsung Display Co.

It is interesting to note that last year, during the climax of the bitter Apple-Samsung Patent War, the Cupertino company distanced itself from the South Korean giant and started ordering parts for its iPads and iPhones from different suppliers.

With Samsung now a stakeholder of Sharp, more courtroom battles between Samsung and Apple can be expected more in the future.

Too, last year, Sharp accepted a $120 million investment from processor giant Qualcomm in a deal that cited that the two companies will collaborate in developing new power-saving screens for mobile phones based on Sharp's proprietary IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) display technology.

Sharp has seen better days since the company has suffered from the rise of the Japanese Yen and the shift of consumers from big television displays to more compact tablets and smartphones. The massive investments placed by Sharps on its television division failed to pay off. Major operating losses and retrenchment ensued.

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. Accepting the bailout from Samsung, Reuters reported that Samsung will have "a smooth supply of large-sized TV panels and help bolster the Japanese company’s chances of survival."

While the two Asian companies have done business in the past, this deal is expected to further cement the business relationship between the two.

Without the Samsung acquisition, it has been predicted by business analysts that Sharp will see a painful $4.5 billion loss this year and further lay-offs for employees.

This move by Samsung will certainly not go unnoticed in Mountain View. Recent reports indicate that Google is worried about Samsung becoming too powerful and might renegotiate the Android arrangement of the two giants.

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TabletPCs to Further Reign in 2013

See What TabletPCs Will Grace This Year

2012 has been a year of great technological wonders- including the rise of the smartphones and tablet computers. Mobile trends are expected to create bigger hypes this year, and we anticipate tech firms to get a leg up in the gizmo market competition by releasing products with a God-father imperative saying: “This is something you shouldn’t miss.”

This time, we look into the great possibility of tablet computers owning up the pie in the tech industry. Let’s see which tabletPCs are likely to reign in 2013, and what sorts of features make the cut:

1.    Apple iPad 5.

Every year, Apple releases new models of its device. And this tradition stretches across all devices- Macs, iPads, iPhones, and etc. This year, the release of the next iPad model is unmistakable. Rumor has it that the iPad will sport a thinner and lighter build, but this is not news to all. Let not this article brew another set of speculations on Apple’s advantage: Let’s just see what happens.

2.    Acer Iconia B1

Unlike the anonymous insiders from Apple, we have a reputable source backing up Acer. According to Wall Street Journal, Acer plans to leach into the top spot by releasing an equally powerful tablet but on a slate price of just $99. Though the market changes have been more dynamic in the past few months, and cool new features sell like hotcakes, a lot of consumer choices are stifled by financial limitations. Unless companies do robust changes on its business road maps, Iconia B1, despite perceptions, can rise above the fame game.

3.    Three New Microsoft Surface Tablets

Detesting barriers on innovation, Microsoft swore that it will be more upbeat in releasing gadgets with a potent mixture of great design and superb functions. What with the successful buy-out of the 1st MS Surface, why not exponentially increase the chances by releasing three MS Surface models? For now, we’re content to hear fantastic integrations with the upcoming tablets: Nvidia Tegra 3 chip, unreleased AMD Temash APU, varied screen sizes and more!

4.    HTC Windows RT tablets

It looks like HTC is ready to heat its engines once again. Bloomberg (via Engadget) says that it HTC plans to introduce two tablets this year- one that is 12 inches and the other, 9 inches. The gizmos will run Windows RT and will have Qualcomm chips under its hood. Potentially, the 7-inch device can morph into what the tech industry calls a ‘phablet’, a hybrid of a phone and a tablet. Now, isn’t that phabulous?

5.    Asus Android Tablets

Banking less on its Microsoft devices, Asus reveals that its Android-powered devices are the ones that bring profits. And this was proven true when Asus, in partnership with Google, created the highly successful Google Nexus 7. The Taiwanese company expects to ship around 12 million Android tablets in 2013. Its supplies went up by 91% from 6.3 million units last year. According to Asus CFO David Chang, he hopes Asus will snag the top 2 spot in respects of combined shipments of notebooks and tablets this year.

6.    Samsung Galaxy Note 7

The next Samsung tablet is rumored to have a screen resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels.  It will possibly come with a 1.6GHz Exynos 4412 chip.  The number of tablets Samsung will release in the course of the whole year is still something unknown to many of us.

There you go! These are just some of the possible tablets that will emerge in 2013. Let’s see which of them will truly materialize in the ever fierce tablet market. But doubt aside, we’re pretty certain it’s going to be a bombastic year of technological advancements ahead!

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