Internet
ò Oricon, a publishing company of music hit charts, said it has withdrawn from Japan's MC music download market, explaining its decision as a result of iTunes and the iPod ôoutrunningö the company. Oricon said that it will instead post links from its web site to online music stores while concentrating on music downloads for mobile phones. Oricon's online store has lost nearly $214,000 each month since its launch in March of 2005, and has raised its monthly download volume of 90,000.
Hardware
ò Sharp Corp. announced its move to boost its solar cell production capacity by 100 MW to 600 MW per year. With an investment of about 3.5 billion yen ($29.8 million) in its plant in Nara, the company said it is now ready to start full-scale production of 600 MW per year in November 2006. An annual output of 600 MW is reportedly the world's largest capacity. Sharp has expanded the output before, once in January 2005 and once in November 2005 to 400 and 500 MW respectively. Despite the ongoing concerns for a shortage in Si materials, Sharp steadily advanced its preparation to boost production by signing a long-term purchasing contract of Si wafers for solar cells with Sumitomo Corp. and through other efforts. Sharp said it will effectively use Si materials by reducing the thickness of cells and enhancing its thin-film solar cell lineup, while improving yields and fortifying production lines as well.
ò Fujifilm Holdings pointed to China as the country that may overtake Europe in four years as its third-biggest market, on demand for LCD televisions. The companyÆs top official noted the rising demand in the Chinese economy, which is growing four times faster than the EU nations. According to DisplaySearch, LCD TV shipments in China may grow to 22.6 million units in 2010 from 4.6 million units this year. The Tokyo-based company forecasts rapid growth in its flat-panel components businesses, assured by an earlier venture with China's SVA Electron Co. that makes color filters for LCDs. The company's sales in China posted a 7 percent growth to $1.5 billion in the year ended March 31, compared with a 13 percent rise in its European revenues, to $2.6 billion. The company said its overall revenue went up by 5.5 percent to 2.6 trillion yen ($23 billion), with Japan still remaining its biggest market, accounting for 62.5 percent of worldwide sales. The rest have the Americas taking 17 percent, Europe 11.5 percent, and Asia 8.9 percent.
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