14 DAY TRIAL // Sharp had a good thing going with the IGZO display technology (indium gallium zinc oxide), but it didn't get much of a chance to make anything out of it because of all the problems that slammed it over the past couple of years.
Even now, the corporation is firing 5,000 people in order to offset the most massive yearly loss in 100 years (we have documented it here).
Fortunately for the company, it isn't out of the game yet, even if it isn't out of the woods either.
Sharp is now ready to mass-produce IGZO LCD screens (liquid crystal displays) for notebooks with diagonals of 11.6 inches to 15.6 inches.
Thus, we may be seeing both ultrabooks and gaming notebooks equipped with them in the near future, or at least in the mid-term (provided Sharp doesn't completely crash and burn in the meantime, like Elpida and all HDD makers besides Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba).
IGZo technology gives LCDs smaller thin-film transistors and increased light transmittance.
Among other things, this allows for sharper, finer text and higher realism in all sorts of scenes and images.
Compared to normal Full HD panels (1920 x 1080 pixels), IGZO displays of 14 inches, for example, have a pixel density that is 67% higher, of 262 ppi.
And since light transmittance is also superior, energy consumption is lowered as well, because the power needed to drive the liquid crystals isn't as high.
Sadly, we do not know exactly which notebook makers will use the 11.6-inch, 14-inch and 15.6-inch IGZO LCDs.
We do know that smartphones, tablets, notebooks of other sizes and even 4K displays will get IGZo eventually, provided, again, that Sharp rebounds somehow, from a financial standpoint. IGZO is many things, but not a miracle worker. It isn't likely to solve the company's problems on its own.