Four of the major Japanese consumer electronics companies are closing down their internet television businesses due to poor sales, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Sharp Corp and Mitsubishi Electric Corp have already terminated production and are selling off what’s left of the boxes, which were mostly standard TVs with an extra board inside containing the necessary processor and software to access the net. They were only sold within the Japanese domestic market. The blame for the poor sales is placed at the door of incompatible software and difficult-to- use remote controls. The other companies looking to pull out of the business are Sanyo Electric Co and NEC Home Electronics Ltd, which say they will only restart production upon receiving substantial orders, according to the report. There is certainly no trace of any of the products on any of the company’s web sites. When Sharp and Mitsubishi launched their boxes in late 1996 they were both aiming to sell 2,000 a month each but Sharp only shifted 8,000 in the last 18 months and Mitsubishi 500 fewer in the same period, according to the report. However, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co is soldiering on with production of its internet TVs, but Japanese analysts say it is unlikely to hit its annual sales target of just 2,000 devices.
