Sharp Corp. said Thursday it will start selling mobile phones in China later this month aimed at affluent consumers.
The company, Japan's biggest mobile phone maker for the domestic market, will begin selling the FH9010C handset in China in June, Sharp said without giving further details.
"We will utilize the Sharp brand recognition gained by our Aquos television to target affluent customers," Yoshisuke Hasegawa, corporate executive director in charge of Sharp's mobile phone business, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo.
Osaka-based Sharp aims to expand its handset sales overseas to offset decreasing sales in Japan. The volume of domestic mobile phone shipments in April fell 23.3 percent from a year earlier, marking a third straight month of year-on-year declines, according to Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.