The Mainichi Daily News reports that Sharp may also sell to U.S. and Chinese customers an e-reader software distribution service that will start off being sold in Japan, with the sale of the company’s e-reader, called "Galapagos."

The newspaper speculates that software distribution services and 3D smartphones will help Sharp distinguish itself from its smartphone rivals.

Sharp is not the first phone capable of going 3D – Samsung introduced its W960 3D handset in the spring, but the Android (News - Alert)-based Galapagos has a larger display at 3.8 inches and will come preloaded with a collection of 3D games, according to TMCnet.

Japanese wireless carrier Softbank (News - Alert) will begin carrying two versions of the phone next month: a slate version (the 003SH model) with just a touchscreen, and one with a full QWERTY keypad (the 005SH) that slides out. According to Engadget, both handsets will come with 3.8-inch, 800-by-480 pixel displays that have the same autostereoscopic technology as the glasses-free 3D display on the upcoming Nintendo 3DS. Both versions of the phone will run on Android version 2.2, include Flash Player 10.1 and boast 1GHz Snapdragon processors and 512MB of RAM (News - Alert) (News - Alert). The 003SH slate version has a 9.6 megapixel camera, while the 005SH slider version with QWERTY keyboard will have an eight megapixel camera. Both handsets will also be capable of recording 720p video. The phones will run Sharp's user interface called TapFlow.

Digital Trends reports that the news about Sharp’s push into 3D phones comes as Panasonic (News - Alert) may try to sell Android-based phones in the United States.

In other company news, Sharp recently announced some new product additions: a 2.7-inch transflective display, 2.94-inch display, a 6.0-inch display, and 1.35 inch Memory LCDs are also available.

The Sharp Memory LCD technology has been designed to deliver high-contrast, high-resolution monochrome display that allows for denser content than many other types of same-sized LCDs, as well as eliminate ghost or sweeping images, which was the only area which required enhancement. It essentially stores one-bit memory in each pixel, and is a solution for e-book readers, smart meters, medical monitoring devices, white goods, fish finders, and other applications, TMCnet reports.