Last month, Sharp, the known electronics brand, had announced that it would begin the production of face masks in Japan. Now, these were finally commercially available earlier today (21st April 2020) but due to immense demand and traffic, it seems like the network structure has collapsed with crashes affecting the company’s servers for the official website and its smart IoT devices network as well.

According to a new report, the digital infrastructure collapse has even extended to home appliances made by Sharp. This includes air conditioners that connect to the internet and other products that can be controlled via a smartphone facing various issues at the moment. Similarly, it is almost impossible to access the official Sharp online store due to the heavy demand.

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A Sharp representative issues a statement and apologized for the troubles users are facing with the website and their smart home gadgets. The official stated that the concentrated traffic to the server that handles user accounts for both online store and smart home products was the reason for the dual sided malfunction. Furthermore, Sharp is currently working on fixing the issue.

The mask that caused the entire ordeal is just an ordinary looking face mask that is commonly used in Japan and other Asian countries. However, it is different since it has a noticeable Sharp logo branding on the bottom. The mask costs 2,980 Yen (roughly about 28 US Dollars) for a box of 50 with 680 Yen (roughly 6 US Dollars) shipping charges as well. Customers are also restricted from buying more than 3 boxes at a time to prevent hoarding and as of recently, the website is still offline.

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(Via)

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