Sharp Corp. reported Wednesday that its first-quarter profit rose 1.4 percent, driven by sales of LCD TVs and mobile phones.

Net income rose to 24.2 billion yen in April-June, up from 23.9 billion yen a year earlier, the Osaka-based company said. Sales increased 15 percent to 796 billion yen.

Sharp is Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays. It joins Samsung Electronics Co. and LG.Philips LCD Co. in reporting higher earnings from LCDs, which are widening their lead over rival plasma technology in the flat-panel TV market.

Sharp President Mikio Katayama has said he'll speed up construction of factories in Mexico and Poland to expedite deliveries to the U.S., where the company lags behind Samsung and Sony Corp.

Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, rose 4.5 percent to 42.3 billion yen, Sharp said. The company stuck with its earnings forecasts for the business year ending next March.

Sharp also maintained this business year's LCD TV sales target at 9 million units. Sales of the TVs rose 39 percent to 1.56 million units in the first quarter from a year earlier.

Industry prices declined about 30 percent, while prices of its own LCD sets gained 4 percent, Sharp said.

Tokyo-based Sony, set to report its earnings Thursday, has forecast LCD TV shipments of 10 million units for this business year, up 67 percent from a year earlier.