Every person even remotely related to computers and laptops knows Toshiba. The Japanese tech company debuted its first laptop in 1986. And now is the time when it is saying final goodbyes to the laptop business in August 2020.
From taking the personal computing industry by storm with the first-ever public laptop to watching it all turn to dust, it has been a crazy ride for Toshiba.
Toshiba made history with its T1100 notebook laptop and opened the gates of laptop business in the world of personal computing. The company stood its ground in the PC market for about two decades with its fine laptops, but things started to take a turn from the start of this decade.
Toshiba was “leading innovation” until…
It’s true that Toshiba was the pioneer of the laptop business who gave inspiration to all the other tech companies like Dell, HP, and Apple. Unfortunately, the champ couldn’t keep up in a market that it itself built.
When Dell, HP, Lenovo, Apple, Asus came up with faster, smarter, and better laptop designs, Toshiba lost its balance at once and couldn’t get it back. (sad reacts only)
From Toshiba to Dynabook
The tech giant company started losing its sales since the start of 2011. It took Toshiba about 6 to 7 years and millions of negative dollars to confess its fall.
From reigning over the laptop business with record sales of $17.7 million to hitting the rock bottom with 2017 annual sales numbers of only $1.9 million, Toshiba knew it was time to move on.
So, in 2018, the company sold 80.1% shares of its personal computing arm to a company called Sharp for $36 million. The new Japanese entrepreneurs put their own spin on Toshiba’s laptop venture by renaming it to Dynabook.
Toshiba has recently gone full circle and transferred the rest of its 19.9% shares to Sharp on the 4th of August. This effectively put Sharp in total control of the Toshiba computer division, ending their run. Consequently, Dynabook is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sharp.
Moral: Beat the competition before it beats you!
The story of Toshiba’s laptop business has similar parallels to the rise and fall of Nokia in the cell phone industry and carries some of the same lessons. It doesn’t matter if you sparked innovation in the computer, cell phone, or electronics industry. It makes no difference if you were the one, the oldest, the most loyal, whatsoever. The only thing that matters is, are you the best? And if the answer is ‘no’, prepare to face obsolescence and slow, gradual demise. The market will go on, the industry will have better vendors, and consumers will move on. Yeah, that sucks, I know!
Toshiba has seen it firsthand, so don’t be like Toshiba. If you want to stay in the game, be the best at it!
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