Toshiba struggles to regain market share
What’s going on with
Toshiba?
After seemingly averting the worst, Toshiba is climbing to regain its
footing in 2018 amongst its peers. Things got slippery for a while but they
seem to be heading in the right direction again.
The global financial crisis of 2008 helped start the internal Toshiba crisis which ultimately led to the reorganization of its PC unit among other things. The accounting crisis in 2015 and the effect of the bankruptcy of Westinghouse helped force Toshiba to stop producing consumer PC’s and instead shifted its focus to business PC’s. Toshiba sold various enterprises to cover losses during that time.
Toshiba apparently is
going to sell their memory chip unit for a tidy sum in June, 2018 to a
consortium led by Bain Capital allowing it to use its proceeds to further
recover losses created by the bankruptcy of its US nuclear unit. It appears as
though Toshiba is pivoting nicely although it remains to be seen if they can
return to the same heights they rose to previously.
During the time of
crisis Toshiba maintained its agreements with customers who bought their PC’s
before the decision to stop making consumer PC’s. They also continued selling
their consumer PC’s in Japan. In the future they could very easily return to
producing consumer PC’s when or if it becomes financially feasible again. Fast forward to 2018.
Toshiba has unveiled a new line of business PC’s. All utilize Intel’s 8th-gen CPU’s with DDR4 RAM and a 1TB SSD. New models on the market include the Portege X20W-E and X30-E, the Tecra X40-E, A50-E and Z50-E, as well as the Satellite Pro A50-E and R50-E. The non-LTE machines entered the market in March, while the LTE versions enter in April.
While Toshiba awaits
the close of the sale of its memory chip unit, it has stabilized and staunched
the flow of blood. It also retains 40% of its Toshiba Memory and will still
benefit from growth in that industry. That notwithstanding, some feel that
Toshiba should not sell their memory chip unit as it is still quite profitable.
If the sale goes through, it’s an $18 billion dollar day for Toshiba. As of
April 3, 2018, Toshiba announced that they anticipated the sale going through
in June, 2018.
Toshiba America is still quite active in various arenas, including power and energy, oil and gas, mining and minerals, the Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions, as well as the previously mentioned business laptops and printers, hard drives and storage, and of course their memory chip unit.
While it’s been a
rollercoaster ride for Toshiba and its partners, Toshiba has maintained the
support of its consumer PC’s and unveiled newer, sleeker business PC’s while
taking evasive and necessary action to right the ship. Toshiba parts still have
a large share of the market as many of their machines from the old days still
work but sometimes need a boost and the newer models will one day need support.
Impact Computer’s has maintained their inventory of Toshiba laptop parts and
will be introducing newer parts as they become available.