Word on the street is that there is a merger in the air among Toshiba, Vaio and Fujitsu and their PC divisions. If the merger took place, it would allow them to control over 30% of the Japanese market. Lenovo currently holds 26.3% of that market.
There is certainly some potential good to come out of this. All three names are recognized, and make unique products. I’m writing this article currently from a Toshiba laptop, one from their Satellite series. My wife also uses a Toshiba Satellite series laptop, and the family shares a Toshiba Encore 2 tablet. Toshiba currently builds laptops with good internals, and which are priced much lower than competitor laptops and tablets sitting next to them. They may not have the “build quality” of Apple or what-not. But they are impressive devices for a fraction of the cost of many other devices. On the other hand, I’ve heard educators boast Toshiba’s build quality for their Chromebook series of laptops. When you consider how cheaply many Chromebooks are made, it doesn’t take much to build a tougher one. It was dicussed in the context of durability of Chromebooks for students.
Toshiba, and brands like Toshiba, are important for lower-income families and individuals, and of course education. They are making efficient and inexpensive products, and that’s a good thing, despite what Apple would have us believe. (I know, I smirked on Apple, but seriously)
That said, I for one am hopeful that if this comes through that it will only strengthen Toshiba’s brand and products. We can dream.
—
Further reading: But then there’s this conversation regarding Toshiba…
Onyx Dragon Productions 