Toshiba completes full exit from laptop business

Japanese company Toshiba is among the most well-known computer manufacturers in the world and is renowned for its reasonably-priced laptops that are packed with industry-leading specifications.

But the company which has suffered setbacks in recent years has decided to permanently leave the computer manufacturing industry.

Two years ago, Toshiba sold an 80.1 per cent stake in its computer business to Sharp for $36m, with the latter changing the computer division name to Dynabook.

Sharp has now completed the acquisition of the remaining shares (19.9 per cent) last June.

Toshiba issued an official statement on August 4 announcing the completion of the deal.

Thus, Toshiba has left the PC laptop industry after nearly 35 years within this sector. Toshiba built the first laptop in 1985 as the T1100 and it contained internal rechargeable batteries with a 3.5-inch drive and 256 kilobytes memory.

A report from Computer World stated that Toshiba officials were not confident in the success of the device, but decided to eventually release it and began selling it for approximately $2,000.

Business boomed in the 1990s and early 2000s, and Toshiba became one of the world’s largest manufacturers of computers.

But with competitors entering the market and the lack of new features on its devices, Toshiba’s star faded rapidly.

According to a Reuters report, Toshiba laptops sales fell from 17.7 million units in 2011 to 1.4 million units in 2017 when it sold its stake to Sharp.

This story originally appeared on MENA Tech