Toshiba exits laptop making business after 35 years

[HEXUS]

It has sold its remaining 19.9 per cent stake in the Dynabook laptop brand to Sharp.

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[ik9000]

anyone remember that tedios Toshiba advert? I think it put more people off. More choice leaves the market. Sad times.

[cheesemp]

Interesting to see Foxconn buying up control of a PC maker by the back door. Is this to help them sell Foxconn built laptops without the Foxconn name to avoid the fate of Huawei?

[Core2Extreme]

^It's probably a more traditional way to try to grow their market share. Sharp is still a pretty decent brand name, despite not having been the same for the past decade and no longer actually indicating quality. But there's enough people who will see a Sharp TV, microwave, or maybe laptop and consider it, that it's feasible they could grow a market. It's a lot easier than with the Foxconn brand that regular people have never heard of. Also probably sits easier with the Apples and Lenovos of the world who are using Foxconn products to have it be less obvious that they are now competitors in the laptop space.

It reminds me of when I first saw Samsung laptops, and thought, why would I buy a Samsung laptop? They make appliances, not home electronics. A few years later, everyone was buying Samsung phones, tablets, TVs, and sometimes, yes, laptops. But at least I'd heard of Samsung at the time. Foxconn probably wants to replicate some version of that success with the Sharp brand.

[ik9000]

Foxconn probably wants to replicate some version of that success with the Sharp brand.

So you're saying Foxconn want to be at the Sharp end of the market space?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Foxconn is Taiwanese.

[AGTDenton]

I have a feeling they are going to shrink considerably beyond this. They've been struggling for a number of years now

[thewelshbrummie]

Unfortunate but not surprising. Their high-end laptops always looked compromised but they had a very good low-end market. Bought 3 cheap Toshiba Windows devices between 2011-2015 (all £250 or less) & for light computing they were really good value for money (one netbook, one tablet one convertible).

Obviously nailing the low-end market isn't a viable strategy so the ned result isn't surprising.