Toshiba officially stopped selling laptops, ending 35 years of operation

Toshiba quietly left the laptop market once and for all, ending 35 years of operation by transferring the rest of its laptop business to Sharp. Two years ago, Toshiba sold an 80.1% stake in the laptop segment to Sharp for $ 36 million, and Sharp changed its name to Dynabook.

Sharp made the purchase of the remaining 19.1% stake in June. Toshiba said the deal was officially completed on August 4. “As a result of this deal, Dynabook has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sharp”, said Toshiba.

The Japanese company produced its first laptop in 1985. It was a T1100 laptop that boasts an internal rechargeable battery and a 3.5-inch floppy drive, which sold for $ 2,000. During the 1990s and early 2000s, Toshiba was one of the world’s leading laptop manufacturers.

However, when many other companies got into the game, Toshiba started to fall short due to the lack of uniqueness of the products. By the time of selling Sharp, Toshiba’s laptop market share had fallen from its peak in 2011 with 17.7 million units sold, to just 1.4 million in 2017.

Reference: theverge