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Toshiba Laptop Business Is No More, as Sharp Takes Over

By Laura Tucker
Keyboard With Toshiba Company Logo And Buy Text On The Keys. Editorial Conceptual 3d Rendering

If you own a Toshiba laptop, you can officially call it a relic. After selling off the majority of its laptop business two years ago, Toshiba has now given up the remaining shares it held. It’s now completely out of the business it helped pioneer.

The First Toshiba Laptop

Back in 1985, Toshiba launched the T1100, its first IBM-compatible laptop. It was considered an integral part of the laptop boon. The features of the T1100 helped set the standard of the basic laptop: internal rechargeable batteries, LCD screen, floppy drive, and IBM compatibility.

The first T1100 had 256 KB memory, 640 x 200 pixel reflective LCD screen that could display up to 80 characters, and a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. It was 12.2 x 2.5 x 12 inches, weighed nine pounds, and cost $1,999.

How far did they come? The most expensive Toshiba laptop offered on Amazon right now is the Toshiba Dynabook Tecra A50 Laptop. It has a 15.6″ FHD display, Intel Core i7-856U, up to 4.6GHz, 32GB RAM, 2TB NVMe SSD, DVDRW, HDMI, VGA, card reader, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Windows 10 Pro. It’s 10.2 x 14.9 x 0.95 inches and weighs 4.85 pounds. It costs $1,125.

Toshiba Becomes Dynabook

Did you notice the “Dynabook” in the name of the recent laptop? That was the result of the 2018 sale of 80.1 percent of the laptop business to Sharp. It was renamed Dynabook at that time.

Laptop With Toshiba Corporation Logo On The Screen. Modern Workplace Conceptual Editorial 3d Rendering
Laptop with Toshiba Corporation logo on the screen. Modern workplace conceptual editorial 4K animation

Toshiba recently put out a press release explaining that it had “transferred the 19.9% of the outstanding shares in Dynabook Inc. that it held to Sharp Corporation. As a result of this transfer, Dynabook has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sharp.”

It further explained that “Sharp exercised a call option for the remaining outstanding shares of Dynabook held by Toshiba, and Toshiba has completed procedures for their transfer.” This took place this past June, two years to the month after the first 80.1% was sold off, despite the company just releasing the news.

It’s not known what led to this death knell of a laptop pioneer, but it became one of many, and when you think of laptop companies, your mind just doesn’t go to Toshiba. It’s more likely to go to Lenovo, HP, Dell, and even Apple.

Not to mention the fact that tablets have now taken away some of that portable computer market. Avoiding the argument of whether a tablet can replace a laptop, it’s hard to argue with the knowledge that there are people now who opt for a tablet or a hybrid instead of a laptop.

And that’s an area where Toshiba is still in the game. It has retained its tablet business. For the Toshiba laptop business to be sold off the way it was, it seems it was either no longer competitive, or it sees something bigger in the future for tablets.

Iff you’re looking to replace your old Toshiba, check out the four best gaming laptops under $1000 in 2020 and five of the best Linux laptops in 2020.

Image Credit: Stock photo keyboard with Toshiba company logo and Stock photo laptop with Toshiba Corporation logo via DepositPhotos

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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