Toshiba Throttling Down Consumer PC Efforts [Update]

Toshiba has always made solid PC hardware, but finding one of their devices may be a bit tough moving forward. Toshiba is announcing they are scaling down their consumer PC efforts, and pulling out of some markets entirely. The company is also cutting 900 jobs, or just over 20% of its non-manufacturing PC workforce.

In a press release, Toshiba noted they will instead concentrate on their enterprise business. In expanding their product range and actively seeking new customers, Toshiba is anticipating a 50% growth in B2B by 2016.

As for you and I, the consumer, Toshiba put it this way:

Toshiba will transition from the current business model, which is volatile and over-dependent on sales scale and volume, withdraw from unprofitable markets, and optimize sales bases in low profit countries and regions.

Toshiba also notes they're moving ahead with the Internet of Things, where they believe they can make inroads with social infrastructure, healthcare, home appliances, and cloud solutions.

Developed consumer markets, like the UK and US, will still see Toshiba products on the shelves. Emerging markets won't be so lucky, as Toshiba notes they're pulling out of the consumer markets there altogether. The company feels they can better collaborate with enterprise and consumers in solid markets, and the shaky PC market seems to be a bit to tenuous in other areas of the world.

It's not yet clear if Toshiba will throttle down their efforts in the consumer sector, though. It's also not certain if Toshiba is packaging Chromebooks with this PC news, where they've just begun making a name for themselves. We've reached out to Toshiba for comment on these points, and will update this article accordingly.

Update: A Toshiba spokesperson has confirmed to us that further details on which markets will be affected is incoming, but their US consumer business will remain as-is.

Source: Toshiba