Toshiba

One of the world’s top 20 semiconductor sales leaders is Toshiba Corporation, a Japanese multinational corporation based in Tokyo, Japan. Toshiba is engaged in a wide variety of businesses and interests, from infrastructure to the manufacture of consumer products, Components and other electronic devices.
Ranked as the world’s fifth biggest manufacturer of personal computer products, Toshiba is also engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of: high-end electronic and electrical products; electronic components and materials; information and communication equipment and systems; and internet-base solutions among others.
Toshiba continues to strive for excellence and deliver the personal computing needs of the home, office and mobile markets through a broad range of personal computers, notebooks, netbooks, PC servers and business communication systems - backed by Toshiba’s extensive experience and expertise in this industry gained from several decades of relevant corporate history.
Corporate Milestones and History
Toshiba is ranked as one of the top manufacturers that garnered one of the top 20 market shares in the industry. This is mainly due to Toshiba’s total commitment to deliver a higher quality of life to the consumers of the world through its various innovative products and services. This commitment to quality has been evident through the years since the early days of Toshiba’s forerunner companies, to the formal creation of Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd from where the term Toshiba was derived.

1875 to 1938
Toshiba is a result of a merger between two industry giants in their respective fields. The first company is Tanaka Seizo-sho (or Tanaka Engineering Works), the manufacturer of Japan’s first telegraphic equipment. The company named after founder Hisashige Tanaka was later changed to Shibaura Seisaku-sho (Shibaura Engineering Works) which was Japan’s largest manufacturer of heavy electrical devices during those periods. The company produced Japan’s first radio receivers and completed Japan’s first 150 kW broadcast transmitter for NHK.
The second forerunner company is Hakenetsu-sha & Co. Ltd, the firs plant of its kind in Japan that manufacturers incandescent lamps. When the company diversified to consumer products, manufacturing Japan’s first electric fans and induction motors, it was renamed Tokyo Denki or the Tokyo Electric Co. The company also invented the “double coil electric bulb” and started the development and manufacture of cathode ray tubes.

1939 to 1950
In 1939, the two companies merged to form Tokyo Shibaura Denki or Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd as a manufacturer of integrated electrical equipments. Together, they built and manufactured Japan’s first fluorescent lamps in 1940 and completed Japan’s first radars in 1942.

1951 to 1975
This period brought a lot of “firsts” for the corporation. Toshiba completed Japan’s first TV broadcast transmitters and microwave relay systems for television in 1952. In 1954, Toshiba developed the TAC digital computer, which will be the forerunner in Toshiba’s involvement in the personal computer industry. The company later brought entertainment to a new level with the introduction of Japan’s first transistorized televisions. In 1970, the company introduced the world’s first color video phone and the world’s first expanded IC color TV the year later. In 1975, the company celebrated its first 100 years.

1976 to 1990
Toshiba release the first Japanese word processor in 1978, the same year that the corporation formally adapted Toshiba Corporation as its official name. The company once again introduced several innovative products in different fields including the introduction of the world’s first laptop personal computers in 1985 that brought the computing world into a new age.

1991 to 2000
In 1995, Toshiba introduced the sub-notebook personal computers and developed the DVD format high-density optical disk. The format soon became standardized and Toshiba released the first of its DVD-ROM Optical storage devices.

2001 to 2008
Toshiba commercialized the first HDD and DVD video recorders fro an excellent multimedia experience for home, business and personal users. In collaboration with SanDisk, Toshiba developed the 8-gigabit flash memory chip. Sales in 2007 skyrocketed to a cumulative number of 60 million notebook PCs. In 2008, Toshiba conceded and dropped its HD DVD format in favor of the Blu-ray Disc devices and formalizes intentions to release stand-alone players as well as Blu-ray drives for PCs and notebooks bringing multimedia experience to a new level.

2009 and Beyond
In January of 2009, Toshiba acquired the HDD business of Fujitsu and beefed up its computer peripherals business. The company continues to strive to design and develop new and innovative products and technologies in the quest of making people’s lives more convenient and enjoyable.

Products and Technologies
Toshiba has been in the forefront of defining trends and technologies for personal computers, servers, workstations, and business communication systems over the years. They continue to do so by coming up with a wide range of products geared towards home, office and mobile use - from desktop personal computers, to the mobile netbooks and the emerging AV notebook PCs that are being introduced by the company. With the vast arsenal of Toshiba products that users can have at their disposal, it would be a wise move for users to constantly keep their system up-to-date by utilizing the latest device drivers. There is no need to search for installation discs manually from unscrupulous resources, nor should the search for drivers be performed one by one. Such unproductive work can be addressed with the use of Driver Detective. With Driver Detective, users can be assured that the following Toshiba products are kept at their topmost performance.
Optical Storage -- Toshiba has a wide array of hard disk drives, DVD recorders, CD-ROMS, DVD-ROMs and Blu-ray Disc drives.
External Drives -- System backup is made easy and mobile with Toshiba’s portable external hard drives. These drives can be used for both Windows and Mac platforms, allowing them to be used anytime, anywhere and using any system available.
Enterprise Hard Disk Drives -- professional and critical storage environments require the maximum performance, reliability, capacity and power efficiency on Toshiba’s enterprise hard disk drives. These drives can be used for rack and tower servers, storage arrays, RAID systems and digital video systems.
Personal Computers, Laptops and Notebooks -- Toshiba offers a wide array of personal computer solutions that can be used for home or business applications, whether these are used in fixed locations or in a mobile environment. Toshiba computers use the latest in technologies that Toshiba has at their disposal.
Netbooks -- Netbooks are considered the most exciting thing to occur for mobile computing enthusiasts, providing inexpensive computing power in a very mobile and versatile package.
Toshiba is also coming up with the new Qosmio series of notebook PCs that combines advanced computing and Audio-Video capabilities - a complete personal entertainment solution at its best. These notebooks feature high mobility in thin and light packages due to its use of high-capacity solid state drives or SSDs. Toshiba continues to pave the way in revolutionizing new standards in performance and mobility for the personal computer.