The Toshiba Advantage
Still, Toshiba has some advantages Compaq can't easily match, including the fruits of its huge investment in Toshiba laptop drivers. Realizing Windows would make color screens de rigeur, Toshiba and IBM plowed $ 250 million into a joint venture, Display Technologies, to build thin-film transistor, or TFT, color displays. In 2005, they announced plans to spend $ 400 million to double capacity. RED CAPE.
The screen edge may soon end. The No.1 maker, Sharp Corp., plans to hike production in 2006, and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said in December 2006 that it will break ground in March on a $ 400 million TFT plant. So Toshiba is focusing on other technology: lithium-ion batteries and multimedia gadgetry such as built-in CD-ROM drives.
By retaking the lead, Toshiba is again the competition's prime target. Gateway 2000, a perennial wannabe in notebooks, has high hopes. The mail-order PC maker says its Liberty laptop, with a 10.4-inch display and high-capacity (up to 720 megabytes) disk drive, will undercut Toshiba's pricier Portege. Says director of marketing: ''The portable market is very product-oriented. It allows you to jump up in market share quickly, but it means you have to defend it constantly.'' Just ask Toshiba.
FOCUS Enhancements, Inc. announced recently that Toshiba will now carry the FOCUS TView(R) PresoCard(TM) in its Noteworthy Product Catalog. The Noteworthy catalog, which is slated to be sent to 750,000 Toshiba laptop customers in Q4 of this year, will showcase the PresoCard in addition to the FOCUS TView Silver(TM) and TView Gold(TM) PC-to-TV products it currently features. Ideally suited to Toshiba laptop users, the PresoCard is the first scan conversion product to fully integrate PC-to-TV video conversion technology into the small, lightweight form factor of a PC Card. It is the only product available today which offers mobile users a truly portable way to display presentations, multimedia, and websites on any TV. The PresoCard is a Type II PC Card that fits into any PC laptop computer with a Type II or Type III PC Card slot. By integrating the video scan conversion technology of the Company's FOCUS Scan 200 chip into the small, lightweight form factor of a PC Card, FOCUS Enhancements has designed breakthrough presentation technology for mobile exhibitors that eliminates the inconvenience, bulk, and weight of presentation monitors and portable projection devices. The PresoCard supports 640x480 60Hz resolution and uses new, advanced imaging technology designed to produce sharp, stable television images, displaying up to 16 million colors (24-bit). "The TView PresoCard offers exceptional TV picture quality at the very reasonable list price of $199.00. It offers an obvious solution for mobile computer users who need an easy way to connect their PC to any TV for presentations in any location," said vice president of business development at FOCUS. "The PresoCard's price and quality features are the primary factors behind Toshiba's decision to feature the product in its Noteworthy catalog." FOCUS Enhancements, Inc. is an industry leader in the development and marketing of advanced, proprietary video scan conversion products for the rapidly converging, multi-billion dollar computer and television industries. The Company's products, which are sold globally through Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and resellers, merge computer-generated graphics and television displays for presentations, training, education, video teleconferencing, internet viewing, and home gaming markets. In addition, the Company is developing a family of products that will enable the current installed base of televisions, VCRs, and camcorders to remain functional in upcoming HDTV environments. Forward looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 2005. Investors are cautioned that such forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, continued acceptance of the Company's products, increased levels of competition for the Company, new products and technological changes, the Company's dependence upon third-party suppliers, intellectual property rights and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company’s periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange
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