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TOSHIBA ANNUAL REPORT 1999
Page
27.
97 98 99
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
20
40
60
80
100
Sales Annual Increase (%)
Share of Net Sales %
Mar. ’97 ’98 ’99
35.1 35.8 37.8
Note: Segment sales include intersegment
transactions.
Net Sales
(¥ billion) (%)
Mar.
REVIEW OF OPERATIONS
INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
Sales in this segment increased 3 percent to ¥2,247.3 billion (US$18,573 million) and
rose 2 percent to 38 percent of total sales.
Portable PCs performed well, mainly outside Japan, retaining Toshiba’s number-one
market share worldwide for the fifth consecutive year. Results were aided by reduction
of excess inventory in the United States and a favorable expansion of
demand in Europe. In July 1998, Toshiba introduced DynaBookSS
PORTEGE 3000, a new, slim notebook PC that delivers advances in perfor-
mance and simple operation in an easily portable format. The B5-sized
PORTEGE is the world’s slimmest at 19.8mm—and the lightest at about
1.19kg. The new series has earned many accolades, including MVP Product
of the Year at COMDEX/Fall ’98, the world’s largest computer exhibition.
In the field of storage devices for computer peripherals, demand is rap-
idly shifting from CD-ROMs, where Toshiba is the world’s largest supplier
of drives, to DVD-ROM drives, where Toshiba aims to secure a market
share of about 30 percent. The company is concentrating on developing the
leading-edge, high-quality products needed to offer the reliability users
expect. In the HDD market, Toshiba is at the forefront of progress in boost-
ing recording density. One recent model, a mere 12.5mm thick, uses GMR
heads to boost capacity to 10GB on 2.5-inch HDDs.
In mobile communications equipment, Toshiba is benefiting from a surge
in demand in Japan to purchase upgraded handsets that accommodate e-mail
and other new services. In North America, the rapid shift from analog to
digital technology is presenting more opportunities. These trends enabled
Toshiba to achieve good results with its CDMA handsets.
The plain paper copier sector was transferred to TEC Corporation on
January 1, 1999. This move was made to unify the image processing and telecommunica-
tions technologies used in copiers, facsimiles and printers in a single company. Toshiba is
now better able to plan and develop models at the speed necessary to stay ahead of
changes in the market. Concurrent with this transfer, Toshiba raised its ownership of
TEC Corporation over 50 percent and renamed the company Toshiba TEC Corporation.
In medical systems, Toshiba made headlines by becoming the first in the world to
deliver the basic technology for multislice helical CT scanning. Cumulative sales of
Toshiba’s CT scanners reached the 10,000th unit in September 1998.