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Toshiba's Growth Plans Hinge on Cell TVs, Fuel CellsDATE: 09-MAY-2008
Reeling from the aftermath of its HD DVD debacle, Toshiba laid out a plan for growth that leans heavily on its other strengths, namely its Cell processor and improvements in notebook technologies. If all goes as planned, Toshiba should recognize an operating profit of 500 billion yen ($4.92 billion) by its fiscal year 2010, on revenues of 10 trillion yen ($98.36 billion), the company predicted. Toshiba said earlier that it expected a net profit of just 130 billion yen ($1.28 billion) this year, half that expected by analysts. Cost cuts throughout its operations, which range from refrigerators to MRI machines, will be key to raising profitability, Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said on Thursday, according to Reuters. "Our businesses have become commoditized," Nishida said at a meeting with analysts and reporters. "It's getting increasingly tough to differentiate our products from other brands, and we need to treat our products as such." "It means Toshiba is acknowledging that it needs to tighten its belt and fight like other global players," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. "That means trimming costs at underperforming operations, or trimming the businesses altogether if they don't pay."The keys? A strategy of "surprise and sensation," Nishid said, focusing on a solid-state drive containing multi-level NAND flash that will begin shipping in June 2008. Toshiba also announced plans to begin shipping a television with an integrated Cell processor, the chip that drives the PlayStation 3. Those TVs, which will include the ability to support multiple simultaneous recordings of Tv programs, will ship in the fall of 2009, executives said. Finally, Toshiba showed off a Qosmio G40 notebook with an integrated SpursEngine SE1000 chip, designed to upscale standard-definition content into high-def quality. The SpursEngine is a media coprocessor, built on the Cell architecture, but with an emphasis on lower power. Notebook PCs will emphasize spill-resistant, shock-resistant designs, along with easy-to-clean thermal fins and even "health monitoring" of the PC. Mercury-free backlights are also planned. Televisions that automatically upscale SD content to HD resolutions are also on the company's roadmap, executives said. Flash memory, which is a mainstay of MP3 players and other devices, is planned to increase 2.5 times in terms of bits produced in fiscal year 2010, versus the first half of fiscal 2007, Toshiba said. Three-bits-per-cell flash entered production in March. Toshiba also indicated that it would begin pushing a biomethanol fuel-cell solution for mobile phones. Whether it would develop such a cell itself was not known, and the company gave no timetable for shipping products. In 2008, however, Toshiba plans sales of WQVGA (400x240) OLED displays for cell phones, with a third of the power consumption of LCDs, the company said. By 2010, Toshiba will cease making normal filament lamps, the company said. Additional reporting by Reuters.
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