Toshiba Matsuda clear: The traditional PC is still promising

Since the rise of the mobile Internet, smartphones, tablets, and other portable Internet devices have been surging. This not only led to new products and technologies such as the Android operating system, high score screens, and wearable devices. At the same time, it also caused a huge impact on traditional IT products led by desktop PCs and notebooks.

Judging from the market environment, global PC shipments fell by 14% from the first quarter of this year. Under such circumstances, there are opinions in the industry that the traditional IT industry has become a general trend. Mobile Internet terminals represented by tablets and smart phones will become the dominant players in the future. However, there are also views that the user's requirements for product performance are not the same as those of handheld devices. Therefore, the inherent advantages of traditional PCs and notebooks are still in place. As long as the products and sales strategies are appropriate, there will be great potential in the future. Recently, after the launch of Toshiba's 2013 full-line new product launch, the reporter interviewed a number of high-level executives of Toshiba Computer about these hot issues in the industry.

The foundation is still promising in the future of traditional PC products

Although tablets, smart phones and other products greatly exceed the traditional PC and notebook in terms of portability and ease of use. However, in many special applications, especially in the face of high performance demand, the latter's advantage is still evident. Mr. Song Tianqing, chairman of Toshiba Computer Network (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said that the global PC market did start to encounter some problems last year, which also led to the market's sluggishness in the longer term. These performances are particularly evident in the B2C market. However, we should also see another phenomenon, that is, customer needs to determine everything, tablet PCs, although carrying, but in many specific tasks, such as PPT and EXCEL these applications, if you want to use smoothly, still need to use PC Or notebook. Therefore, from this perspective, the foundation of the traditional PC market is still in place and the outlook is still very optimistic.

Wearable device is ready for Toshiba

When it comes to wearable devices, the first thing users think of is often Apple’s conceptual product, Smart Watch. But in reality, this is not Apple's unique product. Wearable technology has always attracted much attention in international computer academia and industry. However, due to many problems in cost and technology, the previous development was relatively slow.

However, with the development of the mobile Internet, technological advancement and the introduction of high-performance low-power processing chips, wearable devices have gradually entered the commercial promotion period, and Google, Apple, Microsoft and other major companies have gradually begun to get involved in this area.

When talking about wearable devices, Mr. Matsuda Qing, chairman of Toshiba Computer Network (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., stated that Toshiba is also paying attention to the development of wearable devices. Now the product planning has been put on the agenda, and there are already A lot of ideas. For Toshiba, glasses and watches are experimental products. However, glasses-based devices will become hot spots.

The way IT products are purchased has changed from traditional to e-commerce

Nowadays, the IT market has fallen into a downtrend, and to a certain extent, it has also been related to sales channels. In the past, the concept of “wine was not afraid of a deep alley” has long been shelved. Instead, a good product plus a good channel can equal success.

The CEO of Toshiba Computer Networks (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Mr. Jiu Baoyi stated that the sales channels must be determined according to the needs of users. What is the user's needs and where he likes to shop? This is an important point. Nowadays, with the change of lifestyle, the purchase methods have also changed. The most prominent part of the current market change is e-commerce. Nowadays, more and more customers are buying electronic equipment through e-commerce. Therefore, we also cooperate with famous e-commerce brands in China to meet the needs of customers. Our starting point is not our choice, but the choice of customers. What kind of approach customers like, we must create the best and most convenient conditions for our customers. This is the issue we consider channels.

The industry has focused on customer needs to determine the Android outlook

Thanks to the relatively easy-to-use manipulation experience, Android has achieved great success on the ARM architecture tablet, which has provided its strong confidence in the X86 platform. However, there are views in the industry that, compared with the Windows system, Android still has shortcomings in terms of security and stability. Therefore, there is much prospect in the future under the X86 platform and it is worth discussing.

When talking about this issue, Mr. Dong Yu, general manager of product management division of Toshiba Computer Network (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said that when it comes to the prospects of Android, in fact, whether X86 or ARM architecture, we must first look at the use of the tablet. For example, the current Android tablet is mainly used for listening to music, reading novels or playing games and other entertainment applications. However, in the commercial field, users tend to recognize Windows more because of security and usage habits. In other words, the current advantage of Android is mainly concentrated in the entertainment product market.

However, in fact, this situation is also changing, because the Android operating system has been running smoothly under the X86 architecture. Therefore, Toshiba believes that its future in the business market should also have better development space. For example, the ultra-high-definition handwriting business tablet AT10PE we released today is a complete commercialization of the Android tablet. The slogan we proposed is “Android can also be commercialized”. We have also prepared our AT10PE for the B2B market. In short, the customer's needs determine the prospects of Android, and it seems to be more optimistic.

A narrower range of high-resolution screens is waiting for market test

The high score screen benefited from a clearer display effect, initially starting with high-end smartphones and tablets. In recent years, with the widening of the application range, there are applications in some high-end notebooks. Some people think that the high score screen in the future notebook market will have greater popularity, and even high score screens with touch will appear. However, the actual situation is not the case, because the high score screen is limited by factors such as cost, plus the touch experience is not applicable to all applications, so its popularity will not be fast.

Mr. Dong Jun, General Manager of Product Management Division of Toshiba Computer Network (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., High-definition screen product has indeed achieved certain development in recent years, but its market is mainly concentrated in some special areas. At present, there are about tens of scales. But even so, it still belongs to a relatively narrow range of products, and the widespread adoption still needs the test of the market. As for the high score screen that supports touch control, there is currently no notebook product that uses such a screen.

Postscript interview:

Although today's traditional PC products do not look like the previous years, but the customer demand is still, and mobile Internet devices are still lacking in many applications. Therefore, in the future, the two will inevitably form complementary advantages and jointly meet the different needs of users.

Through this exclusive interview, on the one hand, the media and users have more in-depth understanding of the PC market environment, and have a general understanding of the future trend. On the other hand, it also saw Toshiba as a first-line IT vendor to adapt to the market tide and provide different users with their own products. As the saying goes, “To win the people’s hearts is the world”, if a company wants to be invincible in the market for a long time, good market foresight and correct understanding of customer needs are the only way to win. From this, we also have reason to believe that Toshiba will certainly achieve better market performance in the future.