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Faced with a slowing personal computer market in 1990, Orange County manufacturers of personal computer-related products are becoming increasingly aggressive. More than 60 Orange County companies compete in every market segment from computers and software to mass storage devices and laser printers. Personal Computing magazine recently listed Irvine as one of five major computer technology centers outside Silicon Valley.
Orange County has three major contenders among the IBM-compatible computer manufacturers: AST Research, Advanced Logic Research and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. If they don't swing the market heft of IBM, all three have established reputations for quality and innovation. AST and ALR broke into the desktop computer market in the mid-1980s, just as the market exhausted the euphoria generated by the original IBM PC, but each offered fast, reliable computers that were priced lower than IBM's AT.
When Toshiba introduced its T1100 laptop in 1985, the company was already well-regarded as a printer manufacturer. The T1100 convinced potential users that laptops could effectively mimic the performance of desktop computers.
"Our plan is to not just be portable, but to be able to do everything you can do with your desktop," says Kiichi Hataya, Toshiba America president.
Not only is Toshiba achieving that goal, it has the most extensive line of laptops of any manufacturer. "Toshiba's reputation hinges on its flexibility in laptop computing," says William J. Lempesis, a senior analyst with Dataquest Inc. in San Jose.
Toshiba
Toshiba set up shop in Orange County in 1981. In 1988, the company had sales of $729 million; the company expects to exceed $1 billion in sales in fiscal 1989. It currently has 850 employees in Orange County. Its products range from laptop and desktop computers to printers, disk drives, copiers, fax machines, electronic key telephone systems, cellular phones and toner. The company will begin manufacturing printed circuit boards for its laptops in April 1990 and within two years will be producing boards for its entire product line.
Having done much of the pioneering work in the laptop computer market, Toshiba has always been a leader in the slowly developing segment. The '90s should provide the payoff for the company's farsightedness. Laptops are expected to take a 25 percent share of the overall PC market within a...