'The Middle East has seen Toshiba sales grow by 240% over the past year,' he says. 'This is three times the industry average and I am very pleased to be here in Dubai. This reminds me of Shanghai with all the construction and cranes. It is a very good market'.
Mr. Kurihara says that the Middle East and Russia are the two biggest growth markets for Toshiba at the moment. 'Germany, The Netherlands and Spain are very slow, the United States is down, and Japan is in a very bad situation'.
Toshiba is a big name in the Middle East laptop market, and the Gitex show has been chosen for the launch of some powerful, top-end laptop computers.
At $3,250 the Satellite Pro 6100 is the top-of-the-range with a Pentium 4 2.0GHz processor, graphics processing unit, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and a 15-inch display. This unit also has a re-writeable DVD-ROM function unique to a laptop.
'Toshiba has a unique three-year international warranty,' explains Mr. Kurihara, who spent most of the 1990s in the United States and then returned to Japan before moving to Europe seven months ago. 'We are the only manufacturer in the region to do have such a warranty and it also applies on this new series'.
Less expensive is the Satellite 1410 notebook series which can be easily upgraded to offer wireless connectivity. But there is little compromise on specification with DVD or DVD/CD-RW drive and TV out socket.
'We also see high demand for our PDAs, which we have just introduced into this market,' says Mr. Kurihara. 'The Toshiba e740 is the first PDA to offer the options of integrated Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and uses Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 operating system'.
'On these units we have a two year guarantee and local service warranty. We think our warranty alone justifies the slightly higher price of Toshiba computers over our rivals.
'For the future we are very committed to the development of wireless technology and think that is where the future lies. We are very confident of further growth in the Middle East which is our fastest growing market'.
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Hiroshi Kurihara
- United Arab Emirates: Monday, October 14 - 2002 at 09:24
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In Dubai for the first time at the Gitex computer show is vice president of computer systems, Europe sales and marketing for Toshiba Europe, Hiroshi Kurihara.
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Peter J. CooperMonday, October 14 - 2002 at 09:24 UAE local time (GMT+4)
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This article was updated on Wed Mar 28 2007.
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