VISION FOR TV CENTRIC CONVERGENCE
In his remarks to the press, the new president of Toshiba America Consumer Products (TACP), Toru "Ike" Uchiike, proclaimed that a new, marketing-driven company has replaced the old Toshiba, a 125-year-old industrial company. To prove his point, Uchiike mentioned Toshiba's new collaboration with Microsoft to develop LCD screens for eBooks, its joint development work with Sony for PlayStation 2's Emotion Engine and its ongoing alliance with Time Warner. According to TACP's president, "The vision for digital convergence is TV centric," which will also be backed up with new digital TV models that would be shown to the press and dealers.
To link products in the home, Uchiike said that Toshiba will incorporate HAVi in future TV models, and would also use Bluetooth. According to Uchiike, Toshiba is working on the second generation of the wireless technology, which will be able to carry hi-fi audio and standard definition video. He also said that Toshiba will use DVD-RAM and hard-disk drives (HDD) to offer "a new generation of digital appliances" and "multi-function devices." Though Toshiba later reiterated its selection of DVD- RAM, the company did not make any product announcements for a DVD recorder or HDD-based systems.
In compact storage, TACP's president hailed the SD (Secure Digital) memory card -- which Toshiba co-developed with Matsushita and SanDisk -- as "the bridge to the future." He mentioned that Toshiba was introducing its first SD-based product, a digital audio player, covered later, which be would followed by other products. Though Uchiike did not announce the products or arrival dates, we did see SD mentioned on a mockup of another technology that Toshiba revealed for the first time.