TOKYO —

Japan’s top chipmaker Toshiba Corp said Wednesday it will end production of cell phones in Japan due to plummeting demand amid an economic slump.
 
The company said its only domestic plant for cell phones will halt operations in October. Toshiba’s revenue for its cell phone business nearly halved to 140 billion yen in the fiscal year ended March 2009.
 
“Consumers are reluctant to buy new handsets amid an economic downturn. The Japanese cell phone market was really hit hard by the ongoing economic slump,” Toshiba spokeswoman Yuko Sugahara said.
 
Toshiba’s global shipments of cell phones plunged to 3 million units in the last fiscal year from 6 million units the previous year. Toshiba said most of its cell phones were sold in Japan.
 
The company said it will continue to make cell phones at its plant in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. It will also outsource its cell phone production, but declined to give further details.
 
Toshiba said the move to end Japanese cell phone production will not result in job losses as workers will be assigned to different jobs.
 
Hit by sinking global demand, Toshiba’s net loss swelled to a record 343.6 billion yen for the fiscal year to March, compared with a net profit of 127.4 billion yen in the previous year.
 
It was Toshiba’s biggest loss ever and its first annual net loss in seven years.
 
Toshiba’s annual sales dropped 13% to 6.65 trillion yen due to faltering business in semiconductors as well as digital equipment and home electronics.
 
Toshiba said its cell phone business only accounts for 3% of its total operations.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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4 Comments

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  nisegaijin at 09:45 AM JST - 22nd May

  Nice, right days before they unveil the new biblio phone for au...

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  flammenwerfer at 09:57 AM JST - 22nd May

  Toshiba's phones were subpar compared to other Japanese makers like Sharp or Panasonic. A Cut throat market to put out average products in.

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  jonobugs at 10:28 PM JST - 22nd May

  That's too bad...I have a Toshiba phone and I really love it. It was the only brand carried by Softbank that had all the features I wanted...Looks like I might have to switch companies should I want a new phone!

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  elbudamexicano at 09:09 PM JST - 23rd May

  I like Toshiba, nothing wrong with their cellphones. The only bad thing now is that they are all too expensive here in Japan. Before you could get those 0 yen deals, now??? Forget it! I am not going to pay 40,000 yen for a crappy cellphone that will be obsolete in 3 months time. I will just stick to my good old Vodafone (now Softbank)

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