It can be pretty funny when a company decides to rebrand. Remember when Netflix wanted to become Qwikster? Just imagine asking someone to "Qwikster and chill." Today's news might be an exception: Toshiba America Client Solutions announced that it will now be called Dynabook Americas.
The name change is supposed to bring Dynabook Americas, based in Irvina, California, in line with its parent company, formerly known as Toshiba Client Solutions, which rebranded as Dynabook on January 1. The company said that "affiliated companies in Europe, Singapore, Canada and Australia will also incorporate 'Dynabook' into their naming conventions and complete the organization’s global naming strategy."
Companies usually change their names because they're shifting their focus, merging with another business, or trying to escape a scandal. Netflix didn't want to become Qwikster just because Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder, CEO and chairman, thought it sounded cool--which might be the most wrong someone has been about something so trivial--it was trying to separate the DVD shipping service it started as and the streaming video service it became.
Toshiba's name change is different. In its announcement, Dynabook said it won't change anything but its name, at least not immediately. The company formerly known as Toshiba America Client Solutions says it focuses on "enterprise-grade hardware and software offerings." Dynabook Americas said it will continue to make laptops and grow its Internet of Things and AR smart glasses offerings. It will also keep using the Portégé, Tecra and DynaEdge brands. However, the news does follow the October acquisition of Toshiba Client Solutions by Sharp.
There will be some changes in the latter half of the year, though, with "plans to grow its product and solutions portfolio and roll-out new products featuring the Dynabook brand" by the end of Q3.
So what does all of this mean for U.S. consumers? Well, in the short term, some people might wonder if Toshiba went out of business. But in the long term, we suspect that most people won't feel particularly strongly one way or the other, especially in the commercial space. "Toshiba" to "Dynabook" isn't as bad as "Netflix" to "Qwikster"; nor is it as good as "Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web" to "Yahoo." Meet the new Dynabook, same as the old Toshiba.
