Panasonic Toughbook At 20: Can ‘Japanese’ Quality And Service’ Maintain Ruggedised PC Lead?

Closer to home, the AA is one of the Panasonic’s “most historic” and largest customers. It has Toughbooks installed and mounted onto the dashboard of more than 3,000 patrol vans. It is used to access the management system, accept payments and access to diagnostic platform using 4G via a tethered smartphone.

“To be honest, there isn’t much else on the market out there to compare it to,” said the AA’s Trevor Barkham. “We work in some extreme conditions.”

Balancing act

However there is a major flaw with the business model is lifecycle. Toughbooks rarely break through normal use and if customers are so happy, they rarely want to upgrade unless absolutely necessary – not least because many have custom software that might only work on aging platforms like Windows XP.

“Companies tend to forget what they do so well,” said Douglas. “They add bells and whistles but they can’t forget the core capabilities.”

While Douglas would welcome the addition of barcode scanning and the ability to accept payments, he said he wanted Panasonic to focus on better docking and fixing the support issues his firm have had in the past.

But other firms can’t justify the expenditure if there are new features. Striking a compromise between innovation and some customers’ desire not to reinvent the wheel could be difficult.

For example, the AA would like to see thermal imaging capabilities that could detect engine faults, facial recognition for two-factor authentication, payment capabilities and 4G integration.

“Putting everything into one device doesn’t make sense,” Hiro Sakamoto, head of Panasonic’s system communications business, told Silicon, admitting too many features could upset the user base or make devices too expensive. “Field users don’t care about the thickness, just the weight.”

The future

Furthermore, whereas there was little competition 20 years ago, rivals could now easily produce a rival range, while tablet manufacturers are also getting in on the act.

Dell’s desire to be technology’s one stop shop for hardware, software and infrastructure could see it make a play, while Lenovo is the world’s largest PC manufacturer and the Thinkpad is well established in the enterprise thanks to IBM.

Then there are companies like Zebra Technologies, emboldened by the acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ enterprise division, which creates ‘portable computers’ and has strong barcode scanning capabilities.

However the customers Silicon spoke to are not enthused by tablets, arguing they need bigger screens and a physical keyboard. Two-in-ones are deemed acceptable, but not essential.

This is good news for Panasonic, as its customer base won’t be tempted by trendy tablets, but also reinforces the idea that hardware innovation alone might not be enough to fuel expansion. Panasonic says its answer is to stick to its manufacturing strengths, improve customer support and package services alongside its units.

But for now, Panasonic is celebrating a rare laptop success story.

“Toughbook has survived somehow,” added Sakamoto. “It’s kind of a miracle.”

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