Toshiba's general manager for Australia and New Zealand, Mark Whittard, made the claim at a Toshiba product launch in Auckland. He suggests that part of the reason for Toshiba's fall from the number one spot in both consumer and business notebook sales is because some vendors aren't being truthful in reporting their figures.

'We know because we make the optical drives and the hard drives that these guys use and when we count up the orders we've received and compare them with the figures IDC is quoting, something's amiss.'

Whittard says Toshiba, which finished 2005 third behind Acer Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., also didn't move quickly enough into the fastest growing market segment ' low-cost, entry-level notebooks.

'We didn't have a sub-$1000 notebook because we couldn't see any way to make one without compromising our quality or after-sales service. Now we can and we're going to get into that market place.'

But IDC New Zealand senior analyst Liam Gunson says there is no evidence that vendors are inflating their figures.