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The History of Sony

Whether you have owned or used TVs, radios, mp3 players or the like, the odds are high that you have come across a Sony product. They are one of the biggest technology companies wordwide with a history spanning decades. Most notably, Sony has created their own inhouse standards for new storage and recording technologies instead of copying the standards of other manufactures. Perhaps the most infamous example of this was the videotape format war of the early 80s. It began when Sony brought out the Betamax system for VCRs to counter JVCs VHS format. Unfortunately, VHS won that battle and Betamax soon became a thing of the past. However, Sony learned a great deal from this incident, and went on to produce the Betacam format that is still widely used even today, especially in the television and filming industry. In 1968 Sony improved upon its line of aperture grill, cathode, ray tube televisions by adding the Trinitron brand name. Later this even included computer monitors. Trinitron is still produced today, but only for such markets as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China. In the USA, the last Trinitron-based television sets were discontinued by Sony in the spring of 2007. In 1975, Sony followed up its Trinitron success with the Betamax format for videocassette recording. Even though Betamax became completely obsolete soon after its inception, it still plays an important role in Sony history and the development of videocassette recording as we know it today. In 1979 Sony broke new ground with the worlds first portable personal music player, known as the Walkman. The walkman revolutionized the way that consumers listen to music and spawned a wave of imitators in the months and years following. After the videotape format war, Sony launched the previously mentioned Betacam format, as well as he Compact Disc format, which was another revolutionary product in its own right. Soon, Sony began to delve into the personal computer industry, introducing the first 90 mm micro diskettes, which were better known as 3.5 floppy disks. Sony enjoyed great success with this product and their format became dominant for several years, gradually being phased out as newer media formats were developed and introduced. Soon after the introduction of the Compact Disc, Sony launched the Discman series, which extended the portable walkman brand to include portable CD products. By 1985, the company was beginning to launch their Handycam products along with the Video8 format, which allowed consumers greater access to personal camcorders. The products and revolutionary inventions that have come from Sony are absolutely mind boggling and incorporates into nearly every product or technology that we use today. Many more products would be introduced throughout the next several years that would continue to expand and shape the market. For example, 1994 saw the launch of the Sony PlayStation, which was a wildly successful personal gaming console that was succeeded by the Playstation 2 and then the Playstation 3. It became the most successful personal gaming console of all time, selling more than 140 million units to date and still going strong. It is easy to see that Sony continues to release new products and improve upon existing technologies, and that is why they are the #1 consumer technology company out there. Their success has been based upon not only their innovative techniques and products, but also their attention to detail and their unwavering business sense.

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Origin of name

The Sony Walkman MZ-R50 portable mini-disc player

When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a romanized name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials, TTK. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TKK.[12] The company occasionally used the acronym "Totsuko" in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was "Tokyo Teletech" until Akio Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name.[19] The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word "Sonus", which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was "Sonny", a familiar term used in 1950s America to call a boy.[6] The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955 but the company name did not change to Sony until January 1958.[20] At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui, had strong feelings about the name. They pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company name tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Bank's chairman gave their approva Sony has historically been notable for creating its own in-house standards for new recording and storage technologies, instead of adopting those of other manufacturers and standards bodies. The most infamous of these was the videotape format war of the early 1980s, when Sony marketed the Betamax system for video cassette recorders against the VHS format developed by JVC. In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketbase and became the worldwide standard for consumer VCRs and Sony adopted the format. While Betamax is for all practical purposes an obsolete format, a professional-oriented component video format called Betacam that was derived from Betamax is still used today, especially in the television industry, although far less so in recent years with the introduction of digital and high definition.

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Sony launched the Betamax videocassette recording format in 1975. In 1979 the Walkman brand was introduced, in the form of the world's first portable music player.

Sony co-developed the Compact Disc, one of the most popular storage formats for digital information. 1982 saw the launch of Sony's professional Betacam videotape format and the collaborative Compact Disc (CD) format. In 1983 Sony introduced 90 mm micro diskettes (better known as 3.5-inch (89 mm) floppy disks), which it had developed at a time when there were 4" floppy disks and a lot of variations from different companies to replace the then on-going 5.25" floppy disks. Sony had great success and the format became dominant; 3.5" floppy disks gradually became obsolete as they were replaced by current media formats. In 1983 Sony launched the MSX, a home computer system, and introduced the world (with their counterpart Philips) to the Compact Disc (CD). In 1984 Sony launched the Discman series which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products. In 1985 Sony launched their Handycam products and the Video8 format. Video8 and the follow-on hi-band Hi8 format became popular in the consumer camcorder market. In 1987 Sony launched the 4 mm DAT or Digital Audio Tape as a new digital audio tape standard. In addition to developing consumer-based recording media, after the launch of the CD Sony began development of commercially based recording media. In 1986 they launched WriteOnce optical discs (WO) and in 1988 launched Magneto-optical discs which were around 125MB size for the specific use of archival data storage.[21]

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Audio

The 1979 Sony Walkman ushered in a new era of portability for music listening

Sony produced the world's first portable music player, the Walkman in 1979. This line fostered a fundamental change in music listening habits by allowing people to carry music with them and listen to music through lightweight headphones. Walkman originally referred to portable audio cassette players. The company now uses the Walkman brand to market its portable audio and video players as well as a line of former Sony Ericsson mobile phones. Sony utilized a related brand, Discman, to refer to its CD players. It dropped this name in the late 1990s.
Computing

Sony produces a line of laptops branded as VAIO.

Sony sells many of its computer products using the VAIO brand. Sony produced computers (MSX home computers and NEWS workstations) during the 1980s, exclusively for sale in the Japanese market. The company withdrew from the computer business around 1990. Sony entered again into the global computer market under the new VAIO brand, began in 1996. Short for "Video Audio Integrated Operation," the line was the first computer brand to highlight visual-audio features.[18]

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Sony faced considerable controversy when some of its laptop batteries exploded and caught fire in 2006.[27], resulting in the largest computer-related recall to that point in history.[28][29][30] In a bid to join the tablet computer market, the company launched its Sony Tablet series in 2011. The machines run on Google Android software.

Sony produces a consumer-oriented line of digital cameras branded as Cyber-shot. Photography

Sony offers a range of digital cameras. Point-and-shoot models adopt the Cyber-shot name, while digital single-lens reflex models are branded using Alpha. The first Cyber-shot was introduced in 1996. At the time, digital cameras were a relative novelty. Sony's market share of the digital camera market fell from a high of 20% to 9% by 2005.[18] Sony entered the market for digital single-lens reflex cameras in 2006 when it acquired the camera business of Konica Minolta. Sony rebranded the company's line of cameras as its Alpha line. Sony is the world's third largest manufacturer of the cameras, behind leaders Canon and Nikon.
Video

Sony's BRAVIA line of televisions replaces the Trinitron and WEGA series.

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In 1968 Sony introduced the Trinitron brand name for its lines of aperture grille cathode ray tube televisions and (later) computer monitors. Sony stopped production of Trinitron for most markets, but continued producing sets for markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. Sony discontinued its series of Trinitron computer monitors in 2005. The company discontinued the last Trinitron-based television set in the USA in early 2007. The end of Trinitron marked the end of Sony's analog television sets and monitors. Sony used the LCD WEGA name for its LCD TVs until summer 2005. The company then introduced the BRAVIA name. BRAVIA is an in house brand owned by Sony which produces high-definition LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors, home cinemas and the BRAVIA home theatre range. All Sony high-definition flat-panel LCD televisions in North America have carried the logo for BRAVIA since 2005. Sony is the third-largest maker of televisions in the world.[31] As of 2012, Sony's television business has been unprofitable for eight years.[31] In December 2011, Sony agreed to sell all stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics for about $940 million.[32] On 28 March 2012, Sony Corporation and Sharp Corporation announced that they have agreed to further amend the joint venture agreement originally executed by the parties in July 2009, as amended in April 2011, for the establishment and operation of Sharp Display Products Corporation ("SDP"), a joint venture to produce and sell large-sized LCD panels and modules[33] Sony also sells a range of DVD players. It has shifted its focus in recent years to promoting the Blu-ray format, including discs and players

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In the early 1990s two high-density optical storage standards modification based on MMCD technology, viz EFMPlus. The unified disc format was called DVD which was marketed in 1997were being developed: one was the MultiMedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by Philips and Sony, and the other was the Super Density disc (SD), supported by Toshiba and many others. Philips and Sony abandoned their MMCD format and agreed upon Toshiba's SD format with only one

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