Sony is one of the largest and best-known general electronics companies in the world. Founded in Japan, it grew from humble beginnings to a giant multinational. It goes far beyond just making electronics, Sony is also involved in movies, music, games, financial services and other ventures. In this article, we are going to see the origin of sony and some of its inventions.
Sony was founded after the end of World War II in 1946, under the name Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp. by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita with an initial investment of less than 200,000 yen, just over 1,500 dollars. Her first product was an electric rice cooker in the late 1940s.
Their first products did not sell well, for example, 1950 released the first Japanese tape recorder which did not achieve the expected performance. In August 1955 they launched the Sony TR-55, Japan's first transistor radio. But when this product began to be sold in the US, the name SONY was adopted because, among some reasons, Japanese products at that time did not have a good reputation.
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Sony's success
With the success of the TR-55, it began to invest its efforts in making these radios portable. It was then that in 1957 the Sony TR-63, a cheap radio that was pocket-sized, attracting the attention of consumers.
These portable radios were a huge success thus bringing the company's brand international recognition. So much so that in 1960 the Sony Corporation of América, with its headquarters in New York. Many other products were successful such as the direct view portable TV (TV8-301) and the Handycam, a portable video camera, among others, but nothing compares to the success of Walkman.
Perhaps Sony's most influential product was the Walkman, released in 1979. Although much discredited at first, it was a sales success, becoming an international sensation, selling hundreds of millions of units worldwide, as the portable tape player changed the way people listened to music.
In 1984 came the Discman, the company's first portable CD player. But soon tapes and CDs were losing ground to digital music, even so the influence of both the Walkman and the Discman can still be seen today in modern products.
Sony and its many arms
Not only does Sony live in electronic products, in 1988 the company bought CBS Record Group, the biggest music label in the world and the following year bought the filmmaker Columbia Pictures Entertainment, along with the rights to its film catalogue, making the Sony Pictures Entertainment become an immediate force in the industry.
Both Nintendo and Sega were having success with consoles since the 80's. Seeing this growth of rivals, the company was founded. Sony Computer Entertainment in 1993 to exploit this world market potential. In 1994 the console was introduced PlayStation in the Japanese market, thus contributing to more than 10% of the company's annual revenues.
Its line of Playstation consoles and handhelds prove to this day to be cash generators for the company. O Playstation 2, for example, currently has the best-selling console title, with more than 150 million units sold worldwide. We don't even need to talk about the famous PS4.
That was a brief summary of the great Sony story we all know. Where it started regionally in Japan and grew into one of the biggest companies in the world. Hope you enjoyed the article. What Sony product do you have or have you had at home? Who's from the Walkman era? We appreciate the comments and shares. We also recommend reading:
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