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. Its first product was an electric rice cooker in the late 1940s.
Their first products did not sell well, for example, in 1950 they launched the first Japanese tape recorder that did not achieve the expected performance. In August 1955 they launched the Sony TR-55, the first transistor radio in Japan. But when this product began to be sold in the USA, the name SONY was adopted, because, among other 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 to make these radios portable. It was then that the Sony TR-63 emerged in 1957, a cheap radio that was pocket-sized, attracting the attention of consumers.
These portable radios were a huge success, bringing international recognition to the company's brand. So much so that in 1960, the Sony Corporation of America was created, with its headquarters in New York. Many other products were successful, such as the portable direct view TV (TV8-301) and the Handycam, a portable video camera, among others, but nothing compares to the success of the Walkman.
Perhaps the most influential product from Sony was the Walkman, launched in 1979. Even though it was greatly discredited at first, it became a sales success, turning into an international sensation, selling hundreds of millions of units worldwide, as the portable tape player changed the way people listened to music.
In 1984, the Discman was launched, the first portable CD player from the company. But soon tapes and CDs began to lose ground to digital music, nevertheless, 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 on electronic products, in 1988 the company bought the CBS Record Group, the largest music recording company in the world, and the following year it bought the filmmaker Columbia Pictures Entertainment, along with the rights to its film catalog, making Sony Pictures Entertainment an immediate force in the industry.
Both Nintendo and Sega were successful with consoles since the 1980s. Seeing this growth of rivals, Sony Computer Entertainment was founded in 1993 to explore this potential of the global market. In 1994, the PlayStation console was introduced to the Japanese market, thus contributing to more than 10% of the company's annual revenues.
Your line of Playstation consoles and its handhelds continue to prove to be money generators for the company. The Playstation 2, for example, currently holds the title of the best-selling console, with over 150 million units sold worldwide. We don't even need to mention 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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