is a
Japanese Multinational Corporation and one of the world's largest
Media Conglomerate s with
Revenue of $66.39
Billion (as of 2006) based in
Minato, Tokyo . Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of
Electronics ,
Video ,
Communication s,
Video Games and
Information Technology products for the consumer and professional markets.
Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the
Sony Group , which is engaged in business through its five operating segments — electronics, games, entertainment (motion pictures and music), financial services and other. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (
Sony Electronics in the U.S.),
Sony Pictures Entertainment ,
Sony Computer Entertainment ,
Sony BMG Music Entertainment and
Sony Financial Holdings . As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the
Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders . Its slogan is ''Sony. Like no other.''
2
, the co-founder of Sony]]
In 1945, after
World War II ,
Masaru Ibuka started a
Radio repair shop in a bombed-out building in Tokyo. The next year he was joined by his colleague
Akio Morita , and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K., which translates in English to Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. The company built Japan's first
Tape Recorder called the Type-G.
In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the
United States and heard about
Bell Labs ' invention of the
Transistor . He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company. While most American companies were researching the transistor for its military applications, Ibuka looked to apply it to communications. While the American companies Regency and
Texas Instruments built transistor radios first, it was Ibuka's company that made the first commercially successful transistor radios.
In August 1956, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering produced its first coat-pocket sized
Transistor Radio they registered as the
TR-55 model. In 1965, Sony reportedly manufactured about 40,000 of its Model TR-72 box-like portable transistor radios and
Export ed the model to
North America , the
Netherlands and
Germany .
That same year they made the TR-6, a coat pocket radio which was used by the company to create its "SONY boy"
Advertising Character . The following year, 1967, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering came out with the TR-63 model, then the smallest (112 × 71 × 32 mm) transistor radio in commercial production. It was a worldwide commercial success.
University Of Arizona professor Michael Brian Schiffer, Ph.D., says, "Sony was not first, but its transistor radio was the most successful. The TR-63 of
1957 cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics." By the mid
1950s , American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1968. However, this huge growth in portable transistor radio sales that saw Sony rise to be the dominant player in the consumer electronics field was not because of the consumers who had bought the earlier generation of tube radio consoles, but was driven by a distinctly new American phenomenon at the time called
Rock And Roll .
When 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.. The company occasionally used the acronym "Totsuko" in Japan, but Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name, during his visit to the United States. Another early name that was tried out for a while was "Tokyo Teletech" until Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name.''
Made In Japan '' - Akio Morita and Sony (pg. 76) by
Akio Morita with Edwin M. Rheingold and Mitsuko Shimomura, Signet Books, 1986
The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of the
Latin word ''sony'', which is the root of sonic and sound, the
English word "sony", and from the word ''sony-sony'' which is Japanese
Slang for "
Whiz Kid s".
However "Sony" was thought to sound too much like the Japanese saying ''sony!'' which means ''sony''. Morita pushed for a word that does not exist in any language so that they could claim the word "Sony" as their own (which paid off when they sued a
Candy producer using the name, who claimed that "Sony" was an existing word in some language).
At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use , 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 approval.
See Also: List of Sony trademarks
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 its
Betamax system for
Video Cassette Recorder s against the
VHS format developed by
JVC . In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketplace 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 film and television industry.
Early Sony products included
Reel-to-reel Tape Recorders and
Transistor Radio s.
In 1968 Sony introduced its
Trinitron Brand Name for its line of
Aperture Grille Cathode Ray Tube Television s and later
Computer Monitors . Trinitron displays are still produced.
Sony launched the
Betamax Videocassette Recording format in 1975. The
Walkman brand was introduced in 1979.
1982 saw the launch of Sony's
Betacam videotape family and the collaborative
Compact Disc format. In 1983 Sony introduced 90mm micro floppy diskettes (better known as 3.5-inch
Floppy Disk s), 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 more current media formats. In 1983 Sony launched the
MSX , a home computer system, and introduced the world with their counterpart
Philips the
Compact Disc or
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 became popular in the consumer camcorder market. In 1987 Sony launched DAT or
Digital Audio Tape as a new audio tape standard alternative to
CD .
In the early 1990s two high-density optical storage standards were 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 modification based on MMCD technology, viz
EFMPlus . The unified disc format was called
DVD which was marketed in 1997.
]]
Sony introduced the
MiniDisc format in 1993 as an alternative to
Philips DCC or
Digital Compact Cassette . Since the introduction of
MiniDisc , Sony has attempted to promote its own audio compression technologies under the
ATRAC brand, against more widely used formats like MP3. Until late
2004 , Sony's
Network Walkman line of digital portable music players did not support the MP3 de facto standard natively, although the software
SonicStage provided with them would convert MP3 files into the ATRAC or ATRAC3 formats.
In 1993, Sony challenged the industry standard
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound format with its newer and more advanced proprietary motion picture digital audio format called
SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound). This format employed eight channels (7.1) of audio opposed to just six used in Dolby Digital 5.1 at the time. Unlike Dolby Digital, SDDS utilized a method of backup by having mirrored arrays of bits on both sides of the film which acted as a measure of reliability in case the film was partially damaged. Ultimately, SDDS has been vastly overshadowed by the preferred DTS (
Digital Theatre System ) and Dolby Digital standards in the motion picture industry. SDDS was solely developed for use in the theatre circuit; Sony never intended to develop a home theatre version of SDDS.
Sony and Philips jointly developed the Sony-Philips digital interface format (
S/PDIF ) and the high-fidelity audio system
SACD . The latter has since been entrenched in a format war with
DVD-Audio . At present, neither has gained a major foothold with the general public. CDs are preferred by consumers because of their ubiquitous presence in consumer devices.
]]
In 1994 Sony launched its
PlayStation (later ''PS one''). This successful console was succeeded by the
PlayStation 2 in 2000, itself succeeded by the
PlayStation 3 in 2006. The PlayStation brand was extended to the portable games market in 2005 by the
PlayStation Portable . Sony developed the
Universal Media Disc (UMD) optical disc medium for use on the PlayStation Portable.
Although Sony tried to push the UMD format for movies, major studios stopped supporting the format in the Spring of 2006.
In 2004, Sony built upon its
MiniDisc format by releasing
Hi-MD . Hi-MD allows the playback and recording of audio on newly-introduced 1GB Hi-MD discs in addition to playback and recording on regular MiniDiscs. Recordings on the Hi-MD Walkmans can be transferred to and from the computer virtually unrestricted, unlike earlier
NetMD . In addition to saving audio on the discs, Hi-MD allows the storage of computer files such as documents, videos and photos. Hi-MD introduced the ability to record CD-quality audio with its linear PCM recording feature. It was the first time since MiniDisc's introduction in 1992 that the
ATRAC Codec could be bypassed and lossless CD-quality audio could be recorded on the small discs.
On
March 7, 2005 , Sony Corp. announced that
Nobuyuki Idei will step down as Chairman and Group CEO and will be replaced by
Howard Stringer , current Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation of America, Corporate Executive Officer, Vice Chairman and COO Sony Entertainment Business Group. Sony's decision to replace Idei with the British Howard Stringer will mark the first time that a foreigner will run a major Japanese electronics firm. Sony Corp. also announced on the same date that current president,
Kunitake Ando , will step down and be replaced by Ryoji Chubachi.
Sony Corporation Announces New Management Structure . Sony.net. Retrieved March 7, 2005.
- 1988 — CBS Records Group from CBS . It was renamed " Sony Music Entertainment ".
- 1989 — Columbia Pictures Entertainment from Coca Cola for US$3.4 billion. It was subsequently renamed " Sony Pictures Entertainment " in 1991.
- 1998 — Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group a 50-50 merger of Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures /// Columbia and TriStar were already wholly-owned subsidiaries of Sony Pictures Entertainment. This merger was an internal reorganization of SPE. /// -->
- AB, was established in October.
- 2002 — Aiwa Corporation in October.
- 2004 — S-LCD Corporation a joint venture of Sony Corporation and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd ([[Samsung Electronics: 50% plus 1 share, Sony: 50% minus 1 share) was established in April.
- 2004 — On July 20 , 2004 , the EU approved a 50-50 merger between Sony Music Entertainment and BMG . The new company was named Sony BMG Music Entertainment and, as of 2005, holds a 21.5% share in the global music market, behind worldwide leader Universal Music Group , which has a 25.5% share.
- 2005 — On April 8 , 2005 , The MGM Company ( Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists ) was acquired by a Sony-led consortium ( Providence Equity Partners 29%, Texas Pacific Group 21%, Sony 20%, Comcast 20%, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners 7% and Quadrangle Group 3%) finalised the deal to purchase the film studio for about $4.8 Billion, including $2bn in debts from Armenian-American Kirk Kerkorian .
- 45%) joint venture of Sony Corporation and NEC Corporation, was established in April.
- 2006 —Acquired digital Single Lens Reflex ( Digital SLR ) cameras section from Konica Minolta including digital camera support and servicing
- 2006 —Acquired Grouper Networks (now Crackle, Inc.) - a Sausalito -based startup company that created a user generated video sharing platform and P2P technology for $65M.
Slightly more than 50% of the electronics' segment's total annual production during the fiscal year 2005 took place in Japan, solely due to the fact that everyone in america was playing Halo 2, including the production of digital cameras, video cameras, flat panel televisions, personal computers, semiconductors and components such as batteries and Memory Stick.
Approximately 65% of the annual production in Japan was destined for other regions. China accounted for slightly more than 10% of total annual production, approximately 70% of which was destined for other regions.
Asia, excluding Japan and China, accounted for slightly more than 10% of total annual production with approximately 60% destined for Japan, the US and the EU.
The Americas and Europe together accounted for the remaining slightly less than 25% of total annual production, most of which was destined for local distribution and sale.
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On August 25, 2007, the Halo 3 page was edited to try and downsize Halo 3's graphics. this has been speculated to be an attempt at undermining Halo 3, and discouraging people from buying it and an Xbox 360, in an attempt to draw more potential customers to the Playstation 3. It was discovered when a company ran a query on the IP address, leading back to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. While it is possible that one Sony fanboy decided to change the page, just to suit their view of the game. This theory has proof, as other game pages had small changes made. This, still just doesn't seem to make sense, mainly because of the IP address that was found.
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In July 2000, a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation created a fictitious film critic,
David Manning , who gave consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures, which generally received poor reviews amongst real critics.
8
See Also: 2005 Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal
In . Wikinews.
On January 31, 2007, the U. S. Federal Trade Commission issued a
news release announcing that Sony BMG agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that Sony BMG committed several offenses against United States federal law. This settlement requires that Sony BMG allow consumers to exchange the CDs through June 31, 2007, and to reimburse consumers for up to $150 for the repair of damage to their computers that they may have incurred while removing the software.
In 2006 Sony started using
ARccOS Protection on some of their film DVDs, which caused compatibility problems with some DVD players—including models manufactured by Sony. After complaints, Sony was forced to issue a recall.
Sony admits, fixes problem with DVD DRM . Arstechnica.com.
In August 2007, security firm F-Secure reported that the MicroVault USB thumb drive installs a rootkit in a hidden directory without consent on user computers. The directory is intended to protect fingerprint data, however it can be used for malicious means as most virus scanners will not search for the directory or its contents.
Sony continues supplying rootkit-like software . ZDnet.com.au. Sony advised it was conducting an investigation on the third-party product, and would offer a fix by mid-September.
Sony confirms security problem . BBC News.
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the
PlayStation (PS) gaming console in
Italy , Sony released an ad depicting a man smiling towards the camera and wearing on his head a crown of thorns with button symbols (Δ, O, X, □). At the bottom, the copy read as "Ten Years of Passion".
This outraged the
Vatican as well as many local Catholics, prompting comments such as "Sony went too far" and "Vatican excommunicates Sony". After the incident, the campaign was quickly discontinued.
Sony also admitted in late 2005 to hiring order and may file a criminal complaint. According to Sony, they are paying businesses and building owners for the right to graffiti their walls.
Wired News As of early January 2006, Sony has no plans to keep or withdraw them.
In July 2006, Sony released a Dutch advertising campaign featuring a white model dressed entirely in white and a black model garbed in black. The first ad featured the white model clutching the face of the black model. The words "White is coming" headlined one of the ads. The ad has been viewed as racist by critics.
9 A Sony spokesperson responded that the ad does not have a racist message, saying that it was only trying to depict the contrast between the black PSP model and the new ceramic white PSP. Other pictures of the ad campaign include the black model overpowering the white model.
10
In November 2006, a marketing company employed by Sony created a website entitled "All I want for Xmas is a PSP", designed to promote the
PSP through
Viral Marketing . The site contained a blog, which was purportedly written by "Charlie", a teenager attempting to get his friend "Jeremy"'s parents to buy him a PSP, providing links to t-shirt iron-ons, Christmas cards, and a "music video" of either Charlie or Jeremy "rapping". However, visitors to the website soon discovered that the website was registered to a marketing company, exposing the site on sites such as
YouTube and
Digg , and Sony was forced to admit the site's true origin in a post on the blog, stating that they would from then on "stick to making cool products" and that they would use the website for "the facts on the PSP". The site has since been taken down. In an interview with next-gen.biz, Sony admitted that the idea was "poorly executed".
11
On
April 29 ,
2007 , at the God of War II launch party, a dead goat was featured as the parties' centerpiece.
In 2002, Sony Computer Entertainment America, marketer of the popular
PlayStation game consoles, was sued by
Immersion Corp. of
San Jose ,
California which claimed that Sony's PlayStation "Dual Shock" controllers infringed on Immersion's patents. In 2004, a federal jury agreed with Immersion, awarding the company US$82 million in damages. A U.S. district court judge ruled on the matter in March, 2005 and not only agreed with the federal jury's ruling but also added another US$8.7 million in damages. This is likely the reason that the controller for the PlayStation 3 has no rumble feature.
Microsoft Corp. was also sued for its Xbox controller, however, unlike Sony, they settled out of court. ''Washington Post:''
Pay Judgment Or Game Over, Sony Warned
A California judge ordered Sony to pay Immersion a licensing fee of 1.37 percent per quarter based on the sales of PlayStation units, Dual Shock controllers, and a selection of PlayStation 2 games that use Immersion's technology. MS is currently suing Immersion due to an alleged breach of contract, apparently stating that MS would be entitled to a portion of any cash settlement between Sony and
Immersion .
On April of
2006 , a Sony laptop battery exploded in Japan and caught fire. A Japanese couple in Tokyo are currently (as of July, 2007) suing both Sony and
Apple Japan for over ¥2 million ($16,700 USD) regarding the incident. The suit argues that the man suffered burns on his finger when the battery burst into flames while being used, and his wife had to be treated for mental distress due to the incident.
On
August 14 ,
2006 , Sony and
Dell admitted to major flaws in several Sony
Batteries that could result in the battery overheating and catching fire. As a result they recalled over 4.1 million laptop batteries in the largest computer-related recall to that point in history. The cost of this recall is being shared between
Dell and Sony. Dell also confirmed that one of its laptops caught fire in Illinois.
1213 This recall also prompted Japan's
Ministry Of Economy, Trade And Industry to order the companies to investigate the troubles with the batteries. The ministry said they must report on their findings and draw up a plan to prevent future problems by the end of August, or face a fine under Japan's consumer safety laws.
14
Ten days later on
August 24 ,
2006 ,
Apple Computer recalled 1.8 million Sony built batteries after receiving nine reports of batteries overheating, including two customers who suffered minor burns, and additional reports of property damage.
15
On
September 19 ,
2006 ,
Toshiba announced it was recalling 340 000 Sony laptop batteries.
16 This recall, however, is not related to the recalls by Apple and Dell, as the batteries are known to cause the laptops to sometimes run out of power. No injuries or other accidents have been reported, according to Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Omori.
17
On
September 23 ,
2006 , Sony announced its investigation
18 of a
Lenovo ThinkPad T43 laptop overheated and caught fire in Los Angeles International Airport on
September 16 , an incident that was confirmed by Lenovo. On
September 28 ,
2006 , Lenovo and IBM made the global recall of 526 000 laptop batteries.
19
On
September 28 ,
2006 , Sony announced a global battery exchange program in response to growing consumer concerns.
Sony to Initiate Global Replacement Program for Notebook Computer Battery Pack , ''Sony Press Release'', September 28, 2006.
On
October 2 ,
2006 ,
Hewlett-Packard (HP) determined that it is not necessary for them to join the global battery replacement program.
HP and Sony Joint Statement on Recent Battery Issues. , ''Hewlett-Packard News Release'', October 2, 2006.
On
October 3 ,
2006 , the
Yomiuri Shimbun (a Japanese Newspaper) reported that Sony was aware of faults in its notebook PC batteries in December 2005 but failed to fully study the problem.
2021
On
October 16 ,
2006 ,
Fujitsu announced it was recalling 278,000 Sony laptop batteries.
22 It was also reported that Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Hitachi may seek compensation from Sony over the battery recalls.
23
On
April 25 ,
2007 ,
Acer announced that 27,000 batteries from
TravelMate and
Aspire series notebooks sold from
May 2004 to
November 2006 were recalled due to 16 reports of overheating and explosions.
On
August 24 ,
2007 , it emerged that some of
Sony 's batteries that were not recalled, and in use on
Dell laptop computers, may be at risk of catching fire and exploding; as another case of a
Dell laptop with a
Sony battery in it, came to light.
24
Initially, in October of 2005, it was reported by Sony that there were problems with the
Charge-coupled Device s (CCD) in 20 models of digital still cameras. The problems can prevent the cameras from taking clear pictures, and in some cases, possibly prevent a picture to be taken at all. In late November of 2006, the recall was broadened to eight additional models of digital cameras sold between 2003 and 2005. The problem appears to manifest itself mostly when the camera is used in areas with hot weather. The eight models effected are the following: DSC-F88, DSC-M1, DSC-T1, DSC-T11, DSC-T3, DSC-T33, DSC-U40 and DSC-U50. Sony did indicate that they will repair or replace the affected camera at no charge. Since Sony is one of the largest producers of CCD chips, this recall may affect other manufacturer's and models of cameras, possibly as many as 100 models or more. Other manufacturers of digital cameras, including Canon, Minolta, Nikon, or Fuji have indicated they will replace faulty CCDs in their respective models of cameras if necessary.[http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=mobile_wireless&articleId=9005380&taxonomyId=15 Sony finds CCD problem with some of its digital cameras]
The entry for ''
Halo 3 '', a game created by Sony's competitor Microsoft, was modified by someone within Sony. The addition was "(Halo 3) wont look any better than Halo 2."
Sony Insults Halo 3 on Wikipedia .
- '' Made In Japan '' by Akio Morita and SONY, Harper Collins (1994)
- ''SONY: The Private Life'' by John Nathan , Houghton Mifflin (1999)
- ''SONY Radio, Sony Transistor Radio 35th Anniversary 1955-1990'' — information booklet (1990)
- ''The Portable Radio in American Life'' by University of Arizona Professor Michael Brian Schiffer, Ph.D. (The University of Arizona Press, 1991).
- ''The Japan Project: Made in Japan.'' — a documentary about Sony's early history in the U.S. by Terry Sanders .
