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SONY History
SONY was formed after the second world war as a radio repair shop in 1945 in Tokyo, Japan. With in a few short years, the company began creating their own devices such as releasing the country's first tape recorder, the Type-G.
In the 1950s, SONY saw the transistor as a great invention with many opportunities. The company began researching possibilities in the miniaturisation of communications devices. In fact, the company was the first to market with a commercially successful product.
Their pocket radios were successful in Europe, the Americas and at home. SONY had established itself as a pioneering home entertainment/electronics company. The company's success came in part from a shift in popular culture that saw the music as a major element.
Rock and Roll was taking over North America and parts of Western Europe. And with plenty of money to spend and few products, the American public bought the radios in the thousands. SONY had gambled on a new industry. The bet paid off with SONY becoming the market leader.
SONY's early reputation for a pioneering electronics leader in the home entertainment industry. The company has a strong history of spending on research and development and has been a pioneer in every major home electronics push.
A Technology Pioneer
SONY is responsible for pioneering several technology wins including:
Trinitron CRT format
Compaq Disk format
3.5 inch floppy disk format
Betacam
Digital Audio Tape
SONY's First Computer
Kay Nishi created an industry standard for home computers that was adopted by Japanese and Korean markets. Each manufacturer made its own version of the MSX computer and SONY was no exception. The MSX computer survived through four iterations before being discontinued in 1995.
Penetrating the Video Game Industry
SONY saw the success of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and entered a deal with Nintendo to develop a CD-based game console. Nintendo decided to cancel the contract, but SONY continued their efforts. While the joint Super Disk project was now dead, SONY continued work and focused on building their own game/multimedia entertainment system: the SONY Playstation.
However, while SONY engineers were working on the next generation in game hardware, the marketing division began work on drumming up software development support for the console. Afterall, SONY had never developed a game console.
When the Playstation was released in 1994, it enjoyed great success. While the device was well engineered, significant backing by SONY with it's immense financial backing helped solidify the brand and make way for several more generations.
Present Day
SONY continues to produce the Playstation game console. However, while offering many firsts, the console only received moderate success due to its high price, though a recent price reduction has increased sales, though it is still behind the Xbox 360 in sales.
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