Historical Development of the Company
1. Early Post-War Period
In 1945, Japan's capital city of Tokyo was in ruins after World War II.
Fukuda Inoue established the Tokyo Communications Research Institute (TCRI) in a department store warehouse in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo.
Akio Morita was invited by Inoue to join **** with the management of the company, and the company was given 190,000 yen by Morita Sake, and was formally established as "Tokyo Telecommunications Industry Company Limited" in 1946, and relocated to Gotemiyama, Shinagawa-ku.
In his "Letter of Intent for the Establishment of the Company" (original Japanese: "Letter of Intent for the Establishment"), Mr. Inoue expressed his hope that "we will utilize the skills of our diligent and conscientious technicians to build an ideal factory that is free and open-minded, and where people can relax and enjoy themselves", and that it would become a "paradise for engineers". We are looking forward to becoming an "Engineer's Paradise".
In the early years of the company's existence, it was not possible to achieve stable growth, but it was only 10 years later, in 1956, that the company developed the world's first transistorized radio, the TR-55, a success, and the company's operations were finally getting better and better.
Triton technology
In the 1950s, Sony's black-and-white TVs were a big seller, but their technological competitiveness was not at all advantageous, and the quality of the color TVs they produced later was not very good in terms of mass-production yields, which led to huge losses and even brought the company to the brink of closure.
In 1967, Sony announced the development of Trinitron, a tube technology that made Sony TVs sell well around the world, and Akio Morita borrowed a huge amount of development debt from the Development Bank of Japan to pay it off in three years.
2. Rapid growth
Betamax defeat
In 1970, Sony and JVC, Panasonic **** with the publication of the U-Matic tape recording system, the formal competition for future video tape specifications to open the curtain, April 16, 1975, Sony published the world's first for the people's livelihood with the market Betamax specifications of the SL
And Japan's JVC introduced the VHS specification in September 1976, and Konosuke Matsushita decided to join the VHS camp.
In the Betamax-VHS video recording competition, VHS expanded the market three times as fast as Betamax as VHS improved on Betamax's biggest weakness (recording time of only one hour), and Betamax expanded the market three times as fast as Betamax did when Sony was unwilling to open up the specification license.
Sony insisted on using Betamax to fight the VHS alliance, which was open to specification from all over the world, and the 14-year battle for specification dominance ended in 1988 when Sony decided to join the VHS camp, and Betamax withdrew from the market completely.
Technically, the Beta format was far superior to the VHS format, but Panasonic dominated the civilian market by gaining support from many manufacturers through flexible licensing.
The Betamax format entered the professional world with a technological edge, and became the dominant standard for professional broadcast video, a starting point for many of today's broadcast video standards.
Walkman
In March 1979, at the request of Fukudai Inoue, the audio department modified the Pres *** an, a small tape recorder for journalists, into a smaller recorder, and after receiving many favorable reviews for its sound quality, Sony launched a new version in July 1979, led by Akio Morita. In July 1979, Sony launched the Walkman (Walkman), Akio Morita positioned the Walkman in the youth market, and emphasized youthful vitality and fashion, and created a headphone culture, and in February 1980 began to do sales around the world, and in November 1980 began the global unification of the use of "Walkman
Akio Morita was knighted in the UK in October 1992, and the headline in the UK press was: Rise and shine, Sir Sony Walkman.
3. Growing Up
Acquisition of Columbia Pictures
After Sony failed miserably in the competition between Betamax and VHS Video Records, Akio Morita saw the need to combine the highest-grade hardware with the most up-to-date content to master the market.
On September 25, 1989, under the leadership of Akio Morita, Sony Japan acquired the film and music divisions of CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), making it a subsidiary of SPE (Sony Picture Entertainment). The movie and music divisions of CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) made it part of SPE (Sony Pictures Entertainment).
At that time, Japan's economy was growing dramatically, establishing itself as the world's second-largest economy, while the U.S. economy was going downhill; Japan had lost World War II to the U.S., and many Japanese companies were frantically merging and acquiring U.S. firms for the sake of national pride, while many U.S. firms were powerless to fight back.
Among them, Mitsubishi (Mitsubishi) bought New York's landmark Rockefeller Center (Rockefeller Center), as well as Sony bought Columbia TriStar Pictures at a price of $6 billion, creating one of the largest overseas mergers and acquisitions in Japan at the time, and was seen by Americans as a Japanese invasion of the United States.
But this acquisition, the highest in Japanese history, also made Sony the highest loss-making company in Japanese history.
In the late 1980s, Japan began to burst the bubble economic crisis, and Sony's movie business group also because of the poor box office, and from then on, the loss of a few years, become the main obstacle to the profitability of Sony at that time.
It wasn't until 1997 that Howard Stringer led the reforms that became profitable, and in November 2004, he acquired the historic MGM studios.
PlayStation
The success of the Red and White Nintendo consoles produced by Nintendo prompted Sony to announce a partnership with Nintendo in 1988 to **** co-develop a CD-ROM console for the Super Nintendo.
In May 1992, after Nintendo's betrayal, Ken Kudo went to Norio Oga, the top management decision-maker at the time, to fight for the development of a new generation of game consoles, and in the midst of much opposition, Norio Oga strongly endorsed Ken Kudo's game console development program. "In 1993, Sony Music Japan, a subsidiary of Sony, established Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and planned to develop a new generation of CD-ROM game consoles under the codename "PS-X" to counter Nintendo's dominance of the game market.
SCE launched the PlayStation (PS) on December 3, 1994, the PlayStation 2 (PS2) on March 4, 2000, the PlayStation Portable (PSP) on December 12, 2004, and the PlayStation 3 (PS3) on November 11, 2006. PlayStation 3 (PS3), and on December 17, 2011, PlayStation Vita (PSVITA).
On November 15, 2013, Playstation 4 (PS4) was launched.
By March 31, 2012, the PlayStation line of video game consoles had sold more than 423 million units, including 142.5 million PS, 155.8 million PS2, 76.3 million PSP, and 64.85 million PS3, making the PlayStation the world's most successful, after Walkman, PlayStation product after the Walkman.
Digital dream child
In the Oga Norio's decision, jumping over fourteen senior directors and senior veterans, Sony announced on March 22, 1995 that the obscure Nobuyuki Izayoi would become president, stirring up the media reporter a "Izayoi who?" question. The question of April 1, 1995 took office, but also opened 10 years of Izumi Noboru digital dream era.
Since his appointment in 1995, Shinobu Izayoi has introduced the American model of a board of directors, drastically reducing the number of members of the original internal board and increasing the number of outside directors in the company's internal reforms.
In the company's positioning and management philosophy, he put forward the concepts of "Digital, Dream, Child", "Do you dream in Sony", "Ubiquitous Value Network".... "...and other new visions for Sony, Nobuyuki Izumi believes that Sony sells personal experiences, and that our raison d'être is to create people's desires and provide a dream.
He concludes that Sony sells personal experiences, movies, VAIO, PlayStation, Walkman and so on.
They are not necessary to sustain human life, our raison d'être is to create people's desires, to enter their lives, to provide a dream, and in order to do that we have to maintain a bare heart full of curiosity and joy, and to give people a joyful, childlike, carefree life."
"If we don't develop a brand new business model, Sony will be reduced to a supplier of network operator parts.
The new Sony products should then be a blend of entertainment, electronics, and emotion."
Take the four main areas of electronics, gaming, entertainment, and finance, and bring in digitalization and networking.
After 1996 Sony launched CyberShot digital cameras, VAIO notebooks, Clie PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)... and other digitized products, and achieved unprecedented success in the market.
And in the movie business group, which had a very poor return, the media man Howard Stringer was brought in, and under his reform, operations gradually improved, and then launched "Spider-Man", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" ... and other popular movies, the entertainment business group became an important source of profit for Sony.
In the 2000 financial report released in April 2001, Sony relied on the popularity of the PlayStation 2 to make its highest profit since its inception, $2.5 billion.
4. Facing a crisis
The PlayStation game console beat its rival, Nintendo, and forced out SEGA, while digital cameras took the lead over traditional camera brands, video receiver chips dominated the market, and the VAIO series of personal computers were a hit.
But since the global recession of 2001, the network bubble; published in 1994, PlayStation has not published any original products for 10 years since its development; itself in the field of electronics because WalkMan does not support the MP3 format, resulting in Apple Computer's iPod digital Walkman in the global sales, replacing WalkMan's original position.
WEGA, which boasts Trinitron technology, developed high-definition video technology on its own and misjudged the development of LCD TVs, allowing Sharp and Samsung, which own LCD technology, to take the lead in TV video... A series of decision-making errors and the constant compression of electronics prices have led to Sony's success in the 2000s, and the company is now in the position of a leader in the video industry. The success that Sony enjoyed in 2000 was severely curtailed in 2002.
In April 2003, Sony announced its 2002 fiscal year statements, the company's huge losses disclosed, Sony crisis began to surface, triggering the Sony Shock (Sony Shock), Sony stock fell 25% for 2 consecutive days, and induced the Japanese stock market of high-tech stocks have to dive, led the Nikkei index fell sharply, shaking the Japanese stock market, high-tech companies have been selling their stocks. Stocks have been sold off.
Noboru Izumi was criticized for dreaming for too long and not doing his job, and the sound of his voice kept appearing, and he was selected as the most successful CEO from the past and fell into the worst CEO.
Izumi Noboru Izumi said in December 2003 that the network was like a meteorite falling, and the dinosaurs were extinct because of it, and that Sony was in the midst of such a crisis.
In the same month, the company also released its "Transformation 60" reform plan, which expected the electronics division to achieve a 10% surplus within three years.
5. Mid-term
At the 2006 International CES, Sony announced its strategy for the future development of its entertainment business: focusing on four pillars of business, namely, high-definition, digital cinema, gaming, and e-entertainment, in order to strengthen its position as a full-service entertainment company.
Effective October 1, 2006, the Sony Group will realign the head of the Electronics business to strengthen its medium- and long-term growth strategy, further support its core businesses, and focus on strengthening the areas of product development and product quality.
R&D and all new business functions will be centralized at Sony's headquarters under the direct leadership of Ryoji Nakamachi.
In 2008, Sony was ranked 12th in the Top Brands in China for Buyer Satisfaction compiled by the World Brand Value Lab.
When Kazuo Hirai took office in 2012, he made the mobile device business, digital imaging business, and gaming business the core businesses of Sony's electronics business, while striving to turn around the TV business and aggressively developing new businesses.
At the same time, he put forward the one sony strategy, with a view to *** the strength of the entire group.
On April 16, 2013, Sony announced that it had set up an endoscopy research and development company with medical device maker Olympus***, and would formally join the medical device industry.
Product Launch History
In July 1950, released Japan's first G-type radio
In August 1955, released the world's first semiconductor radio - TR55
In May 1960, released the world's first semiconductor TV - TV8- 301
Sony announced that it had established an endoscope development company with medical device manufacturer Olympus***. 301
In August 1965, the world's first home video recorder, the CV-2000, was released
In April 1968, the revolutionary Trinitron TV video technology was released
In October 1968, the world's first color TV with Trinitron TV video technology was released: the KV-1310
The world's first color TV, the KV-1310, was released. 1310
In May 1975, the world's first BETAMAX VCR was released
In 1978, the revolutionary CCD (charge-coupled device) sensor technology was developed
In July 1979, the world's first Walkman was released: TPS-L2
The world's first Walkman was released. L2
In 1983, the company joined forces with Philips of the Netherlands*** to release the laserdisc (CD) and led the 74-minute standard
In 1983, the 3.5-inch floppy disk (1.44MB disk)
In June 1986, the company released a 32-bit computer: the MSX
In 1988, the company released the Hi-8 camera
In November 1992, the company released its first Walkman, the TPS-L2, which was the first Walkman in the world to be released. >
In November 1992, MD (Mini Disc) music technology was introduced
In December 1994, the PlayStation next-generation console was released
In December 1996, the first digital camera was released: the CyberShot DSC-F1
In July 1997, a new generation of computers was released: VAIO AV Integration System
July 1997, release of WEGA full-flat-screen TV
1999, launch of AIBO robot dog technology
1999, release of Memory Stick memory card
March 2000, release of PlayStation 2 next-generation gaming console Sony Corporation Products
In October 2001, Sony and Ericsson each held a 50% stake in a joint venture to create SonyEricsoon
In February 2002, the Blu-ray Disc standard was announced as the next-generation DVD optical disc storage format
In June 2003, the QUALIA premium branded series was launched
2003 In December, launched QRIO robotics technology
In December 2004, released the PlayStation Portable next-generation handheld game console with UMD storage media.
In January 2005, the company, together with IBM and Toshiba***, announced the Cell microprocessor with a clock speed of 4GHz
On May 16, 2005, the company announced the PlayStation 3 next-generation console with the Cell processor at the E3 Expo in the U.S.A.
On July 19, 2005, the company announced its partnership with Konica Minolta (Konica Minolta). Konica Minolta to enter the DSLR market in response to the saturation of consumer digital cameras.
On August 25, 2005, the company, together with IBM and TOSHIBA, announced the detailed manufacturing process for the Cell-Microprocessor
On September 13, 2005, the company announced the global launch of BRAVIA's new-generation LCD TVs in September
On September 30, 2005, the company, together with SanDisk, announced the Memory Stick Micro (M2), which is a new type of memory card that can be used in a variety of applications, including mobile phones, mobile phones, and mobile devices. Stick Micro (M2) Memory Card
On February 21st, 2006, the world's smallest 1080i HDV-HC3 HDTV support was announced
On April 10th, 2006, the company once again cooperated with Samsung Electronics in South Korea to put into production the 8th generation S-LCD panel factory
On April 20th, 2006, the company announced the brand-new alpha (alpha), a DSLR camera brand, which is the first in the world to be launched. In November 2006, the PlayStation 3 with Cell processor and next-generation Blu-ray technology was officially launched in Japan, the United States, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
On November 2, 2006, the eighth-generation S-LCD LCD panel plant with Samsung Electronics of South Korea officially started construction, and is expected to be officially put into production capacity in the fall of 2007.
On November 11, 2006, the PlayStation 3 next-generation game console was officially launched in Japan, and 100,000 units were sold out instantly.
In 2006, it was announced that the partnership with Ericsson of Sweden would be expanded to include the joint development of software for mobile and broadband TV applications, in addition to the continuation of the original cell phone design and manufacturing business.
On January 19, 2006, Sony and Konami made a joint announcement regarding Sony's acquisition of Konami's camera business. The acquisition agreement formalized the decision to transfer some of the assets related to Konami's digital SLR cameras to Sony, and Konami entrusted the customer service for the cameras and related products to Sony, with the agreement taking effect immediately.
In February 2008, with the launch of the new flagship Xperia X1, Sony Ericsson's high-end smartphone brand Xperia officially entered the public eye.
In January 2011, the second generation of PlayStation VITA, a handheld game console with quad-core, dual joysticks, and front and rear touchscreens, was released.
October 27, 2011, Sony announced the acquisition of 1 billion 50 million euros of 50% of the shares, wholly owned, announced that from the middle of 2012 to stop using the "Sony Ericsson" brand, the future of cell phones uniformly played "SONY" LOGO. "
In April 2012, Sony was approved by the European Commission to acquire the veteran music company Budai for $2.2 billion, making Sony the world's largest music company and controlling one-third of the world's music rights.
In July 2012, Sony acquired cloud gaming company GAIKAI for $400 million to expand its future console business.
On February 21, 2013, the PlayStation 4 was announced in London, but no product information such as pricing appearance was announced at the time.
On June 10, 2013, the PlayStation 4 was officially announced at the E3 electronics show in the U.S., with an announcement of how the console would look, the price, and the first games.
At the launch Sony confirmed that it would not be like rival Microsoft's Xbox one, with restrictions on trading in used games, regular networking certifications, and more.
The cell phone business
As a young, internationally recognized brand, born in 2001, is a 50-50 joint venture between Sony and Ericsson, combining Sony's expertise in audio-visual, product planning and design capabilities, marketing and branding of consumer electronics products, and Ericsson's expertise in mobile technology, relationships with carriers, and construction of network facilities, respectively. The company's expertise is in the areas of mobile technology, operator relations, and network infrastructure.
Sony Ericsson (formerly Ericsson Mobile, the world's third largest cell phone company).
Founded by Sony and Ericsson in 2001, Sony Ericsson was founded in 2000 by Ericsson Mobile, a subsidiary of Ericsson, a leading European telecom giant, with global headquarters in London, and approximately 7,500 employees worldwide, including research and development staff in Europe, Japan, China, and the United States.
People think Sony Ericsson is Japanese actually Sony Ericsson is a European company.
"Sony Ericsson" no longer exists, and the 50% financing stake that Ericsson has owned for the last ten years will officially return to Sony.
In 2001, Sony and Ericsson's cell phone business was losing money, and the development of the cell phone business alone seemed to have no future, but they were unwilling to give up this piece of "chicken ribs", so the two sides merged their cell phone businesses.
This trend was popular for a while, and Siemens then transferred its cell phone business to BenQ.
In 2007, Sony Ericsson was one of the top brands in the cell phone industry, along with Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia.
But Sony Ericsson lagged behind in the transformation of the cell phone industry to smartphones. It had a moment of glory with its photo and music features, but in the iPhone-led smartphone era, these have become standard, and Sony Ericsson has lost its unique charm.
On October 27, 2011, Sony announced that it would acquire Ericsson's 50% stake for €1.05 billion, making Sony Ericsson a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony.
The deal was completed in early 2012 and Sony Ericsson was renamed Sony Mobile.