Sony
Encyclopedia
commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational
conglomerate
corporation headquartered in Minato
, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate
measured by revenues.. Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics
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 six operating segments – Consumer Products & Services Group (consumer electronics, game & network services), Professional, Device & Solutions Group (B2B products & services), Pictures, Music, Financial Services and Sony Ericsson. 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 Music Entertainment
, Sony Ericsson
, and Sony Financial. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.
The is a Japan-based corporate group
primarily focused on the Electronics (such as AV/IT products & components), Game (such as PlayStation), Entertainment (such as motion pictures and music), and Financial Services (such as insurance and banking) sectors. The group consists of Sony Corporation (holding & electronics), Sony Computer Entertainment
(game), Sony Pictures Entertainment
(motion pictures), Sony Music Entertainment
(music), Sony Financial Holdings
(financial services) and others
.
Its founders Akio Morita
and Masaru Ibuka
derived the name from sonus, the Latin
word for sound, and also from the English slang word "sonny", since they considered themselves to be "sonny boys", a loan word into Japanese which in the early 1950s connoted smart and presentable young men.
In late 1945, after the end of World War II
, Masaru Ibuka
started a radio repair shop in a bomb-damaged department store Shirokiya
building in Nihonbashi
of Tokyo. The next year, he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K., (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 and Morita looked to apply it to communications. Although the American companies Regency Electronics
and Texas Instruments
built the first transistor radio as joint venture, it was Ibuka's company that made them commercially successful for the first time.
In August 1955, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo released the Sony TR-55
, Japan's first commercially produced transistor radio
. They followed up in December of the same year by releasing the Sony TR-72, a product that won favor both within Japan and in export markets, including Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. Featuring six transistors, push-pull output and greatly improved sound quality, the TR-72 continued to be a popular seller into the early sixties.
In May 1956, the company released the TR-6, which featured an innovative slim design and sound quality capable of rivaling portable tube radios. It was for the TR-6 that Sony first contracted "Atchan", a cartoon character created by Fuyuhiko Okabe, to become its advertising character
. Now known as "Sony Boy", the character first appeared in a cartoon ad holding a TR-6 to his ear, but went on to represent the company in ads for a variety of products well into the mid-sixties. The following year, 1957, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo 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, PhD, 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.
Sony's headquarters moved to Minato, Tokyo
from Shinagawa, Tokyo
around the end of 2006.
The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin
word "Sonus", which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was "Sonny", a familiar term used in 1950s America to call a boy. The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955 but the company name did not change to Sony until January 1958.
At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters
to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji
. The move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui
, 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.
of the early 1980s, when Sony marketed the Betamax
system for video cassette recorders against the VHS format developed by JVC
. In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketbase 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 television industry, although far less so in recent years with the introduction of digital and high definition.
In 1968 Sony introduced the Trinitron
brand name
for its lines of aperture grille
cathode ray tube
televisions and (later) computer monitors. Trinitron displays are still produced, but only for markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. Sony discontinued the last Trinitron-based television set in the USA in early 2007. Trinitron computer monitors were discontinued in 2005.
Sony launched the Betamax
videocassette recording
format in 1975. In 1979 the Walkman
brand was introduced, in the form of the world's first portable music player.
1982 saw the launch of Sony's professional Betacam
videotape format and the collaborative Compact Disc (CD) format. In 1983 Sony introduced 90 mm micro diskettes (better known as 3.5 inches (88.9 mm) 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 current media formats. In 1983 Sony launched the MSX
, a home computer system, and introduced the world (with their counterpart Philips
) to the Compact Disc (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 and the follow-on hi-band Hi8
format became popular in the consumer camcorder market. In 1987 Sony launched the 4 mm DAT or Digital Audio Tape
as a new digital audio tape standard.
In addition to developing consumer-based recording media, after the launch of the CD Sony began development of commercially based recording media. In 1986 they launched Write-Once optical disc
s (WO) and in 1988 launched Magneto-optical disc
s which were around 125MB size for the specific use of archival data storage.
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 the more widely used 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 provided software SonicStage
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 a 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.
In 1998, Sony launched their Memory Stick
format; flash memory
cards for use in Sony lines of digital cameras and portable music players. It has seen little support outside of Sony's own products with Secure Digital card
s (SD) commanding considerably greater popularity. This is due in part to the SD format's greater throughput (which allows faster recording and access), higher capacities, and significantly lower price per unit capacity compared to Memory Sticks available at the same time. Sony has made updates to the Memory Stick format with Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Micro.
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 ubiquitous presence of CD drives in consumer devices.
In 2004, Sony built upon the MiniDisc
format by releasing Hi-MD. Hi-MD allows the playback and recording of audio on newly-introduced 1 GB 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 a 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.
Sony was one of the leading developers and remains one of the strongest proponents of the Blu-ray Disc
optical disc format, which eventually emerged as the market leader over the competing standard, Toshiba's HD DVD
, after a 2 year-long format war. The first Blu-ray players became commercially available in June 2006, and Sony's first Blu-ray player, the Sony BDP-S1
, debuted in December 2006 with an MSRP of US $999.95. By the end of 2007 the format had the backing of every major motion picture studio except Universal
, Paramount
, and DreamWorks
. The Blu-ray format's popularity continued to increase, solidifying its position as the dominant HD media format, and Toshiba announced its decision to stop supporting HD DVD on 19 February 2008.
Over the years, Sony has introduced these standards:
, humanoid
s, and QRIO
.
in 2000. The PlayStation 2 has become the most successful video game console of all time, selling over 150 million units as of 2011. The PlayStation brand was extended to the portable games market in 2005 by the PlayStation Portable
(PSP). 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-studio support for the format was cut back in spring 2006, though as of 2009 some major-studio titles continue to be released on UMD.
Sony released the PlayStation 3
, a high-definition console, in 2006. It later introduced the PlayStation Move, an accessory that allows players to control video games using motion controllers. Sony announced that on 1 April 2010 it was electronically removing Linux
functionality from the first generation PS3. A class action has been taken out in California challenging the legality of "the disablement of valuable functionality originally advertised".
Sony admitted in late 2005 to hiring graffiti
artists to spray paint advertisements for their PlayStation Portable
game system in seven major cities including New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Sydney, Australia. The mayor of Philadelphia filed a cease and desist
order. According to Sony, they paid businesses and building owners for the right to graffiti their walls. As of early January 2006, Sony had no plans to keep or withdraw them.
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".
In 2003, Sony Computer Entertainment America, marketer of the popular PlayStation
game consoles, was sued by Immersion Corporation
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 Sixaxis
controller for the PlayStation 3 had no rumble feature. The DualShock 3
has since been made available for the PlayStation 3
, reintroducing rumble capabilities. Microsoft
Corp. was also sued for its Xbox
controller, however, unlike Sony, they settled out of court so they could continue using the technology for the follow-up Xbox 360
. 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.
laptops, citing concern for users running malicious code. However, most new VAIO laptops can utilize virtualization.
On 14 August 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 was shared between Dell and Sony. Dell also confirmed that one of its laptops caught fire in Illinois. 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 that Sony must have reported on their findings and drawn up a plan to prevent future problems by the end of August, or face a fine under consumer safety laws. On 23 September 2006, Sony announced its investigation of a Lenovo ThinkPad
T43 laptop which overheated and caught fire in the Los Angeles International Airport on 16 September, an incident that was confirmed by Lenovo.
On 28 September 2006, Sony announced a global battery exchange program in response to growing consumer concerns. Acer, Apple Computer, Dell, Fujitsu
, IBM
, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard
, and Toshiba
all recalled Sony laptop batteries. It was also reported that Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Hitachi were considering the possibility of seeking compensation from Sony over the battery recalls.
A Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun
, reported that Sony was aware of faults in its notebook PC batteries in December 2005 but failed to fully study the problem.
, who gave consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures
that generally received poor reviews amongst real critics. When the scandal was revealed, Sony apologised to Ridgefield Press, the newspaper Manning was claimed to be from. Sony claimed it was unaware of the marketing ploy, and pulled the ads and suspended Manning's creator and his supervisor. In 2003, Sony paid the state of Connecticut $325,000 in fines following the Connecticut Attorney General's investigation into Sony's alleged fraudulent marketing practices. In August 2005, Sony finalized a settlement to pay $1.5m to fans who saw the reviewed films in the US.
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.
of Sysinternals that Sony BMG's music CDs had installed a rootkit
on the user's computer as a DRM
measure (called Extended Copy Protection
by its creator, British company First 4 Internet), which was difficult to detect or remove. This constitutes a crime in many countries, and poses a major security risk to affected users. The uninstaller Sony initially provided removed the rootkit, but in turn installed a dial-home
program that posed an even greater security risk. Sony eventually provided an actual uninstaller that removed all of Sony's DRM program from the user's computer. Sony BMG faced several class action lawsuits regarding this matter.
On 31 January 2007, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a news release announcing that Sony BMG had agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that Sony BMG committed several offenses against United States federal law. This settlement required that Sony BMG allow consumers to exchange the CDs through 30 June 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 September 2009 Sony had its Mexican office raided by police to recover over 6000 CDs, masters and artwork, by the popular Latin American artist Alejandro Fernández
. Fernández's lawyers claimed that Sony was in breach of contract as Fernández had been contracted to Sony for seven albums and the recordings were an eighth album made after the contract had expired.
Initially, in October 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 being taken at all. In late November 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 affected are the following: DSC-F88, DSC-M1, DSC-T1, DSC-T11, DSC-T3, DSC-T33, DSC-U40 and DSC-U50. Sony indicated that they would 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 manufacturers and models of cameras, possibly as many as 100 models or more. Other manufacturers of digital cameras, including Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus or Fuji have indicated they will replace faulty CCDs in their respective models of cameras if necessary.
On 22 June 2005, Nobuyuki Idei
stepped down as Sony Corp. Chairman and Group CEO and was replaced by Howard Stringer, then 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
marked the first time that a foreigner has run a major Japanese electronics firm. On the same date, Kunitake Ando
stepped down as President and was replaced by Ryoji Chubachi.
Sony's former slogans were "It's a Sony", "like.no.other" and its current slogan is "make.believe".
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.
Sony's Sales and Distribution by Geographical Regions in 2009
On December 9, 2008, Sony Corporation announced that it would be cutting 8,000 jobs, dropping 8,000 contractors and reducing its global manufacturing sites by 10% to save $1.1 billion a year.
Together with Phillips
, Sony receives the highest score for energy policy advocacy after calling on the EU to adopt an unconditional 30% reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Meanwhile, it receives full marks for the efficiency of its products; all of its TVs meet or exceed the latest Energy Star standards. However, Sony scores no points on its paper policy, risking another penalty point in future editions, as it is listed as a client of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a company associated with illegal logging and deforestation in Indonesia.
Sony publishes on its website a list of products, for which the company had (as of February 2010) or intended to replace PVC and BFR with alternative substances by the end of FY 2010 (April 2011), nevertheless as of January 2011 the list does not identify which products are fulfilling these criteria at the moment.
running on geothermal power
. The "Sony Take Back Recycling Program" allow consumers to recycle the electronics products that they buy from Sony by taking them to eCycle (Recycling) drop-off points around the U.S. The company has also developed a biobattery that runs on sugars and carbohydrates that works similarly to the way living creatures work. This is the most powerful small biobattery
to date.
emissions totaling 79 kilograms (174 pounds) a year, without sacrificing quality by developing a brighter back light and better filtering, which produces light more efficiently. The TVs will have liquid crystal displays along with high-definition digital broadcast capabilities.
chart "Guide to Greener Electronics." This chart graded major electronics companies on their environmental work. Sony fell from its earlier 11th place ranking due to Greenpeace
's claims that Sony had double standards in their waste policies.
On 11 January 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment
(SCE) filed suit against George Hotz
for publishing a technique for hacking the PlayStation 3 to allow it to run alternative operating system
s like Linux
. The case, Sony Computer Entertainment America v. George Hotz
, attracted much negative publicity among hackers and on the Internet at large. On or about 4 April 2011, adherents of the Anonymous
movement declared in an open letter that they were directing their hostile "undivided attention" against Sony, largely in response to the Hotz case.
On 21 April 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment was subjected to distributed denial of service attack
s, apparently in retaliation for its case against Hotz. On April 26 Sony announced that the PlayStation Network (PSN) had been attacked, allegedly resulting in the theft of the personal information of 77 million account holders. It seems that the attack took place between April 17 and 19. Sony blamed Anonymous
for the attack, although at least some Anonymous members denied responsibility. Sony decided to shut down the PlayStation Network "indefinitely" following the attack, although it returned to service on 14 May, following a 26 day outage.
Sony was criticized for waiting 6 days after the 21 April attack to disclose the breach to users who may have been impacted, and for storing information including credit card numbers, passwords, and security questions, without sufficient encryption
. The company now faces a class action
lawsuit seeking redress for PlayStation Network users. A subsequent lawsuit between Sony’s insurers sought declaratory action for clarification of their responsibilities listed under the individual policies they had written for Sony. The insurers facing litigation are Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, AIG, and ACE Ltd.
On 5 May, Sony released a letter from chairman Sir Howard Stringer, directed at PSN and Qriocity Music Service users, announcing plans for a program which includes a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user.
Australia has called for a ban on PSN until Sony can prove network security, while Japan is the first country to place an outright ban on the service. The PSN service has been fully restored in Japan as of July 5th 2011.
On 25 May, Sony announced that its Sony Ericsson
website in Canada and the Sony Music Entertainment
website in Greece had been compromised, putting the personal information of more than 10,000 users at risk.
Security consultant Phil Lieberman said Sony's approach to customers that wanted to modify PlayStation 3 software, including the decision to sue Hotz, was a fatal mistake. "Telling them to bring it on is not the best strategy. I think Sony is beginning to understand it horribly underinvested in security," Lieberman said.
On 29 May 2011, a group called Lulz Security announced a campaign against Sony, using language emblematic of the Anonymous
movement. On 2 June 2011, Sony Pictures Entertainment
was the subject of an attack, disclosing 1 million user passwords, which were then distributed via BitTorrent.
published by Trust Research Advisory has ranked SONY in the 3rd position among the brands in India.
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
conglomerate
Conglomerate (company)
A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...
corporation headquartered in Minato
Minato, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. As of 1 March 2008, it had an official population of 217,335 and a population density of 10,865 persons per km². The total area is 20.34 km².Minato hosts 49 embassies...
, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate
Media conglomerate
A media conglomerate, media group or media institution is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet...
measured by revenues.. Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
products for the consumer and professional markets.
Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit
Strategic business unit
In essence, the SBU is a profit making area that focuses on a combination of product offer and market segment, requiring its own marketing plan, competitor analysis, and marketing campaign.A Strategic Business Unit emerges at the cross-over between:...
and the parent company
Parent company
A parent company is a company that owns enough voting stock in another firm to control management and operations by influencing or electing its board of directors; the second company being deemed as a subsidiary of the parent company...
of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its six operating segments – Consumer Products & Services Group (consumer electronics, game & network services), Professional, Device & Solutions Group (B2B products & services), Pictures, Music, Financial Services and Sony Ericsson. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics
Sony Electronics
Sony Electronics Inc., headquartered in San Diego, Calif., is the largest component of Sony Corporation of America, the U.S. holding company for Sony's U.S.-based electronics and entertainment businesses.-External links:***...
in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
, Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...
, Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
, Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....
, and Sony Financial. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.
The is a Japan-based corporate group
Business group
A corporate group is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. The concept of a group is frequently used in tax law, accounting and company law to attribute the rights and duties of one member of the group to...
primarily focused on the Electronics (such as AV/IT products & components), Game (such as PlayStation), Entertainment (such as motion pictures and music), and Financial Services (such as insurance and banking) sectors. The group consists of Sony Corporation (holding & electronics), Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...
(game), Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
(motion pictures), Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
(music), Sony Financial Holdings
Sony Financial Holdings
is a holding company for Sony's financial services business. It owns and oversees the operation of Sony Life Insurance, Sony Assurance, Sony Bank, Sony Bank Securities and Sony Life Insurance . Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.-External links:* * *...
(financial services) and others
Sony Corporation shareholders and subsidiaries
-Shareholders:#Moxley and Company #Japan Trustee Services Bank, Ltd. #The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Ltd. #State Street Bank and Trust Company...
.
Its founders Akio Morita
Akio Morita
Akio Morita KBE was a Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony Corporation along with Masaru Ibuka.-Early life:...
and Masaru Ibuka
Masaru Ibuka
Masaru Ibuka was a Japanese electronics industrialist. He co-founded what is now Sony....
derived the name from sonus, the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word for sound, and also from the English slang word "sonny", since they considered themselves to be "sonny boys", a loan word into Japanese which in the early 1950s connoted smart and presentable young men.
History
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Masaru Ibuka
Masaru Ibuka
Masaru Ibuka was a Japanese electronics industrialist. He co-founded what is now Sony....
started a radio repair shop in a bomb-damaged department store Shirokiya
Shirokiya
' was one of Japan's oldest companies, as well as the largest retailer during the early 20th century. In the 1950s, it was purchased by another Japanese corporation and began an expansion overseas, primarily in Hawaii. However, in 2001, the company was largely dissolved...
building in Nihonbashi
Nihonbashi
, or Nihombashi, is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan which grew up around the bridge of the same name which has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603, and the current bridge made of stone dates from 1911...
of Tokyo. The next year, he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K., (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). The company built Japan's first tape recorder
Tape recorder
An audio tape recorder, tape deck, reel-to-reel tape deck, cassette deck or tape machine is an audio storage device that records and plays back sounds, including articulated voices, usually using magnetic tape, either wound on a reel or in a cassette, for storage...
, called the Type-G.
In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
' invention of the transistor
Transistor
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current...
. 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 and Morita looked to apply it to communications. Although the American companies Regency Electronics
Regency TR-1
The Regency TR-1 was the first commercially sold transistor radio.-History:Two companies working together, Texas Instruments of Dallas, Texas and Industrial Development Engineering Associates of Indianapolis, Indiana, were behind the unveiling of the Regency TR-1, the world's first...
and Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
built the first transistor radio as joint venture, it was Ibuka's company that made them commercially successful for the first time.
In August 1955, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo released the Sony TR-55
TR-55
The TR-55, released in 1955, was Sony's first transistor radio, and the first to be made in Japan. The use of transistors rather than vacuum tubes allowed the device to be much smaller than earlier radios, and allowed them to be the first truly portable radio from Japan.-Technical...
, Japan's first commercially produced transistor radio
Transistor radio
A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver using transistor-based circuitry. Following their development in 1954 they became the most popular electronic communication device in history, with billions manufactured during the 1960s and 1970s...
. They followed up in December of the same year by releasing the Sony TR-72, a product that won favor both within Japan and in export markets, including Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. Featuring six transistors, push-pull output and greatly improved sound quality, the TR-72 continued to be a popular seller into the early sixties.
In May 1956, the company released the TR-6, which featured an innovative slim design and sound quality capable of rivaling portable tube radios. It was for the TR-6 that Sony first contracted "Atchan", a cartoon character created by Fuyuhiko Okabe, to become its advertising character
Advertising character
An advertising character is a fictional character that appears within advertising and marketing materials for a given product or service.-See also:*Moe anthropomorphism*List of American advertising characters...
. Now known as "Sony Boy", the character first appeared in a cartoon ad holding a TR-6 to his ear, but went on to represent the company in ads for a variety of products well into the mid-sixties. The following year, 1957, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo 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
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
professor Michael Brian Schiffer, PhD, 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.
Sony's headquarters moved to Minato, Tokyo
Minato, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. As of 1 March 2008, it had an official population of 217,335 and a population density of 10,865 persons per km². The total area is 20.34 km².Minato hosts 49 embassies...
from Shinagawa, Tokyo
Shinagawa, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. In English, it is called Shinagawa City. The ward is home to nine embassies.As of 2008, the ward has an estimated population of 344,461 and a density of 15,740 persons per km². The total area is 22.72 km²....
around the end of 2006.
Origin of name
When Tokyo Tsushin 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 during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. 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.The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word "Sonus", which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was "Sonny", a familiar term used in 1950s America to call a boy. The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955 but the company name did not change to Sony until January 1958.
At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters
Romanization of Japanese
The romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is known as , less strictly romaji, literally "Roman letters", sometimes incorrectly transliterated as romanji or rōmanji. There are several different romanization systems...
to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
. The move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui
Mitsui
is one of the largest corporate conglomerates in Japan and one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.-History:Founded by Mitsui Takatoshi , who was the fourth son of a shopkeeper in Matsusaka, in what is now today's Mie prefecture...
, 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.
Formats and technologies
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 warVideotape format war
The videotape format war was a period of intense competition or "format war" of incompatible models of consumer-level analog video videocassette and video cassette recorders in the late 1970s and the 1980s.- Overview :...
of the early 1980s, when Sony marketed the Betamax
Betamax
Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
system for video cassette recorders against the VHS format developed by JVC
JVC
, usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...
. In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketbase 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
Component video
Component video is a video signal that has been split into two or more component channels. In popular use, it refers to a type of component analog video information that is transmitted or stored as three separate signals...
format called Betacam
Betacam
Betacam is family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself....
that was derived from Betamax is still used today, especially in the television industry, although far less so in recent years with the introduction of digital and high definition.
In 1968 Sony introduced the Trinitron
Trinitron
Trinitron is Sony's brand name for its line of aperture grille based CRTs used in television sets and computer display monitors. One of the first truly new television systems to enter the market since the 1950s, the Trinitron was announced in 1966 to wide acclaim for its bright images, about 25%...
brand name
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
for its lines of aperture grille
Aperture grille
An aperture grille is one of two major technologies used to manufacture color cathode ray tube televisions and computer displays; the other is shadow mask....
cathode ray tube
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
televisions and (later) computer monitors. Trinitron displays are still produced, but only for markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. Sony discontinued the last Trinitron-based television set in the USA in early 2007. Trinitron computer monitors were discontinued in 2005.
Sony launched the Betamax
Betamax
Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
videocassette recording
Videocassette recorder
The videocassette recorder , is a type of electro-mechanical device that uses removable videocassettes that contain magnetic tape for recording analog audio and analog video from broadcast television so that the images and sound can be played back at a more convenient time...
format in 1975. In 1979 the Walkman
Walkman
Walkman is a Sony brand tradename originally used for portable audio cassette, and now used to market Sony's portable audio and video players as well as a line of Sony Ericsson mobile phones...
brand was introduced, in the form of the world's first portable music player.
1982 saw the launch of Sony's professional Betacam
Betacam
Betacam is family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself....
videotape format and the collaborative Compact Disc (CD) format. In 1983 Sony introduced 90 mm micro diskettes (better known as 3.5 inches (88.9 mm) floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
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 current media formats. In 1983 Sony launched the MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
, a home computer system, and introduced the world (with their counterpart Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
) to the Compact Disc (CD). In 1984 Sony launched the Discman
Discman
Discman was the product name given to Sony's first portable CD player, the D-50, which was the first on the market in 1984, and adopted for Sony's entire portable CD player line...
series which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products. In 1985 Sony launched their Handycam products and the Video8 format
8 mm video format
The 8mm video format refers informally to three related videocassette formats for the NTSC and PAL/SECAM television systems. These are the original Video8 format and its improved successor Hi8 , as well as a more recent digital recording format known as Digital8.Their user base...
. Video8 and the follow-on hi-band Hi8
8 mm video format
The 8mm video format refers informally to three related videocassette formats for the NTSC and PAL/SECAM television systems. These are the original Video8 format and its improved successor Hi8 , as well as a more recent digital recording format known as Digital8.Their user base...
format became popular in the consumer camcorder market. In 1987 Sony launched the 4 mm DAT or Digital Audio Tape
Digital Audio Tape
Digital Audio Tape is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a compact audio cassette, using 4 mm magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. As...
as a new digital audio tape standard.
In addition to developing consumer-based recording media, after the launch of the CD Sony began development of commercially based recording media. In 1986 they launched Write-Once optical disc
Optical disc
In computing and optical disc recording technologies, an optical disc is a flat, usually circular disc which encodes binary data in the form of pits and lands on a special material on one of its flat surfaces...
s (WO) and in 1988 launched Magneto-optical disc
Magneto-optical drive
A magneto-optical drive is a kind of optical disc drive capable of writing and rewriting data upon a magneto-optical disc. Both 130 mm and 90 mm form factors exist. The technology was introduced commercially in 1985...
s which were around 125MB size for the specific use of archival data storage.
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
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
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
Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation
Eight-to-fourteen modulation is a data encoding technique – formally, a channel code – used by compact discs and pre-Hi-MD MiniDiscs. EFMPlus is a related code, used in DVDs and SACDs. EFM and EFMPlus were both invented by Kees A...
. The unified disc format was called DVD which was marketed in 1997.
Sony introduced the MiniDisc
MiniDisc
The disc is permanently housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. This shutter is opened automatically by a mechanism upon insertion. The audio discs can either be recordable or premastered. Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record...
format in 1993 as an alternative to Philips DCC or Digital Compact Cassette
Digital Compact Cassette
Digital Compact Cassette was a magnetic tape sound recording format introduced by Philips and Matsushita in late 1992 and pitched as a successor to the standard analog cassette. It was also a direct competitor to Sony's MiniDisc but neither format toppled the then ubiquitous analog cassette...
. Since the introduction of MiniDisc, Sony has attempted to promote its own audio compression technologies under the ATRAC brand, against the more widely used 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 provided software SonicStage
SonicStage
SonicStage is the name for Sony software that is used for managing portable devices when they are plugged into a computer running Microsoft Windows. It comprises a music player and library manager, similar to iTunes, Windows Media Player and RealPlayer. It is used to manage the library of ATRAC...
would convert MP3 files into the ATRAC or ATRAC3 formats.
In 1993, Sony challenged the industry standard Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
5.1 surround sound format with a 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.
In 1998, Sony launched their Memory Stick
Memory Stick
Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998, and is also used in general to describe the whole family of Memory Sticks...
format; flash memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
cards for use in Sony lines of digital cameras and portable music players. It has seen little support outside of Sony's own products with Secure Digital card
Secure Digital card
Secure Digital is a non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Card Association for use in portable devices. The SD technology is used by more than 400 brands across dozens of product categories and more than 8,000 models, and is considered the de-facto industry standard.Secure Digital...
s (SD) commanding considerably greater popularity. This is due in part to the SD format's greater throughput (which allows faster recording and access), higher capacities, and significantly lower price per unit capacity compared to Memory Sticks available at the same time. Sony has made updates to the Memory Stick format with Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Micro.
Sony and Philips jointly developed the Sony-Philips digital interface format (S/PDIF
S/PDIF
S/PDIF is a digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment over relatively short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fiber optic cable with TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theaters and other digital high...
) and the high-fidelity audio system SACD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
. The latter has since been entrenched in a format war with DVD-Audio
DVD-Audio
DVD-Audio is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio is not intended to be a video delivery format and is not the same as video DVDs containing concert films or music videos....
. At present, neither has gained a major foothold with the general public. CDs are preferred by consumers because of ubiquitous presence of CD drives in consumer devices.
In 2004, Sony built upon the MiniDisc
MiniDisc
The disc is permanently housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. This shutter is opened automatically by a mechanism upon insertion. The audio discs can either be recordable or premastered. Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record...
format by releasing Hi-MD. Hi-MD allows the playback and recording of audio on newly-introduced 1 GB 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 a linear PCM recording feature. It was the first time since MiniDisc's introduction in 1992 that the ATRAC codec
Codec
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
could be bypassed and lossless CD-quality audio could be recorded on the small discs.
Sony was one of the leading developers and remains one of the strongest proponents of the Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
optical disc format, which eventually emerged as the market leader over the competing standard, Toshiba's HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
, after a 2 year-long format war. The first Blu-ray players became commercially available in June 2006, and Sony's first Blu-ray player, the Sony BDP-S1
Sony BDP-S1
The Sony BDP-S1 is a first generation Blu-ray Disc Player. It was first released in North America. It was originally scheduled for release in the United States on August 18, 2006 with a MSRP of $999.95. Sony had postponed the release date of this player several times and it was released on...
, debuted in December 2006 with an MSRP of US $999.95. By the end of 2007 the format had the backing of every major motion picture studio except Universal
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
, Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, and DreamWorks
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
. The Blu-ray format's popularity continued to increase, solidifying its position as the dominant HD media format, and Toshiba announced its decision to stop supporting HD DVD on 19 February 2008.
Over the years, Sony has introduced these standards:
- Umatic (~1968)
- BetamaxBetamaxBetamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
(1975) - BetacamBetacamBetacam is family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself....
(1981) - Compact Disc with PhilipsPhilipsKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
(1982) - 3.5 inch Floppy DiskFloppy diskA floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
(1982) - Video8 (1985)
- DATDigital Audio TapeDigital Audio Tape is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a compact audio cassette, using 4 mm magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. As...
(1987) - Hi8 (1988)
- MiniDiscMiniDiscThe disc is permanently housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. This shutter is opened automatically by a mechanism upon insertion. The audio discs can either be recordable or premastered. Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record...
(~1990) - Digital Betacam (~1990)
- miniDVDVDV is a format for the digital recording and playing back of digital video. The DV codec was launched in 1995 with joint efforts of leading producers of video camcorders....
(1992) - DVD with others (~1995)
- DVCAM (1996)
- Memory StickMemory StickMemory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998, and is also used in general to describe the whole family of Memory Sticks...
(1998) - Digital8Digital8Digital8 is a consumer digital recording videocassette for camcorders based on the 8 mm video format developed by Sony, and introduced in 1999.The Digital8 format is a combination of the older Hi8 tape transport with the DV codec...
(1999) - Universal Media DiscUniversal Media DiscThe Universal Media Disc is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on their PlayStation Portable handheld gaming and multimedia platform...
(~2003) - HDVHDVHDV is a format for recording of high-definition video on DV cassette tape. The format was originally developed by JVC and supported by Sony, Canon and Sharp...
with JVCJVC, usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...
(~2004) - Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
with PanasonicPanasonicPanasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
and othersBlu-ray Disc FoundersThe Blu-ray Disc Founders group was a collection of technology firms working together to develop and support the Blu-ray Disc. The Blu-ray Disc Founders was launched on May 20, 2002. As Blu-ray support grew progressively; announcements in 2004 included Hewlett Packard and Dell, which declared...
(2006)
Products
Sony offers a number of products in a variety of product lines around the world. Sony has developed a music playing robot called Rolly, dog-shaped robots called AIBOAIBO
AIBO was one of several types of robotic pets designed and manufactured by Sony...
, humanoid
Humanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
s, and QRIO
QRIO
QRIO was to be a bipedal humanoid entertainment robot developed and marketed by Sony to follow up on the success of its AIBO toy. QRIO stood approximately 0.6 m tall and weighed 7.3 kg...
.
PlayStation
In late 1994 Sony launched the PlayStation to compete with other consoles. This successful console was succeeded by the PlayStation 2PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
in 2000. The PlayStation 2 has become the most successful video game console of all time, selling over 150 million units as of 2011. The PlayStation brand was extended to the portable games market in 2005 by the PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
(PSP). Sony developed the Universal Media Disc
Universal Media Disc
The Universal Media Disc is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on their PlayStation Portable handheld gaming and multimedia platform...
(UMD) optical disc medium for use on the PlayStation Portable. Although Sony tried to push the UMD format for movies, major-studio support for the format was cut back in spring 2006, though as of 2009 some major-studio titles continue to be released on UMD.
Sony released the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, a high-definition console, in 2006. It later introduced the PlayStation Move, an accessory that allows players to control video games using motion controllers. Sony announced that on 1 April 2010 it was electronically removing Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
functionality from the first generation PS3. A class action has been taken out in California challenging the legality of "the disablement of valuable functionality originally advertised".
Sony admitted in late 2005 to hiring graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
artists to spray paint advertisements for their PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
game system in seven major cities including New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Sydney, Australia. The mayor of Philadelphia filed a cease and desist
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
order. According to Sony, they paid businesses and building owners for the right to graffiti their walls. As of early January 2006, Sony had no plans to keep or withdraw them.
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
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
through viral marketing
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
. 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
Digg
Digg is a social news website. Prior to Digg v4, its cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. Digg's popularity prompted the creation of copycat social networking sites with story submission and voting systems...
, 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
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
". The site has since been taken down. In an interview with next-gen.biz, Sony admitted that the idea was "poorly executed".
In 2003, Sony Computer Entertainment America, marketer of the popular PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
game consoles, was sued by Immersion Corporation
Immersion Corporation
Immersion Corporation of San Jose, California, is a developer of haptic technology.The company was founded in 1993. Immersion's technology is employed in automotive, entertainment, medical training, mobility, personal computing, and three-dimensional simulation applications. Immersion's patent...
of San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
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 Sixaxis
Sixaxis
The Sixaxis Wireless Controller was the official gamepad for the Sony PlayStation 3 from launch until 2008 when it was succeeded by the DualShock 3....
controller for the PlayStation 3 had no rumble feature. The DualShock 3
DualShock
The DualShock is a line of vibration-feedback gamepads by Sony for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. The DualShock was introduced in Japan in late 1997, and launched in the North American market in May 1998...
has since been made available for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, reintroducing rumble capabilities. Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Corp. was also sued for its Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
controller, however, unlike Sony, they settled out of court so they could continue using the technology for the follow-up Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. 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.
VAIO
Sony offers a line up laptops branded as VAIO. Previously Sony has disabled hardware virtualization on their high end VAIOVAIO
VAIO is a sub-brand used for many of Sony's computer products. Originally an acronym of Video Audio Integrated Operation, this was amended to Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer in 2008 to celebrate the brand's 10th anniversary...
laptops, citing concern for users running malicious code. However, most new VAIO laptops can utilize virtualization.
Laptop batteries dysfunction
In April 2006, a Sony laptop battery exploded in Japan and caught fire. A Japanese couple in Tokyo sued both Sony and Apple Japan for over ¥2 million (US$16,700) 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 14 August 2006, Sony and Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
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 was shared between Dell and Sony. Dell also confirmed that one of its laptops caught fire in Illinois. 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 that Sony must have reported on their findings and drawn up a plan to prevent future problems by the end of August, or face a fine under consumer safety laws. On 23 September 2006, Sony announced its investigation of a Lenovo ThinkPad
ThinkPad
ThinkPad is line of laptop computers originally sold by IBM but now produced by Lenovo. They are known for their boxy black design, which was modeled after a traditional Japanese lunchbox...
T43 laptop which overheated and caught fire in the Los Angeles International Airport on 16 September, an incident that was confirmed by Lenovo.
On 28 September 2006, Sony announced a global battery exchange program in response to growing consumer concerns. Acer, Apple Computer, Dell, Fujitsu
Fujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, and Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
all recalled Sony laptop batteries. It was also reported that Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Hitachi were considering the possibility of seeking compensation from Sony over the battery recalls.
A Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun
Yomiuri Shimbun
The is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five national newspapers in Japan; the other four are the Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and the Sankei Shimbun...
, reported that Sony was aware of faults in its notebook PC batteries in December 2005 but failed to fully study the problem.
Sony Pictures Entertainment
In July 2000, a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation created a fictitious film critic, David ManningDavid Manning (fictitious writer)
"David Manning" was a fictitious film critic, created by a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation around July 2000 to give consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures...
, who gave consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
that generally received poor reviews amongst real critics. When the scandal was revealed, Sony apologised to Ridgefield Press, the newspaper Manning was claimed to be from. Sony claimed it was unaware of the marketing ploy, and pulled the ads and suspended Manning's creator and his supervisor. In 2003, Sony paid the state of Connecticut $325,000 in fines following the Connecticut Attorney General's investigation into Sony's alleged fraudulent marketing practices. In August 2005, Sony finalized a settlement to pay $1.5m to fans who saw the reviewed films in the US.
In 2006 Sony started using ARccOS Protection
ARccOS Protection
ARccOS is a copy-protection system made by Sony that is used on some DVDs. Designed as an additional layer to be used in conjunction with Content Scramble System , the system deliberately creates corrupted sectors on the DVD, which cause copying software to produce errors .Despite being promoted...
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 BMG
In October 2005, it was revealed by Mark RussinovichMark Russinovich
Mark E. Russinovich is a Technical Fellow in the Platform and Services Division at Microsoft. He was a cofounder of software producers Winternals before it was acquired by Microsoft in 2006.-Early life and education:...
of Sysinternals that Sony BMG's music CDs had installed a rootkit
Rootkit
A rootkit is software that enables continued privileged access to a computer while actively hiding its presence from administrators by subverting standard operating system functionality or other applications...
on the user's computer as a DRM
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
measure (called Extended Copy Protection
Extended Copy Protection
Extended Copy Protection is a software package developed by the British company First 4 Internet, and sold as a copy protection or digital rights management scheme for Compact Discs...
by its creator, British company First 4 Internet), which was difficult to detect or remove. This constitutes a crime in many countries, and poses a major security risk to affected users. The uninstaller Sony initially provided removed the rootkit, but in turn installed a dial-home
Phoning home
Phoning home, in computing, refers to an act of client to server communication where a client device or client application software reports its location on a network, the currently logged on user, or any other information to a server computer...
program that posed an even greater security risk. Sony eventually provided an actual uninstaller that removed all of Sony's DRM program from the user's computer. Sony BMG faced several class action lawsuits regarding this matter.
On 31 January 2007, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a news release announcing that Sony BMG had agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that Sony BMG committed several offenses against United States federal law. This settlement required that Sony BMG allow consumers to exchange the CDs through 30 June 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 September 2009 Sony had its Mexican office raided by police to recover over 6000 CDs, masters and artwork, by the popular Latin American artist Alejandro Fernández
Alejandro Fernández
Alejandro Fernández is a Mexican singer. Nicknamed as "El Potrillo" by the media and his fans, he has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. Alejandro is the son of the ranchera singer Vicente Fernández. He originally specialized in traditional, earthy forms of Mexican folk music, such as...
. Fernández's lawyers claimed that Sony was in breach of contract as Fernández had been contracted to Sony for seven albums and the recordings were an eighth album made after the contract had expired.
Digital photography
Sony offers a range of digital cameras, ranging from point-and-shoot models to digital SLRs.Initially, in October 2005, it was reported by Sony that there were problems with the charge-coupled device
Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
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 being taken at all. In late November 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 affected are the following: DSC-F88, DSC-M1, DSC-T1, DSC-T11, DSC-T3, DSC-T33, DSC-U40 and DSC-U50. Sony indicated that they would 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 manufacturers and models of cameras, possibly as many as 100 models or more. Other manufacturers of digital cameras, including Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus or Fuji have indicated they will replace faulty CCDs in their respective models of cameras if necessary.
Corporate information
Nobuyuki Idei
Nobuyuki Idei was a former Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer of Sony Corporation until the 7th March 2005. He is also a director of General Motors, Accenture, Baidu, Yoshimoto Kogyo and Nestlé...
stepped down as Sony Corp. Chairman and Group CEO and was replaced by Howard Stringer, then 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
Howard Stringer
Sir Howard Stringer is a Welsh-born American businessman and the chairman, president and CEO of Sony Corporation.-Personal life:...
marked the first time that a foreigner has run a major Japanese electronics firm. On the same date, Kunitake Ando
Kunitake Ando
Kunitake Andō became president of Sony Corporation in June 2000, having been an employee of the company since 1969...
stepped down as President and was replaced by Ryoji Chubachi.
Sony's former slogans were "It's a Sony", "like.no.other" and its current slogan is "make.believe".
Mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures
Regional manufacturing and distribution
Slightly more than 50% of the electronics' segment's total annual production during the fiscal year 2005 took place in Japan, including the production of digital cameras, video cameras, flat panel televisions, personal computers, semiconductors and components such as batteries and Memory Sticks. 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.
Sony's Sales and Distribution by Geographical Regions in 2009
| Geographic Region | Total Sales (yen in millions) |
| Japan | 1,873,219 |
| United States | 2,512,345 |
| Europe | 2,307,658 |
| Other Area | 2,041,270 |
On December 9, 2008, Sony Corporation announced that it would be cutting 8,000 jobs, dropping 8,000 contractors and reducing its global manufacturing sites by 10% to save $1.1 billion a year.
Finance and Revenue
In May 2011, Sony expected to lose a total of 260 billion yen ($3.2 billion) for the year, due to the effects of the Japanese earthquake. The forecast of a $3.2 billion loss was quite different than its earlier projection of a profit of 70 billion yen ($857 million) for the year.Environmental record
In November 2011, Sony was ranked 9th (jointly with Panasonic) in Greenpeace’s re-launched Guide to Greener Electronics that assesses the policies and practices to reduce climate impact, produce greener products, and make operations more sustainable of 18 leading electronics manufacturers. The company scored 3.6/10, incurring a penalty point for comments it has made in opposition to energy efficiency standards in California. It also risks a further penalty point in future editions for being a member of trade associations that have commented against energy efficiency standards.Together with Phillips
Phillips
-Places:In the United States:*Phillips, California, unincorporated community in El Dorado County*Phillips, Maine, town in Franklin County*Phillips, Nebraska, village in Hamilton County*Phillips, Minneapolis, Minnesota, community in the city of Minneapolis...
, Sony receives the highest score for energy policy advocacy after calling on the EU to adopt an unconditional 30% reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Meanwhile, it receives full marks for the efficiency of its products; all of its TVs meet or exceed the latest Energy Star standards. However, Sony scores no points on its paper policy, risking another penalty point in future editions, as it is listed as a client of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a company associated with illegal logging and deforestation in Indonesia.
Sony publishes on its website a list of products, for which the company had (as of February 2010) or intended to replace PVC and BFR with alternative substances by the end of FY 2010 (April 2011), nevertheless as of January 2011 the list does not identify which products are fulfilling these criteria at the moment.
Improvement efforts
Since 1976, Sony has had an Environmental Conference. Sony's policies address their effects on global warming, the environment, and resources. They are taking steps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that they put out as well as regulating the products they get from their suppliers in a process that they call "green procurement". Sony has said that they have signed on to have about 75 percent of their Sony BuildingSony Building (New York)
The Sony Tower, formerly the AT&T Building, is a tall, 37-story highrise skyscraper located at 550 Madison Avenue between 55th Street and 56th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was designed by architect Philip Johnson and partner John Burgee, and was completed in 1984...
running on geothermal power
Geothermal power
Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. Earth's geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of minerals...
. The "Sony Take Back Recycling Program" allow consumers to recycle the electronics products that they buy from Sony by taking them to eCycle (Recycling) drop-off points around the U.S. The company has also developed a biobattery that runs on sugars and carbohydrates that works similarly to the way living creatures work. This is the most powerful small biobattery
Biobattery
Biobattery is an electricity generation device that utilizes energy sources such as carbohydrates, protein, amino acids, fat by digesting enzymes- Passive :...
to date.
Green TV
For sale in Japan on 30 July 2008, Sony's green product, new flat-panel 32 inches (812.8 mm) TV 150,000 yen (US$ 1,400; € 900)Sony Bravia KDL-32JE1 offers ecological consumers advantages of less energy consumption (70% less) than regular models with the same image quality. It is one of the power least power consuming LED TV. Sony was able to reduce carbon dioxideCarbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
emissions totaling 79 kilograms (174 pounds) a year, without sacrificing quality by developing a brighter back light and better filtering, which produces light more efficiently. The TVs will have liquid crystal displays along with high-definition digital broadcast capabilities.
Criticism and controversy
In 2000, Sony was ridiculed for a document entitled "NGO Strategy" that was leaked to the press. The document involved the company's surveillance of environmental activists in an attempt to plan how to counter their movements. It specifically mentioned environmental groups that were trying to pass laws that held electronics-producing companies responsible for the clean up of the toxic chemicals contained in their merchandise. In early July 2007, Sony ranked 14th on the GreenpeaceGreenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
chart "Guide to Greener Electronics." This chart graded major electronics companies on their environmental work. Sony fell from its earlier 11th place ranking due to Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
's claims that Sony had double standards in their waste policies.
On 11 January 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...
(SCE) filed suit against George Hotz
George Hotz
George Francis Hotz , alias geohot, million75 or simply mil, is an American hacker known for unlocking the iPhone, allowing the phone to be used with other wireless carriers, contrary to AT&T and Apple's intent...
for publishing a technique for hacking the PlayStation 3 to allow it to run alternative operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s like Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
. The case, Sony Computer Entertainment America v. George Hotz
Sony Computer Entertainment America v. George Hotz
SCEA v. Hotz is a lawsuit in the United States by Sony Computer Entertainment of America against George Hotz and associates of the group fail0verflow for jailbreaking and reverse engineering the Playstation 3.-Timeline:...
, attracted much negative publicity among hackers and on the Internet at large. On or about 4 April 2011, adherents of the Anonymous
Anonymous (group)
Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
movement declared in an open letter that they were directing their hostile "undivided attention" against Sony, largely in response to the Hotz case.
On 21 April 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment was subjected to distributed denial of service attack
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
s, apparently in retaliation for its case against Hotz. On April 26 Sony announced that the PlayStation Network (PSN) had been attacked, allegedly resulting in the theft of the personal information of 77 million account holders. It seems that the attack took place between April 17 and 19. Sony blamed Anonymous
Anonymous (group)
Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
for the attack, although at least some Anonymous members denied responsibility. Sony decided to shut down the PlayStation Network "indefinitely" following the attack, although it returned to service on 14 May, following a 26 day outage.
Sony was criticized for waiting 6 days after the 21 April attack to disclose the breach to users who may have been impacted, and for storing information including credit card numbers, passwords, and security questions, without sufficient encryption
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
. The company now faces a class action
Class action
In law, a class action, a class suit, or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued...
lawsuit seeking redress for PlayStation Network users. A subsequent lawsuit between Sony’s insurers sought declaratory action for clarification of their responsibilities listed under the individual policies they had written for Sony. The insurers facing litigation are Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, AIG, and ACE Ltd.
ACE Ltd.
ACE Limited is the parent company of the ACE Group, a global provider of insurance products covering property and casualty, accident and health, reinsurance, travel, creditor, and life insurance. It also operates in the Lloyd's insurance market in London...
On 5 May, Sony released a letter from chairman Sir Howard Stringer, directed at PSN and Qriocity Music Service users, announcing plans for a program which includes a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user.
Australia has called for a ban on PSN until Sony can prove network security, while Japan is the first country to place an outright ban on the service. The PSN service has been fully restored in Japan as of July 5th 2011.
On 25 May, Sony announced that its Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....
website in Canada and the Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
website in Greece had been compromised, putting the personal information of more than 10,000 users at risk.
Security consultant Phil Lieberman said Sony's approach to customers that wanted to modify PlayStation 3 software, including the decision to sue Hotz, was a fatal mistake. "Telling them to bring it on is not the best strategy. I think Sony is beginning to understand it horribly underinvested in security," Lieberman said.
On 29 May 2011, a group called Lulz Security announced a campaign against Sony, using language emblematic of the Anonymous
Anonymous (group)
Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
movement. On 2 June 2011, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
was the subject of an attack, disclosing 1 million user passwords, which were then distributed via BitTorrent.
Awards and recognition
The Brand Trust ReportThe Brand Trust Report
The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2011 is published by Trust Research Advisory . The book is a result of a syndicated primary research on Brand Trust that generated 10,00,000 data points and 16,000 unique brands from over 10,000 hours of fieldwork conducted in 9 cities TRA’s study partners in...
published by Trust Research Advisory has ranked SONY in the 3rd position among the brands in India.
See also
- List of companies of Japan
- PanasonicPanasonicPanasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
Further reading
- PlayStation Division is Under Review
- Made in JapanMade in Japan (biography)Made in Japan : Akio Morita and Sony is an autobiography of Akio Morita, the co-founder and former chairman of Sony Corporation. It was written with the assistance of Edwin M. Reingold and Mitsuko Shimomura...
by Akio Morita and Sony, HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
(1994) - Sony: The Private Life by John NathanJohn NathanJohn Nathan is the translator of Japanese works written by celebrated authors such as Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburō Ōe. Nathan is also an Emmy-award winning producer, writer and director of many films about Japanese culture and society and American business.He studied at University of Tokyo...
, 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, PhD (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 SandersTerry SandersTerry Sanders is an American filmmaker having produced and/or directed more than 70 dramatic features, televisions specials, documentaries and portrait films. He co-heads the American Film Foundation and has produced and photographed the Oscar-winning dramatic short "A Time Out of War"...
.