RedShark
The Japanese corporate megalith began in 1946 when one
Masaru Ibuka, who had fought in the war as a member of the Imperial Navy,
founded a radio repair shop in the bombed out Shirokiya Department Store,
Tokyo.
The company built Japan’s first tape recorder and, in 1958,
changed its name from Tōkyō Tsūshin Kōgyō to something more internationally
digestible. Ibuka and his business partner Akio Morita mashed-up the Latin word
sonus (root of sonic and sound) with the American slang word Sonny.
It was a shrewd move, since Sony has been building audio and
video recording toys for boys ever since.
We’re not going to recap the many ups (billion dollar annual
sales, Aibo the robot dog, they made Men In Black!) and downs (Sony Pictures
hacked in 2014, reputation for not understanding software, selling digital
cameras to George Lucas to remake Star Wars, erm Betamax…) – for that you can
hit Wikipedia.
Here’s some choice cuts.
Betacam
Sony gifted the world the first videocassette format 50
years ago. But while U-matic didn’t quite fly off the shelves but its next
effort, and Betamax lost out to JVC’s rival VHS, Sony came up trumps with a
version for pro-users.
The component video format Betacam lasted from the mid-70s
until the advent of digital and basically changed the world, as you can read
about here.
Playstation
After failing to be friends with Nintendo, Sony decided to
play on its own and in 1994 launched the Playstation and broke Nintendo's
long-standing lead in the market. The PS2 in 2000 became the most
successful of all time. Even with gaming on the verge of being streamed from
the cloud, there’s life left in home hardware yet as proved by the stella sales
of the PS5 which has options for 5G connectivity and virtual reality gaming.
What’s not to like? Brilliant design, a price that was affordable to many and
competition that made Microsoft and Nintendo come up with the smarts too.
They’ve still to come up with a better game than SSX Tricky though.
Walkman
Back in vogue, this style icon is so retro cool it
featuresin Guardians of the Galaxy and eighties nostalgia like Stranger Things.
Many people still yearn for the hissy sounds of the compact cassette, though
let’s be honest, it’s a bit crap. Then again, it sounded good when Marty
McFly popped Van Halen into his and let rip at the ball in Back To The Future.
This was the iPhone of its day. A must-have accessory for the playground, bus
and park, boosting album sales and pop charts, cheap enough for anyone, single-handedly
lifting Japan Plc into the 20th century as the country of futuristic tech. By
2010, when production stopped, Sony had built about 200 million of them.
Wish I’d kept mine.
Makes really good cameras
Not sure you knew this but…Sony’s Broadcast and Professional
division continues to develop camera which are staple of broadcast programming.
It particularly excels in systems cameras for studio work and live sports. All
of this stems back to the company’s roots in the semiconductor business (for
which one its inventors won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973) including optical
image sensors. It’s the world's largest maker of CMOS chips many of which
find a home in its own digital cameras, tablet computers and smartphones. I
once had the pleasure of being flown to Tokyo (back in those days of business
perks) and then on a Shinkansen to a factory where Sony folk were busy
making the things dressed in dust-busting clothing. I’m not sure I said thank
you enough to the PR folk at Basingstoke for the experience.
お誕生日おめでとう！happii baasudee! Sony.
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