Sony was founded by two men in Tokyo in 1946, engineer Masaru Ibuka and physicist Akio Morita. Originally named Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company), in the crippled economy of post war Japan, Ibuka and Morita made a living repairing radios and manufacturing small numbers of voltmeters whilst looking to develop a future in designing and manufacturing new electronics.
Most of the salaries were paid out of Ibuka’s small, and dwindling, savings. To stay in business, they had to do something. After the war, the Japanese were hungry for news around the world. Many had war-damaged radios, or ones that had had the shortwave unit disconnected by the military police to prevent from tuning into enemy propaganda. Ibuka’s factory repaired radios and made shortwave converters or adapters that could easily make medium-wave radios into superheterodyne, or all-wave receivers. Demand for such radios was rapidly increasing
Most of the salaries were paid out of Ibuka’s small, and dwindling, savings. To stay in business, they had to do something. After the war, the Japanese were hungry for news around the world. Many had war-damaged radios, or ones that had had the shortwave unit disconnected by the military police to prevent from tuning into enemy propaganda. Ibuka’s factory repaired radios and made shortwave converters or adapters that could easily make medium-wave radios into superheterodyne, or all-wave receivers. Demand for such radios was rapidly increasing
- Sony Insider
Perhaps surprisingly, their first electronic innovation was an automatic rice cooker. Ibuka desired to create things for everyday life and since the war plants had closed down, there was more electricity than was needed at the time. It was a primitive product that produced mostly under cooked or over cooked rice which meant its success was limited but it was the first in a long line of innovations which continue today.
Ibuka and Morita were global thinkers. They realised the need for a global brand which crossed cultural and language borders in order to expand the business in the US and later Europe
Due to another company using the name TTK, the duo had to come up with a new name, which is where Sony was born. The name Sony derives from the Latin word sonus meaning sound and the English word sonny-boy - a term used by the Americans in the 1950's to denote a bright youngster. It was chosen for its simple pronunciation that is the same in any language.
The first Sony branded product was the TR-55 Transistor Radio which went on sale in 1955. This was the worlds first all transistor radio.
Sony produced many other ground breaking products for the technology era, including the first Triniton Colour Television in 1968, the worlds first CD player in 1982, the first consumer-use camcorder digital video camcorder in 1995 and the next generation high capacity optical disc "Blue-ray Disc" recorder in 2003. These are just a few of the historic Sony milestones.
Below is a link to all of Sonys Product and Technology milestones
The History of the Sony Playstation
The origins of PlayStation go as far back as 1988, when Sony was working with Nintendo to develop a CD–ROM add–on for the upcoming Super Nintendo console, to be called the Super Disc.
Relationships between the two soon collapsed when a day after SONY revealed its console, Nintendo announced that it would be breaking its partnership with SONY, opting to go with Phillips instead but using the same technology. An infuriated Sony President, Norio Ohga, then appointed Ken Kutaragi (a sony executive promoted from his hardware engineering devision) the responsibility of the development of the Playstation project to rival Nintendo. The development of the Playstation faced a lot of critisism from the video games industry and at a meeting to decide its fate on whether to retain the project or not, Kutaragi had to remind SONY executives of the humiliation they suffered from Nintendo, in order to retain the project.
Sony used the Super Disc technology as the basis for its own 'PlayStation', then still a combined CD/SNES cartridge–playing system.
Sony used the Super Disc technology as the basis for its own 'PlayStation', then still a combined CD/SNES cartridge–playing system.
200 were manufactured, but the machine was quickly scrapped and Sony's PlayStation R&D team (headed by one Ken Kutaragi) went back to the drawing board. The rest, as they say, is history.
In December of 1994, the Playstation was released in Japan and faced tough competition from Segas Saturn and Nintendos upcoming Ultra 64.
Sales of the PlayStation had sky rocketed and were appearing all over homes in Japan and Europe in 1996, largely due to price reductions and the humorous SAP'S (Society against Playstation) commercials.
Humorous advertising has proved successful throughout the Playstation years, with the infamous Kevin Butler adverts for the PS3 being popular in today’s culture.
At the start of 1998, worldwide software shipments hit a gargantuan 200 million units and, by the end of the year, hardware production was nearing the magic 50 million mark.
By August it was officially declared the standard controller for the console.
On 2nd March, SCE announced that the research and development on the "next–generation PlayStation" was completed. It was confirmed that the new console would feature a state–of–the–art 128–bit Central Processing Unit – the "Emotion Engine" – at its core. Sure enough, on September 13th, SCEI confirmed that its new home computer entertainment system PlayStation 2 would be launched in 2000, and would feature DVD playback, full compatibility with PlayStation games and USB ports to cater for all manner of accessories.
In 2000 Sony released not one, but two consoles, the PS one and the PlayStation 2.
Launched to coincide with the fifth anniversary of PlayStation Europe, Sony had taken advantage of the technological advances and crammed the inner workings of the PlayStation into a smaller sized PS one. This smaller size lead to the launch of an attachable LCD screen for portable use. The PS one was my first console and holds many nostalgic memories of Croc, Rugrats and Final Fantasy series to name a few.
As for PlayStation 2, the new wonder machine was making tsunami waves in Japan following its release in March, with sales hitting close to 1 million in just two days. North America followed in October, where 500,000 units were shifted in the first weekend alone.
As sales continued to flourish in 2001, it was clear that PlayStation not only had the technology to be successful, but they also had the software shown in the success of titles such as Burnout, Devil May Cry and Grand Theft Auto 3.
Ever keen to emphasise that PlayStation 2 was and is home to the greatest titles, SCEE entered into exclusivity deals with three major companies. Between April and June, Disney Interactive, Square and Sega all signed deals whereby SCEE would publish the trio's most hotly–anticipated titles, including Virtua Fighter 4, Final Fantasy X, and Kingdom Hearts.
In 2002, both consoles had sold so well, that it was estimated that one out of 5 households in Europe owned a PS one or PlayStation 2. 2002 also stood out as a year for extremely strong original titles including Kingdom Hearts.
2003 saw the start of online playing with the release of the Network Adapter which allowed players to connect their PlayStation 2's to a broadband connection and play a host of compatible titles. The most popular of these initial titles, the game SOCOM: US Navy SEALs, a tactical third-person shooter where players could fight to the death. An accompanying USB headset allowed players to dish out verbal commands.
2005 saw PlayStation celebrate its 10th Birthday, and commemorated the occasion with the release of the PSP (PlayStation Portable). This year was also when the first announcement on the PS3 was made.
http://www.sonyinsider.com/2009/03/16/one-of-sonys-first-products-a-rice-cooker/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation
http://www.sony.co.uk/article/id/1060176719725
http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/european-graduate-programme/3/1
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/
http://www.historyofplaystation.com/main_en_GB.html
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