Sony
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sony is a technology company, based in Japan, which makes many electric products. Among its most popular products is the video game console PlayStation, which was followed by PlayStation 2. Another version, PlayStation 3, is soon to arrive. They also sold the Walkman invented by Andreas Pavel - a small music cassette tape player that can fit in your pocket - they later made Walkman systems that could play CDs, MiniDiscs or MP3s instead of tapes, and they often could receive radio too.
The company also makes music players, televisions, headsets, mobile phones (Sony Ericsson) and computers (named Sony Vaio), and game players (Playstation).
It owns the American movie studios, Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures, through Sony Pictures.
[edit] History
Sony began its activity from a department store in Tokyo. At that time, 1946, the store was damaged by bombs. One engineer and one physicist invested a capital of about $1,600 to create a company which would include 20 employees. The name of the engineer was Masaru Ibuka and the name of the physicist was Akio Morita. People working in their new company repaired electrical equipment. Later they started creating their own products.
The company achieved success in 1954, when it received license that allowed producing transistors. Although transistors were already created in United States, they were not used in production of radios. Sony produced its first transistor radio in May of 1954.
From that period Sony started leading in the field of electronics. Its revolutionary devices included: Trinitron Color Television, created in 1968; color video cassette, produced in 1971 as well as the world's first home video system, created in 1975. Other revolutionary inventions of Sony include: 1979 – Walkman; 1981 – Electronic camera; 1982 – CD player; 1983 – Camcorder and the list continuous with many other devices. One of the most popular Sony products was Sony PlayStation, created in 1995. With its help Sony became the leader in videogames.
In 45 years Sony has grown from a small firm, employing 20 workers, to a multinational corporation, employing about 100,000 workers. The company created its American branch in 1960 and its UK branch in 1968. In recent years the company focused on leadership in software and hardware. Sony acquired, in 1988, CBS Records and formed Sony Music Entertainment. A year later the company bought Columbia Pictures to create Sony Pictures Entertainment.
