Casio

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Casio Computer Co., Ltd. カシオ計算機株式会社

Type	Public (Casio on TSE)
Founded	Tokyo (1946)
Headquarters	Tokyo
Key people	Kazuo Kashio, President
Industry	Electronics
Revenue	$559,006 Yen (million)
Employees	12,140 (2005)
Website	www.casio.com

Casio Computer Co., Ltd. (カシオ計算機株式会社, Kashio Keisanki Kabushiki-gaisha^?) (TYO: 6952 ) is a Japanese electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Tokyo. Casio is best known for their calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches. In 1957 Casio released the world's first entirely electronic compact calculator.

1 History
2 Timeline of important product releases
3 Products
4 Trivia
- 4.1 See also
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

CASIO Tokyo office

Casio was established in April 1946 by Tadao Kashio (樫尾忠雄, Kashio Tadao^?), an engineer specializing in fabrication technology. Kashio's first major product was the yubiwa pipe, a finger ring that would hold a cigarette, allowing the wearer to smoke the cigarette down to its nub while also leaving the wearer's hands free. Japan was impoverished immediately following World War II so cigarettes were valuable, and the invention was a success.

After seeing the electric calculators at the first Business Show in Ginza, Tokyo in 1949, Kashio and his younger brothers used their profits from the yubiwa pipe to develop their own calculators. Most of the calculators at that time worked using gears and could be operated by hand using a crank or using a motor. Kashio had some knowledge of electronics, and set out to make a calculator using solenoids. The desk-sized calculator was finished in 1954, sold for 485,000 yen and was Japan's first electro-mechanical calculator. One of the central innovations of the calculator was its adoption of the 10-key number pad; at that time other calculators were using a "full keypad", which meant that each place in the number (1s, 10s, 100s, etc...) had nine keys. Another innovation was the use of a single display window instead of the three display windows (one for each argument and one for the answer) used in other calculators.

In 1957 Casio released the Model 14-A, the world's first all-electric compact calculator. 1957 also marked the establishment of Casio Computer Co. Ltd.

Casio is well known for the wide variety and innovation of its wrist watches. It is one of the early manufacturers of quartz-crystal watches, both digital and analog. It also sold a calculator watch at one time. It also was one of the first manufacturers af watches that could display the time in many different time zones and of watches with temperature, atmospheric-pressure, and altitude displays.

Especially popular are its dual function (LCD and analog) watches, some of which, called Wave Ceptors, receive radio signals daily from an atomic clock to keep accurate time. These watches come with lengthy manuals(50 pages each in English and Spanish, each the size of a business card): those users who master all the intricate features will be able to tell time in many time zones, use alarms and timers, and even follow Daylight-Saving Time; those who ignore or misunderstand the manual can expect many surprises.

[edit] Timeline of important product releases

1957 Casio releases the Model 14-A, the world's first all electric compact calculator
1965 The 001 calculator is released
1972 The release of Casio's personal calculator, the "Casio Mini" sells for 12,800 yen, going on to sell over 10 million units
1974 The Casiotron, a watch that features a fully automatic calendar, including month lengths and leap years, is released.
1980 Casio releases their Casiotone keyboard instrument.
1983 The first G-Shock watch, the DW-5000C, is released.
1985 Casio launches its first professional synthesiser, the CZ-101.
1995 The QV-10, the world's first digital camera that includes a TFT display, is released.
2002 The EX-S1, the first Exilim digital camera is released.