Sony is a global manufacturer of audio, video, communications and information technology products for consumer and professional markets
Vision: To create exciting new digital entertainment experiences for consumers by bringing together cutting-edge products with latest generation content and services. |
| Mission:
Sony is committed to developing a wide range of innovative products and multimedia services that challenge the way consumers access and enjoy digital entertainment. By ensuring synergy between businesses within the organization, Sony is constantly striving to create exciting new worlds of entertainment that can be experienced on a variety of different products.
History of Sony:
Sony found its beginning in the
wake of World War II. In 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in a
department store building in Tokyo. The company had $530 in capital and a total
of eight employees. The next year, he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita,
and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications
Engineering Corporation). The company built Japan's first tape recorder, called
the Type-G. In 1958 the company name was changed to Sony.
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,
for use in communications. Ibuka's company made the first commercially
successful transistor radios. According to Schiffer, Sony's TR-63 radio
"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 million units by the end
of 1968.
 Sony co-founder Akio Morita
founded Sony Corporation of America in 1960. The process, he was struck by the
mobility of employees between American companies, which was unheard of in Japan
at that time. When he returned to Japan, he encouraged experienced, middle-aged
employees of other companies to reevaluate their careers and consider joining
Sony. The company filled many positions in this manner, and inspired other
Japanese companies to do the same. Moreover, Sony played a major role in the
development of Japan as a powerful exporter during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. It
also helped to significantly improve American perceptions of "made in
Japan" products. Known for its production quality, Sony was able to charge
above-market prices for its consumer electronics and resisted lowering prices.
In 1971, Masaru Ibuka handed the
position of president over to his co-founder Akio Morita. Sony began a life
insurance company in 1979, one of its many peripheral businesses. Amid a global
recession in the early 1980s, electronics sales dropped and the company was
forced to cut prices. Sony's profits fell sharply. "It's over for
Sony," one analyst concluded. "The company's best days are behind
it." Around that time, Norio Ohga took up the role of president. He
encouraged the development of the Compact Disc in the 1970s and 80’s, and of
the PlayStation in the early 1990s. Ohga went on to purchase CBS Records in
1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989, greatly expanding Sony's media presence.
Ohga would succeed Morita as chief executive officer in 1989.
Under the vision of co-founder
Akio Morita and his successors, the company had aggressively expanded into new
businesses. Part of its motivation for doing so was the pursuit of
"convergence," linking film, music, and digital electronics via the
Internet. This expansion proved unrewarding and unprofitable, threatening
Sony's ability to charge a premium on its products as well as its brand name.
In 2005, Howard Stringer replaced Nobuyuki Idei as chief executive officer,
marking the first time that a foreigner has run a major Japanese electronics
firm. Stringer helped to reinvigorate the company's struggling media
businesses, encouraging blockbusters such as Spider-Man while cutting 9,000
jobs.[ He hoped to sell off peripheral business and focus the company again on electronics.
Furthermore, he aimed to increase cooperation between business units, which he
described as "silos" operating in isolation from one another. In a
bid to provide a unified brand for its global operations, Sony introduced a
slogan known as "make. Believe" in 2009.
Despite some successes, the
company faced continued struggles in the mid- to late-2000s.[ It became known
for its stagnancy, with a fading brand name. In 2012, Kazuo Hirai was promoted
to president and CEO, replacing Sir Howard Stringer. Shortly thereafter, Hirai
outlined his company-wide initiative, named "One Sony" to revive Sony
from
History of Sony PlayStation:
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PlayStation was the brainchild of
Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who had just come out of his hardware
engineering division at that time and would later be dubbed as "The Father
of the PlayStation".
The console's origins date back
to 1988 where it was originally a joint project between Nintendo and Sony to
create a CD-ROM for the Super Famicom. Although Nintendo denied the existence
of the Sony deal as late as March 1991, Sony revealed a Super Famicom with a
built-in CD-ROM drive (that incorporated Green Book technology or CDi) at the
Consumer Electronics Show in June 1991. However, a day after the announcement
at CES Nintendo announced that it would be breaking its partnership with Sony,
opting to go with Philips instead but using the same technology. The deal was
broken by Nintendo after they were unable to come to an agreement on how
revenue would be split between the two companies. The breaking of the
partnership infuriated Sony President Norio Ohga, who responded by appointing
Kutaragi with the responsibility of developing of the PlayStation project to
rival Nintendo.
At that time, negotiations were
still on-going between Nintendo and Sony, with Nintendo offering Sony a
"non-gaming role" regarding their new partnership with Philips. This
proposal was swiftly rejected by Kutaragi who was facing increasing criticism
over his work with regard to entering the video game industry from within Sony.
Negotiations officially ended in May 1992 and in order to decide the fate of
the PlayStation project, a meeting was held in June 1992, consisting of Sony
President Ohga, PlayStation Head Kutaragi and several senior members of Sony's
board. At the meeting, Kutaragi unveiled a proprietary CD-ROM-based system he
had been working on which involved playing video games with 3D graphics to the
board. Eventually, Sony President Ohga decided to retain the project after
being reminded by Kutaragi of the humiliation he suffered from Nintendo.
Nevertheless, due to strong opposition from a majority present at the meeting
as well as widespread internal opposition to the project by the older
generation of Sony executives, Kutaragi and his team had to be shifted from
Sony's headquarters to Sony Music, a completely separate financial entity owned
by Sony, so as to retain the project and maintain relationships with Philips
for the MMCD development project (which helped lead to the creation of the
DVD). (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation)
Formation of Sony Computer
Entertainment
At Sony Music, Kutaragi worked
closely with Shigeo Maruyama, the CEO of Sony Music, and with Akira Sato to
form Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. (SCEI) on November 16, 1993. A building
block of SCEI was its initial partnership with Sony Music which helped SCEI
attract creative talent to the company as well as assist SCEI in manufacturing,
marketing and producing discs, something that Sony Music had been doing with
Music Discs. The final two key members of SCEI were Terry Tokunaka, the
President of SCEI from Sony's headquarters, and Olaf Olafsson. Olafsson was CEO
and president of New York based Sony Interactive Entertainment which was the
mother company for the 1994-founded Sony Computer Entertainment of America
(SCEA).
The PlayStation project, SCEI's
first official project, was finally given the green light by Sony executives in
1993 after a few years of development. Also in 1993, Phil Harrison, who would
later become President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, was
recruited into SCEI to attract developers and publishers to produce games for
their new PlayStation platform.
After a demonstration of Sony's
distribution plan as well as tech demos of its new console to game publishers
and developers in a hotel in Tokyo in 1994, numerous developers began to
approach PlayStation. Two of whom later became major partners were Electronic
Arts in the West and Namco in Japan. One of the factors which attracted
developers to the platform was the use of a 3D-capable, CD-ROM-based console
which was much cheaper and easier to manufacture for in comparison to rival
consoles from Sega and Nintendo which used cartridge systems. The project
eventually hit Japanese stores in October 1994 and gained massive sales due to
its lower price point than its competitor, the Sega Saturn. Popularity of the
console spread after its release worldwide in North America and Europe.(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation)
PlayStation 4:
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is the
latest video game console from Sony Computer Entertainment announced at a press
conference on February 20, 2013. In the meeting, Sony revealed some hardware
specifications of the new console. The eighth-generation system will introduce
the x86 architecture to the PlayStation series and was launched in the fourth
quarter of 2013. According to lead system architect, Mark Cerny, development on
the PlayStation 4 began as early as 2008. PlayStation Europe CEO Jim Ryan
emphasized in 2011 that Sony wanted to avoid launching the next-generation console
behind the competition.
Among the new applications and
services, Sony will introduce the PlayStation App, allowing PS4 owners to turn
smartphones and tablets into a second screen to enhance gameplay. The company
also plans to debut Gaikai, a cloud-based gaming service that hosts downloadable
content and games. By incorporating a share button on the new controller and
making it possible to view in-game content being streamed live from friends,
Sony plans to place more focus on social gameplay as well. The PlayStation 4
was released in November 2013. (Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation)
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