Did you know that the first product manufactured by Sony was a rice-cooker! Yes, that is true. Started in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita in a small room, Sony entered the market by making a rice cooker. It was in 1950, after the war had ended in Japan, did Sony create a tape recorder called the G-TYPE recorder. But it was not until the year 1957 that Sony was able to gain market leadership when it launched the world's first pocket transistor radio.
Up till this time, Sony was operating under the company name of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. However, when Morita planned to take the firm to the USA, he thought that the name should be much simpler so that people could easily pronounce it. Hence, the term 'Sony' was coined -derived from the combination of the Latin word "sonus" which means sound and "sonny" which means little son.
It was not easy for a Japanese firm to establish base in the USA. And, Sony being the first to do so, the company had to overcome quite a few challenges. However, despite all odds, Sony came up with several new products such as the Trinitron colored television in 1968 which became a landmark in design and technology at that time. In fact it was with the Trinitron that Sony entered the USA.
After this, one of the biggest hits of Sony, the Walkman was launched in the market. It was not very well received in the market by retailers since it did not have any recording capabilities. But after its lukewarm reception, the Walkman slowly picked up… and the rest as they say is history. Then, another revolution in audio technology was brought about in 1982 with the introduction of the Compact Disc (CD).
As far as digital cameras are concerned, Sony was again the first company to introduce a digital camera in the market. Way back in the year 1989, the Sony ProMavica MVC-5000 was launched. The camera provided a 720,000 pixel image which was considered to be the leader in image quality at that time.
Today, Sony is one of market leaders in the digital revolution. Always striving to be different from other players, Sony has led the market in terms of innovative technologies and high quality items. Not only has Sony surpassed others several times by being the first company to make several new products, but it has continuously strived to provide maximum services to its consumers. The company has launched several new services such as the ImageStation.com. This helps consumers to create, share and enjoy digital pictures and video. Also included as a part of this deal are free online albums and eCards, wherein members can share their favorite pictures as gifts, keepsakes and high-quality prints in a variety of sizes.
The latest digital cameras from Sony are :
- Cyber Shot Enthusiast Series : These are powerful cameras with advanced optics and controls.
- Cyber Shot Point and Shoot : Great cameras for snapshot photography.
- Cyber Shot M : Full featured digital cameras with high quality video capture.
- Mavica : Cameras which can record directly onto CDs and floppy disks.
