When it comes to Sony, the first thing that most friends think of should be Sony's PS, mobile phone, camera or Walkman. However, in recent years, Sony seems to have gradually fallen out of everyone's field of vision. Since entering the 21st century, Sony has gradually shown weakness in the electronics business, but Sony has created a mythical and glorious history in the past, but it has not lost the favor of consumers because of the temporary downturn in the consumer electronics business.
So what kind of development has Sony experienced since its inception, and what brilliance and misery? Let's take a look back with wheat.
The birth of the brand
In 1946, on a ruined wall after the war, 38-year-old Daisuke Inoue and Akio Morita, 25, used 190,000 yen in cash to form the Tokyo Communications Industry Co., Ltd., the predecessor of today's famous Sony. The company started from the repair of radio business, in the early days of its establishment, the source of business was unstable, and the business situation was not good. After about 10 years of exploration, using the transistor technology that was not optimistic at that time, the first transistor radio "TR-55" in Japan was developed, which was much smaller than the early vacuum tube radio, making it the first portable radio in Japan, thus becoming famous in one fell swoop, and the business situation finally gradually entered a better state.
In 1955, Inobu and Morita, once again made a great decision, in order to let the company go global, made a new product trademark - Sony, and eventually changed the company name to Sony. This simple-sounding, universal alphabet inherits the spirit of "freedom and open-mindedness" expressed by Inubushi in the "Purpose of Company Establishment", and its etymology is "a lively and mischievous child". It's not limited to electrical or any particular industry, and it has nothing to do with the entrepreneur's name. Therefore, a world-renowned brand - Sony was also officially born.
Growth rises
Trinitron color TV
In the 1950s, Sony also opened a black-and-white TELEVISION business while selling radios. Through breakthroughs in related technologies such as single-gun three-beam electron gun architecture, a color television set called "Trinitron" was introduced in 1968. Trinitron technology sparked a global rush to buy and established Sony's absolute lead in the television industry, and was later named one of the 50 Greatest Electronics in History by Time Magazine.
Diversified development
In addition, in 1968, in order to further consolidate the hardware market position, Sony cooperated with CBS CBS to officially enter the field of music content, which also marked the beginning of Sony's exploration of diversified business development paths.
It is worth mentioning that in 1970, Sony was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which was also the first Japanese company listed in the United States.
Betamax recording system
In the same year, Sony, JVC, and Panasonic jointly published the "U-Matic" video system for professional use, and five years later, Sony published betamax, the world's first video system developed for the civilian market, and launched the first recorder: the SL-6300.
But at the same time, Japan's JVC and Panasonic jointly promoted their VHS video system, and Sony insisted on using Betamax against the VHS Alliance, which was publicly available around the world. Although the Betamax format is far stronger than the VHS format from a technical point of view, the flexible licensing operation of the VHS Alliance has won the support of many manufacturers, thus dominating the civilian market. Eventually, in the civilian market segment, Sony had to abandon Betamax. However, the Betamax format has entered the professional field with its technical advantages and has become the dominant standard in the field of professional broadcast video, and many broadcast video standards today are based on this starting point.
Walkman Walkman
In 1979, Sony launched the Walkman Walkman product, which positioned itself in the youth market and emphasized youthful vitality and fashion. Walkman set off a musical revolution and witnessed the rise of the portable music concept "headphone culture". Until 1998, the "Walkman" had sold more than 250 million units worldwide, until the advent of Apple's iPod digital Walkman slowly replaced the Walkman.
Grow and grow
Acquisition of Columbia Films
After Sony's crushing defeat in 1988 in the betamax vs. VHS imaging system, Sony decided it was necessary to combine the most upscale hardware with state-of-the-art content to master the market. In 1989, Sony japan acquired the film and music division of CBS (CBS), making it a subsidiary of SPE (Sony Pictures Entertainment).
At the end of the 1980s, Japan began to erupt in a bubble economic crisis, and sony film business group also lost several years due to poor box office. Until 1997, Howard Stringer led the reform, and then launched blockbuster movies such as "Spider-Man" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and the film and television entertainment business gradually became an important source of profit for Sony, and in 2004, it acquired the long-established MGM Films Company.
PS (PlayStation) game console
In 1988, Sony announced a partnership with Nintendo to jointly develop CD-ROM consoles. Then the cooperation broke down, and the then president of the company, Noriyoshi Kawamoto, decided to develop a new generation of game consoles to compete with Nintendo in the game field. In 1994, Sony launched the PS (PlayStation) console and achieved great success. The next PS series is constantly updated, and now PS games have occupied half of the game console market and become the hegemon of the game console field. Up to now, the PS series of game consoles has sold more than 500 million units, and the PS has become one of the most successful products in the world after The Walkman. Many players joked that if Sony had continued to cooperate with Nintendo, it might not exist today.
CyberShot digital camera, VAIO laptop
In 1995, Sony paid more attention to personal experience, vigorously explored new business models under the wave of digitalization, proposed the concept of product development that integrated entertainment, electronics and emotion, and introduced the US director system in 1997 to reform the corporate governance model. Subsequently, Sony has successively launched digital products such as CyberShot digital cameras and VAIO laptops, and has achieved great success in the market.
In 2000, Sony's revenue reached $67.1 billion, and the group's brand value exceeded $100 billion, reaching a peak and creating a brilliant historical performance.
Facing a crisis
Boom and bust, the bursting of the Us Internet bubble in 2000 kicked off the fall crisis of Sony. In the ensuing global recession, Sony made a series of bad decisions, resulting in a serious setback to the business. Self-sustaining Trinitron technology, misestimating the development of LCD TVs, missing the leadership of TV images; Walkman does not support the MP3 format, resulting in Apple's iPod digital Walkman selling well in the world, replacing The Walkman's position; in the face of complex and changeable market environment and fierce competition, the price of electronic products continues to compress, while internal management differences and internal friction are also quite obvious. Under the influence of various factors, Sony incurred a huge loss in 2002.
In 2003, Sony's stock price fell sharply, and Sony urgently released the "Transformation 60" reform project in an attempt to turn the tide. After a series of reforms, in 2007, Sony finally gradually got out of the predicament and set a record high turnover performance in history. But the good times did not last long, and under the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis, Sony suffered another heavy blow. The downturn in the general environment has led to a significant reduction in the need for the market, coupled with competitors such as Apple and Samsung in the same period, so that Sony's main products have begun to sell slowly. In addition, the sharp appreciation of the yen has dragged down Sony, which mainly exports home appliances, and has also made the already dismal performance worse.
In 2009, Sony began to operate a restructuring plan, further optimized the business structure, and took more measures, but it still could not stop the continuous downward trend, and the net income was negative for 4 consecutive years.
During this period, in order to break the game, Sony cooperated with Ericsson to establish Sony Ericsson and entered the field of mobile phones. By around 2007, Sony and Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia were the most prominent brands in the mobile phone market at that time. However, after 2007, many smartphones on the market began to rise, resulting in Sony Ericsson's mobile phones gradually losing their position in the market.
In 2012, Sony acquired Ericsson, and the well-known Sony Ericsson became Sony Mobile, but Sony's smartphone market share has been tepid and cannot help Sony out of the predicament.
Rallied
In 2012, Kazuo Hirai became son's president and CEO, proposing to integrate Sony's internal "One Sony" reform plan and adjusting the business development strategy. It will focus on investments in three major areas: digital imaging, mobile products and video games, while for the home appliance division with serious losses, Sony decided to focus on the high-end market, take the high value-added route, and avoid the Red Sea competition.
From 2012 to 2018, Sony has released the world's first 4K TV, PlayStation4, the world's first 4K screen smartphone and other high-tech hardware products. In order to obtain a stable source of income, Sony on the one hand develops a financial and insurance business with stable income, on the other hand, it widely carries out subscription and copyright services in the fields of games, film and television and music, such as Plus members on playStation, Sony music royalties and film and television derivative licensing business.
After hard work, Sony not only successfully ended the TV business for 11 consecutive years of losses and turned losses into profits with high-end 4K televisions, but also increased the proportion of revenue in the financial, games, film and television and music businesses, especially in the game field, playStation4 is the fastest selling game console in Sony's history, as of June 2020, global sales reached 112 million units.
Create brilliance again
In 2018, Kenichiro Yoshida was promoted to president and CEO, and continued to carry out a series of business changes around Sony's corporate development goal of "making the world move through the power of creativity and technology", and closely focused on the basic demands of "people".
In terms of technology, Sony focuses on the development of 3R technologies, namely: reality, real-time and remote technology. For example, the application of 3D imaging technology in music and film and television to provide a new immersive experience; the combination of real-time technology can create value in many new areas such as medical and autonomous driving; remote technology can be used in office, device control and many other aspects, bringing great changes to the way people live and work.
As of 2020, Sony's businesses will develop synergistically, forming a virtuous circle and enhancing each other. For example, in the field of electronic products, the sensor technology will be applied to the automotive field, the development of intelligent driving prototype VISION-S, through the AI algorithm to obtain driving behavior data to assess the risk of accidents, for the insurance and financial industry. This synergy is even more pronounced in the content business, where music, film and gaming reinforce each other.
Thanks to Sony's continuous innovation initiatives, coupled with the development of the stay-at-home economy during the new crown epidemic, Sony's performance has achieved substantial growth in 2020, with more than 4.5 million PS5 units sold worldwide; CMOS image sensor market share of more than 50%, Sony cameras in video shooting technology leading Canon, Nikon and other camera manufacturers.
As of today, Sony's stock price has risen from a low of $9 in 2012 to $102 today, an increase of more than 11 times. All indications are that Sony has successfully transformed and the king has returned.
Flagship product
Home imaging products
Some consumers have asked, how can you watch movies at home? Sony's complete product line gives the answer: the combination of BRAVIA series TVs + Blu-ray Disc player + Sony home av system allows consumers to enjoy an immersive, cinema-like HD picture and sound quality experience at home.
Digital imaging products
Sony's digital imaging products mainly include Alpha series micro singles, lens groups, black card digital cameras, action cameras and professional cinematographs/digital cameras.
Sony has core technologies in the field of digital imaging: Exmor CMOS image sensor, BIONZ image processor, is the world's largest and strongest camera sensor manufacturer, and has a ZEISS plus lens, with a complete industrial chain from lenses, sensors to displays. The disadvantages are also obvious, poor post-tuning and their own optical capabilities.
PS Series
Sony PS series is the hegemon of the global game console field, occupying half of the game console market, and is one of the most successful products in the world after Walkman. For a detailed introduction to the PS series of game consoles, you can take a look at another article dedicated to PS that Wheat pushes in this issue.
Sony phones
In 2001, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications was established, thanks to Sony's accumulation in music and cameras, so that Sony mobile phones have unlimited possibilities, but also created a lot of classic mobile phones.
T618: With its cost-effective and rare camera function at the same price, it once won the first place in global sales at that time.
W800: Soai launched the first music mobile phone printed with the "Walkman" logo, creating a precedent for music mobile phones.
In 2008, the most classic Xperia series was born, and in 2012, Sony acquired Ericsson's mobile phone business, established Sony Mobile, and launched a new Xperia S (LT26i), announcing the end of the old era.
But with the rapid development of mobile phone technology, Sony's smartphone market share has been tepid. In terms of technology, Sony is absolutely not bad, whether it is a camera or sensor, or sound quality, Sony has enough to be proud of the cost, but a mobile phone wants to sell well is not only dependent on these Sony's good technology can do. Among other things, sony mobile phones alone do not have the original unadorned Android system to make many people smell discolored. In the end, for various reasons, Sony did not have much achievement in the mobile phone business, but gradually declined.
Music Walkman
Speaking of Sony, I have to talk about the Walkman brand. As soon as Walkman was launched, it set off a musical revolution. With the development of technology, Walkman has also gradually evolved from the original cassette to the Discman series CD Walkman with CD technology as the core, and the MD series Walkman two branches.
However, the rapid development of the Internet has made the MP3 format, which is more portable and easier to store and transmit, quickly become the world-dominating communication standard, and Sony's technology no longer has a market advantage. In the face of the industry's general trend of investing in MP3 players, Sony is also powerless to return to the sky, but missed the opportunity, so that Apple iPod gradually replaced the market position.
Now Sony's NW series MP3 Walkman (NETWORK Walkman), although it continues Sony's consistent pursuit of music quality, but affected by the impact of smart phones, the Walkman market has not returned to its former glory.
But in any case, it is always Walkman who ushered in the "headphone era" of portable music, with global shipments of more than 200 million artifacts in the last century, which is a microcosm of an era and a testament to the past glory of the past when it was full of imagination and novelty about technology.
The future is here, we'll see
Sony has experienced peaks and troughs, so how will Sony develop in the future? In terms of technology, the Internet of Things, AI and hardware technology are the direction of future development, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida once said in an interview with the media: new energy vehicles, 8K video and video and streaming media entertainment content services, is sony's winning future.
In terms of culture, Sony adheres to the corporate direction of "closer to people" and adheres to the corporate purpose of "moving the world with the power of creativity and technology". In order to connect people through emotions, enhance the value of the company through innovative and perfect business operations.
Enhancing emotional connectivity, enhancing hardware and software and AI empowerment, and following the trend of the Internet of Things, Sony's future growth blueprint is clear. However, rising stars in the hardware field are rising everywhere, content services are surrounded by strong enemies, and Sony's future road is destined to remain bumpy. Whether Sony is ready to cut through thorns and thorns, and whether it can achieve its goals in the future, let us wait and see.
Well, that's all there is to this article. If you want to know more about the latest and interesting technology information, then quickly pay attention to our WeChat public account "idle wheat recycling".
We are a company focused on digital 3C recycling, and strive to bring users a better recycling experience and enrich your Knowledge. We will regularly publish more interesting and interesting articles, please keep an eye on us!