Sony turns 60

Wow, Sony. Sixty. The golden years. (You're not going to retire any time soon, are you? No -- good.) How far you've come since May 7th 1946, when Masaru Ibuka, post-war engineering entrepreneur and gadget forefather established Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Totsuko) with Akio Morita, founding the company we now know and cherish (um, most of the time) as Sony. We've seen you go through a lot of changes over the years as you've started up and shut down lines of devices, won and lost format wars, taken on board content companies, and occasionally struggled for direction in the marketplace -- but even though we dish out a lot of tough love we know someday you'll understand. Happy birthday, Sony.

[Max v W @ May 7th 2006 9:54AM]

happy birthday, 1000$ of special on every product now? could use a new LCD-TV for < 1000 bucks.

[Version 1.0 @ May 7th 2006 10:00AM]

Happy Birthday Sony! As a gift, I will purchase a PS3!

[Josh Warner @ May 7th 2006 10:04AM]

Go back to your roots, Sony - dump Sony BMG; start making great, FUNCTIONAL (e.g. open), devices that look great and work perfectly. Anybody remember the Walkman?

Oh, and STOP with the proprietary formats. The Walkman was so successful because it used cassettes - a standard, non-proprietary format. The Ipod has been so successful because it will play .mp3, which is a standard format used by almost everybody. Nobody wants their music collection in ATRAC3.

You're behind the curve, scared, lashing out at your customers (r00tkits anybody?), and you need a major reorganization. Break off from BMG, or this will continue.

Will this happen? Not yet, but the more consumers that get educated and stop buying their stuff, the more it's possible. I used to love Sony, and now I won't spend a dime on them.

[Synergy @ May 7th 2006 10:16AM]

Here here Josh!

[Ethan @ May 7th 2006 10:20AM]

Wait, wait, wait. Sony won a format war?

:D

[K MAN @ May 7th 2006 10:29AM]

i think sony did won a format war. the 1.44" floppy.

but i think in 5 years (65 birthday) sony should retire. enough already.

I've seen better products from a sony knock off company, Cony.

[Devon @ May 7th 2006 10:35AM]

Sony doesn't need BMG to make bad decisions; they just need them to make a hell of a lot more money. Sony's cute and all, but they can't seem to make any device that's worth the money spent on it. Maybe now that they're 60, they've grown sagacious enough in their old age to pick third party manufacturers that know how to work a soldering iron, before they slap a Sony logo (and a few hundred dollars added to MSRP) on a device.

But I'm not all about badmouthing on one's birthday, so I'll tell ya what: I'll get you a Samsung television as a birthday present.

[torpy @ May 7th 2006 11:00AM]

Happy Birthday Sony! It's been a bumpy 60 years but you seem to have struck through, just don't keep churning out ATRAC devices, rootkits and you'll be fine.

[Drew @ May 7th 2006 11:24AM]

Cue 50 people saying Sony doesn't make any good products anymore.

They still have great HD camcorders, cell phones (W810i anyone?), TV's (SXRD), digital cameras... but oh wait, it's cool to hate Sony.

[MaX PL @ May 7th 2006 11:27AM]

eh, Sonys done after Blu Ray flops.

years to a good 60!!!

[Buthidae @ May 7th 2006 11:31AM]

Hehe, I still have fond memories of my MZ-R70 minidisc walkman, with the backlit LCD remote from an MZ-R900 - fantastic! I always said that I'd keep it and upgrade to the next one Sony released with two headphone outputs, and they never did, and I bought an iPod.

Such is life.
FWIW, I bought the one MD walkman. I'm now happily using my 3rd iPod, a white 4GB Nano which I got last Thursday. Ace!

[Paul @ May 7th 2006 11:56AM]

Sad people, "I'm soooo cool I hate Sony" , "Blu-Rays going to fail".

Go get a bloody life you sad people. Did you know there is a world thats outside a computer???

[Max v W @ May 7th 2006 12:09PM]

Sony does have good / decent products on the market, but compared with other great companies Sony is just expensive. Like hanging on to the expensive MemorySticks for almost everything, got to buy new memory cards that cost more then CF.

But thats imho.

[Razib Ahmed @ May 7th 2006 12:19PM]

Happy Birthday Sony! You have made all the Asian companies proud with your great achievements and success. I wish that in the next 60 years you become even bigger and better. I also wish that you never forget your Asian root.

[thequinox @ May 7th 2006 12:29PM]

The way things are going, I hope Sony doesn't make it past sixty. I could rant on about what I dislike, but it has all been posted above already. Sony, get with the program or get out.

(Well put #3, I could not have said it better myself)

[Mike Ishi @ May 7th 2006 12:43PM]

To me, Sony is the Lexus or Mercedes of electronics. Those worried about saving money in cheap materials/designs and want no extras on their laptops etc. shouldn't even be looking at their luxury electronics products.

However, Sony has done terribly in their digital music player department IMO. I agree with the guy who talked about how open the Walkman was and how nobody wants to use Sony's small little closed music format.

[andrew @ May 7th 2006 1:21PM]

damn you kids are tough critics...why do you think sony merged with BMG? to divest. Sony no longer owns SONY BMG, it is co-owned by the two with BMG management. Sony is a huge company, over 150,000 employees. the "perfect" device doesnt just crop up over night. And sony has done more for the electronics industry than any of you care to admit. how many of you watched the olympics? all the tv production studios, tv cameras, etc was all done by sony. How many of you go to baseball/ football/ basketball games? ya, that jumbotron is sony. i mean theres sony electronic, sony pictures, sony computer entertainment, sony bmg, sony ericcson. So if youre really uninformed enough to say sony sux, youre just an ignorant fool becuase nearly every other company is capatalize on sony by taking their design and making it better before sony can fire back.

[SemiLOOSE @ May 7th 2006 1:27PM]

sony makes the world a better place to live in :P

happy birthday sony!

when can i preorder that ps3 and a 60inch bravia HD?

:-)

[Paul @ May 7th 2006 1:31PM]

Well said Andrew, some of you should actually appreciate what Sony has done.

I am also sure that you have all played on one form of Playstation?
Just remember, if Sony isn't that great? Why the hell have you got at least one product from them in your house?

Waiting for some smart ass comments, so please carry on.

[GamerX @ May 7th 2006 1:37PM]

Some of you here can't seem to remember Sony has created succesfull formats before. There was this thing called a "CD" that turned out fairly well for them, any of you heard of it?

[Trey @ May 7th 2006 1:43PM]

Stop hating on Sony. Happy 60 years! Thanks for my WM-23, WM-60, WM501, MZ-N1, MZ-N10, NW-HD1, NW-HD3, My line of Trinitron TV's, my CD Walkmans, my NW-e403, DSC-P100, My various car stereo's, My Sonicstage software (IT FRICKEN WORKS, You have to be R E A L L Y S T O O P I D IF YOU CAN'T USE IT.)Good memories from ,on the whole, a great bunch of products.

Be warned though, just like Barbie was killed by the Bratz, it's time to move on.

I'm luvin' my new Canon IXUS 65, Mm Panasonic LCD TV,my Panasonis digital/receiver/DVD recorder combo and my Moto' moby.

Better shape up or ship out or Samsung will rule your world.

[Jonathan Marks @ May 7th 2006 1:49PM]

Sony actually started by making rice cookers and failed. In the last 5 years, Sony has lost its passion and totally missed the music revolution, prefering to concentrate on non-compatible systems like Memory Stick and ATRAC. With some companies, I feel I am involved in co-creation. In Europe, at least, Sony has one of the most confusing series of websites, none of which share any passion, nor make you feel involved in their future.

Its a shame, but until they involve me in their next generation products, I will look elsewhere.

[KianTech @ May 7th 2006 1:57PM]

I remember the good old day when sony was the best quality out there. My dad sill has a 1985 27 inch sony tv that still works perfect. Now sony makes alot of low end stuff and slap their name on it so people will say its sony it must be good. SONY dont be crappy anymore!

[Aleix @ May 7th 2006 2:27PM]

#19 Are you sure that Sony created the CD? i think you should search a little bit more information( but just a little bit ;))

[Paul @ May 7th 2006 2:51PM]

Stricly speaking, 19 is correct. Sony and Phillips were the two major companies....hence why Sony made 12p per disc sold until last month?

[Tetanus @ May 7th 2006 2:52PM]

Sony and Philips.

[Paul @ May 7th 2006 2:55PM]

Sorry 12p is incorrect....

But... From wiki

"In 1979 Philips and Sony decided to join forces, setting up a joint task force of engineers whose mission was to design the new digital audio disc."

[Hmmm @ May 7th 2006 2:59PM]

The CD was created pretty much by Philips and Sony.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD

[InvaderLuj @ May 7th 2006 3:36PM]

how old are Somy and Sorny?

[Abdolhosein Vakilzadeh @ May 7th 2006 3:42PM]

Sony, I remember it since I was a kid, the brand Sony was labelled on devices came from Mecca, after Hadj.
All pilgrims bring TVs, VCRs, Radios and ...
I like the brand for style and quality...

[mpmaley @ May 7th 2006 4:12PM]

HAPPY BDAY SONY! :D

[vidGuy @ May 7th 2006 4:48PM]

I'm not claiming accuracy here, but here's a list from wiki on Sony's proprietary formats...

Proprietary formats

Sony has historically been notable for creating its own in-house standards for new recording and storage technologies instead of adopting those of other manufacturers and standards bodies. The most infamous of these was the videotape format war of the early 1980s, when Sony marketed its Betamax system for video cassette recorders against the VHS format developed by JVC. In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketplace and became the worldwide standard for consumer VCRs and Sony adopted the format. Since then, Sony has continued to introduce its own versions of storage technologies, with varying success. Examples include -

* Video8/Hi8/Digital8 - In 1985, Sony introduced the Handycam, one of the first Video8 cameras. Much smaller than the competition's VHS and Betamax video cameras, Video8 became very popular in the consumer camcorder market.
* MiniDisc was created by Sony for use in portable music players. They were designed to share the market of Walkman products. Low consumer adoption has seen the product fail outside of the Japanese market.
* Sony also makes heavy use of its Memory Stick flash memory cards for digital cameras and other portable devices; however, other manufacturers are also making use of this technology.
* One successful attempt was the introduction of the 90mm micro floppy diskettes (better known as 3.5inch floppy discs), which Sony had developed at a time when there were 4" floppy discs and a lot of variations from different companies to replace the then on-going 5.25" floppy discs. Sony had great success and the format became dominant; 3.5" floppy discs gradually became obsolete as they were replaced by more current media formats.
* The DVD format currently being used in households world wide was jointly developed by Philips and Sony to replace CD; the use of a shorter wavelength laser beam sees the higher storage capacity of 4.7-17+GB as opposed to 640-700MB on a single disc.
* Sony attempted, unsuccessfully, to compete with the Iomega Zip drive and Imation SuperDisk with their HiFD.
* In 1993 Sony challenged the industry standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound format with its newer and more advanced proprietary motion picture digital audio format called SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound). This format employed eight channels (7.1) of audio opposed to just six used in Dolby Digital 5.1 at the time. Unlike Dolby Digital, SDDS utilized a method of backup by having mirrored arrays of bits on both sides of the film which acted as a measure of reliability in case the film was partially damaged. Ultimately, SDDS has been vastly overshadowed by the preferred DTS (Digital Theatre System) and Dolby Digital standards in the motion picture industry. SDDS was solely developed for use in the theatre circuit; Sony never intended to develop a home theatre version of SDDS.
* Since the introduction of the MiniDisc format, Sony has attempted to promote its own audio compression technologies under the ATRAC brand, against more widely-used formats like MP3. Until late 2004, Sony's Network Walkman line of digital portable music players did not support the MP3 de facto standard natively, although the software SonicStage provided with them would convert MP3 files into the ATRAC or ATRAC3 formats.
* Sony is currently touting its Blu-ray optical digital versatile disk format, which is likely to compete with Toshiba's HD-DVD. As of quarter one of 2006, Blu-Ray has the backing of every major motion picture studio except Universal.
* Sony and Philips jointly developed the Sony-Philips digital interface format (S/PDIF).
* Sony and Philips introduced the high-fidelity audio system SACD in 1999, but it has since been entrenched in a format war with DVD-Audio. At present, neither has gained a major foothold with the general public. CDs are preferred by consumers because of their ubiquitous presence in consumer devices.
* OpenMG, a digital rights management system.
* ARccOS, a copy control system for DVDs.
* Universal Media Disc (UMD) is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on the PlayStation Portable. It can hold 1.8 gigabytes of data, which can include games, movies, music, or a combination thereof.
* MpegMovieVX (Also known as MPEG-VX, EX and HQX) is the video format used in Sony Cybershot digital still camera's. It's a proprietary implementation of the MPEG1 standard, which Sony first used in their DSC-F55 model in 1999 and has been using ever since. The format is undocumented and has only recently been reverse engineered by the company Makayama, who use it in their consumer software Digital Camera Media Studio [3].



Pretty poor list, I agree, with only a few highlights.

[Mel @ May 7th 2006 6:13PM]

Happy Birthday Sony!!!! Much Love.

[AJH @ May 7th 2006 8:15PM]

Happy birthday SONY.
Sony has done more than most companies.
Floppy disc,trinitron(emmy 1974),personal audio,PS1,PS2,
handycam,metal tape advancements,CD(with Philips)SACD(again with Philips),CD-R,RW,first HD broadcast,first live HD broadcast,robotics(aibo,QRIO) etc etc.
Rootkit?formats that did not succeed?-who cares,the successes outweigh any failures.
Without Sony CE/IT would not be what it is today.

heres to another 60 years.

[DMON @ May 7th 2006 8:18PM]

lets hope for an early death. 12 more years would be hell.

[Jon Speed @ May 7th 2006 8:59PM]

Does anyone understand the importance of Sony in the video game industry? Yeah, I mean come on, everyone F*cks up sometimes, come on, Phillips, Panasonic, Samsung, Microsoft, Nintendo, etc, weren't, and in some cases still aren't the consumer friendly companies they are now.

Now i will be one to admit that they make shitty computers, but you guys should really give them a break for what they have done, I mean it isn't all of Sony as a whole making the mistakes, they have all of those different divisions, becasue SCEA has nothing to do with the rootkit, and SCEA, SCEE, and SCEJ have contributed to of 70% of Sony's annual earnings, so at least give them some cred.

The video game industry, being the multi-billion dollar (and counting) monster that it is, would not be as large as it is had it not been for Nintendo, Sega and Sony. With that said, Sony having 70% marketshare with the PS2 is mainly responsible for reaching it's hand out to the average consumer. Do you guys think about the things that are complements to video games? The reason televisions, mainly HDTV's are so much more inexpensive now than ever, is because of the gamers who are willing to spend their time and money, not because new movies are coming out. Opportunities, jobs that it creates for artists and developers, I can go on.

Come on guys, take Sony out of the equation, and there would be billions of dollars that WOULD have been spent on games saved in banks, and missing out of our economy! Please, Give them SOME credit!

[Johan @ May 7th 2006 10:17PM]

Good grief -- has it really been 60 years since I ordered those vacuum tube voltmeters?

More detail on what Sony has been up to since 1946 here:

http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/2006/05/sony_at_60_the_milestone_produ.php


...and a look at the way ahead for the Tokyo giant here:

http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/2006/05/60_years_of_sony_innovation_bu.php

[Matt E. @ May 8th 2006 12:43AM]

Now its all becoming very clear to me. Companys, like humans, can get senile.

[thanseer @ May 8th 2006 2:05AM]

BIG CHEERS TO THE 60 YEAR OLD COMPANY, IT HAS INDEED COME ALONG LONG BITTER FRUITFULL YEARS. BE IT RISE OR BE IT FALL, OR BE IT FORMAT WAR BE IT WALK MAN, BE IT DISKMAN OR BE IT POD ALL ALONG SONY HAS ENGADGETED US.

SO 3 CHEERS TO THE COMPANY WHICH HAS TO GO AGES & AGES ALONG.

[phipscube @ May 8th 2006 4:12AM]

Once again the Nintendo/Apple Fanboys get in with the snide two second comments.

Sony is not just about media formats, why do you Sony haters insist on focusing on media ONLY? Sure, they have their ups and downs there, so what? In any case the most important formats being CD and DVD were big. The two major places Sony lost is with Betamax and against MP3 with ARTRAC. But they still made ruddy nice VHS players.. and they are now starting to make MP3 standard in their players. They bow down gracefully after a fight has been lost, So whats the big deal right now?

MD was (And still is) very popular in Japan.

You can't beat a Sony CRT TV. And the Flat Screens are pretty darn special too (Very nice controller board features), maybe only second to Phillips right now, but getting better.

In camcorder land Sony dominate in media AND hardware.

And the Playstation wasn't exatly a media format was it?, but its a bloody successful Games machine! The best seller EVER in two straight generations! Beating the pants off Nintendo's hey days in the late 80's (60 Million world wide if I remember correctly, Sony have almost doubled that TWICE! and the PS2 is STILL going strong after 100 Mil).

Anyone noticed the Sony Ericsson mobile phones? not sure about anywhere else but here they dominate even the mighty Nokia. K750i? everywhere.

Memory Stick.... ok originally it was annoying to have ANOTHER format in the flash field. But I use CF SD and MS.. of all the formats the Memory Stick is most robust. Never had a single card corrupt. SD is the WORST for this even if its write protected! terrible. I use good quality Sandisk or Sony brands so not brand fault. At the moment my favourite is Memory Stick because its reliable. Its also a format that seems to be slowly getting more and more popular because of the poularity of PSP and SE Mobiles. Its not expensive anyomre either so that doesnt hold as an excuse. I bought a 2GB Sony branded high speed card for �48 just recently (Admittedly not retail, on ebay, but it was BNIB).

Nintendo made big mistakes in the mid 90's, Ironically with MEDIA choices... they just couldn't let go of the darn cartridge! They were also pretty ruthless back then, quite a nasty company.

Apple were NOTHING before ipod, And apart from music they are still nothing. If Steve hadn't come back they wouldn't exist now. Even their once "Quality" moniker is vanishing... Scratches, overheating, battery issues....Silent Recalls anyone?

Anyway...

Credit where its due

Happy Birthday Sony

[tekdroid @ May 8th 2006 5:31AM]

Number 3:
(Oh, and STOP with the proprietary formats. The Walkman was so successful because it used cassettes - a standard, non-proprietary format. The Ipod has been so successful because it will play .mp3, which is a standard format used by almost everybody. Nobody wants their music collection in ATRAC3.
----------
The thing is, mp3 is proprietary, too. See http://www.mp3licensing.com for royalty rates for hardware. The point is, every company tries to make their own technology succeed and every major format out today IS proprietary (and royalties are paid). Again, the idea is to lead the tech (patent) race and get your products used by the masses, or at least licensed by other companies.

Sony's earlier walkmans were a smashing success because they overcame size and battery life (and cost) constraints very well. The format had very little to do with it. Of course it helps that it was around and popular already, but only a small factor in the success stakes, IMO.

Sony is 60 years old. A good time to drop SonicStage, I say :p

[Perrey Z. @ May 8th 2006 2:39PM]

Happy 60th, Sony., now please earn the respect of consumers and stop manufacturing products with "Sony timers" in them, pretty please?

[K MAN @ May 8th 2006 10:20PM]

GamerX,

Philips developed the CD. not Sony. Sony presented a prototype with Philips Research. Like TDK is doing with the BluRay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc

Formats Sony Lost:

BetaMax, Atrac 3, MemoryStick, MiniDisc, DAT. And not because they are bad ideas. They failed because Sony believes that they can pressure the market into using their formats. They lost because Sony is cocky.

[Peter Payne @ May 14th 2006 11:19PM]

I remember seeing Morita on TV somewhere, talking about how he came up with the name Sony. He wanted it to sound like English, and he liked the phrase "sonny boy" and the rest is history. All in all, not something he should be saying publicly, just like Coca Cola doesn't really like the cocaine connection. Incidentally, people here in Japan often think the company is American because of its non-Japanese sounding name.

[Ravi R @ Aug 15th 2007 5:27PM]

I think the name SONY came from the latin word SONUS. But i have most of the SONY products. I love their shortwave radios. Just got a VAIO FZ. Been a VAIO fan ever since it was released. HP and DELL can only dream of such designs.

To sum up SONY in one word, its going to be "Amazing". To the surprise of many SONY and only SONY can make stuff that others can dream of, like all video related stuff. Most of the HDTV programs
you enjoy these days were shot using a SONY camera.

I think the digital revolution in music and movies caught them off guard, but whatever they make and made are just top class.

My only gripe is they shut down all the factories in China and start making it in Japan as they did once.
For the curious, get a copy of Akio Morita's "Made in Japan", the SONY story. Its a very good read.