Sony briefly about the manufacturer. How Sony died

Looking for something original in the history of the founding of Sony is more useless than writing numbers on flowing water, as the Japanese would put it. Like other successful enterprises, Sony started with a small initial capital ($500 is not a significant amount) and several people united by one idea.

But the history of Sony's development itself deserves close attention.

Now Sony Corporation is a large transnational corporation producing high-tech electronics.

Televisions, cameras, camcorders, game consoles, smartphones, e-books - that’s not full list products that have won the trust of amateurs and professionals.

Sony Corporation is a division of the Sony Group holding company and is also involved in its management. Other subsidiaries of the holding are engaged in film production (Sony Pictures Entertainment owns the film studios TriStars Pictures and Columbia Pictures), are responsible for the music sector (Sony Music Entertainment), the financial sector (Sony Financial Holdings), etc.

• The corporate headquarters is located in Tokyo.
• General Director is Kazuo Hirai, who took this post in 2012.
• The total number of employees worldwide is about 170,000 people.
• Sony Corporation's market capitalization is $17.6 billion and its sales are over $78 billion ( Forbes data as of May 2013).
• In 2013, the Sony brand was recognized as one of the most influential at home (4th place in Japan’s Best Global Brands) and throughout the world (5th place in the Top Global Meaningful Brands Index).
• The Sony brand is consistently popular among our compatriots, appearing in the list of “Russians’ Favorite Brands” either in second (2011) or third (2010, 2012) line.

It's hard to believe, but initially, to avoid drawing attention to the country of origin, Sony printed the words "Made in Japan" in small font on export products. Once, customs even “wrapped” their products because the microscopic inscription was not visible!

The company was “hiding” because cheap Japanese products (paper umbrellas, toys, etc.) gave goods from the Land of the Rising Sun a bad reputation in the West.

However, Sony Corporation managed not only to overcome this stereotype, but also to turn the words “Made in Japan” into a guarantee High Quality!

How did you manage to achieve this?

The company was founded on May 7, 1946 by 38-year-old engineer Masaru Ibuka and 25-year-old physicist, and was then called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation).

Masaru and Akio knew each other since the war, when they worked together in a group of scientists who worked for the benefit of the army.

In the new company, the founding fathers applied the rule of “divide and conquer.” Being a true technical genius, Ibuka became closely involved in the development of new products, while the enterprising Morita took up solving sales issues.

In his book of memoirs “Made in Japan,” Akio admitted that meeting Masaru turned out to be one of the greatest gifts of fate for him.

At first there were only 20 employees on staff. Could they imagine , that after decades the company’s staff will increase 8000 times?!

Despite the increased number, even now Sony employees perceive each other as one family. In this they adopted the philosophy of Akio Morita, a brilliant manager who knew how to unite and mobilize the team to accomplish assigned tasks.

He understood very well that “no matter how lucky you are... smart or dexterous, your business and its fate are in the hands of the people you hire.” Morita sought to know each employee personally and, to strengthen working relationships, interacted almost daily with young lower-level managers during lunch.

The company structure was also strengthened by the lifelong employment system, revived by the United States at Japanese enterprises in the post-war period. But since Sony has always differed from other Japanese enterprises in its openness to new ideas and flexibility, the company's management took into account the needs of workers, introducing the practice of transferring them from one job to another within the company.

At first, the company was located on the 4th floor of a burnt-out department store in the destroyed center of Tokyo, but soon moved to the old district of the capital. To get into the “new office”, one had to bend down and walk under the clotheslines on which the neighbors were drying diapers.

This shocked Morita's relatives who visited him so much that they reported to his parents that Akio had become an anarchist. However, Morita's father repeatedly lent money to develop the company. “Material assistance” brought him good dividends - he later became one of the largest shareholders of Sony.

What did the inventors spend the money they received on?

Ibuka and Morita did not immediately find themselves in business. They were eager to create something fundamentally new, but at first they produced either radio set-top boxes, electric rice cookers, or heated pillows.

The search for my own business was crowned with success after 3 years.

In 1949, Morita bought an American tape recorder, combining business with pleasure - both the music could be listened to, and the acquisition could be disassembled and examined.

The information carrier in the tape recorder was unreliable and expensive wire, and Japanese engineers were inspired by the idea of ​​​​creating a tape recorder. Tape media had a higher fidelity and made it easy to change the recording - it was enough to paste a new piece of tape in the right place.

The idea of ​​a new product was not received with a bang by the company's employees - they had listened to Masaru's fantastic ideas for too long and no longer trusted them much. There was an urgent need to prove to colleagues (and especially to the accountant) that the project was worth the money and effort.

Ibuka and Morita decided to convince the chief accountant that they were right in the usual way for us - they took us to a restaurant. While he was eating both cheeks, his friends were praising their idea. Soon the accountant on a full stomach and not quite cool head gave the go-ahead for scientific research.

The company began developing its own tape media for sound recording. Cellophane was initially used as a base, which was cut into long strips and covered with experimental compounds. But even durable types of cellophane, after a couple of runs through the tape mechanism, stretched and distorted the sound.

The next material for magnetic tape was high-quality paper. It was cut and glued by hand, so the company's founders actually had a hand in creating the product. But paper was no good either.

After the company obtained plastic and developed its own technology for its use, the matter moved forward.

As for the magnetic coating of the tape, Japanese researchers obtained it from iron oxalate, which was pre-fried in a frying pan!

I would like you to clearly understand that at first no one in the company really knew how to make this magnetic tape, but, nevertheless, this did not stop anyone. And already in 1965, IBM chose Sony tape for storage devices in computers.

In 1950, the first tape recorder was released. It weighed 35 kg and cost 170,000 yen, i.e. $472 (a technician after university then received $30 per month).

Everyone liked the technical novelty, but it did not sell - inventing unique technologies and products was not enough. Morita took up marketing and managed to find consumers who saw the tape recorder not as an expensive toy, but as a useful thing. The Supreme Court of Japan purchased 20 tape recorders at once due to the shortage of stenographers in the post-war period. Schools are the next market.

In 1952, after Ibuka’s trip to the USA, the partners got the idea to buy a license for transistor, which would solve the issues of reducing the size of radio receivers. The following year, Morita travels to New York to complete the patent acquisition.

During research in the field of transistors, company employees discovered and described the tunneling effect in diodes, Leo Esaki subsequently received Nobel Prize.

In 1955, Akio decides to change the name of the company - with the unpronounceable “Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo” it is difficult to conquer the Western market.

The business of Japanese engineers was related to sound, and therefore the starting point was the word “sonus” (Latin for “sound”), the meaning was also suitable for the slang “sonny” (English “son”), as smart guys were called then. By crossing out one letter from “sonny,” which means “to lose money” in Japanese, Morita got “sony.”

So the corporation acquired a simple and memorable name, which became not only the name of the company, but also the brand of the goods produced.

In 1955 Sony introduces Japan's first transistor radio, the TR-55. Two years later, the company launched the first "pocket" receiver, the TR-63, into the US market, dubbed "the beginning of the end of the American consumer electronics industry."

In promoting its product, Sony resorted to a trick - the very first “pocket” receivers were still slightly larger than the pocket of a classic men’s shirt. For company representatives advertising the new product, special shirts with enlarged pockets were issued, into which the receivers could already fit!

In 1960 year Sony introduces the world's first transistor TV. The fact is that at that time televisions were incredibly huge because they worked on electronic vacuum tubes. Transistors were much smaller in size. The Japanese wanted to reduce the size of televisions using transistors, which they did brilliantly.

In 1961 The world's first portable TV appears.

The device caused a real sensation among consumers, even despite its high cost. It allowed

In 1961 year, 15 years after the founding of the business, the company's representative office in the United States, Sony Corporation of America, became the first Japanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The issue of shares brings its founders 4 million dollars! Then the cost of one share was $1.75, now security companies can be purchased for an average of $18 (data from May 2014).

This is not the highest price for Sony shares; the shares reached their highest value in March 2000 and then cost almost $150 per share. Below is a chart of changes in the company's share price. The picture can be enlarged by clicking on it:

In 1963 This year the company introduces a new product - the world's first transistor video cassette recorder.

The XVIII Summer Olympic Games of 1964, held in Tokyo, contributed to the growth of Japanese demand for color televisions - everyone wanted to follow the progress of the competition (in the final standings, Japan then took 3rd place, behind the USA and the USSR). Sony is successfully developing the market segment of portable TVs, where it does not meet competitors.

What is the secret of the company's success?

Let us note the clear organization of the system - in order to effectively complete tasks, the company structure was divided into groups (base scientific knowledge, project, business group), having their own functions, but closely interacting with each other.

In addition to such objective factors as new technologies and competent management of the company, the accuracy of the Japanese, which, as Morita believed, was in their blood, also played a role: “ Perhaps this has something to do with the care with which we have to learn to draw the complex hieroglyphs of our language.”

In 1968 In 2009, Sony began production of a color TV with a Trinitron kinescope, for the creation of which the National Academy of Television was awarded 4 years later. will award the company an Emmy Award.

In 1971 Sony introduces the world's first professional cassette format, U-matic. VCRs of this format were the first players in which the film was located in a closed housing. The "" company immediately bought 5,000 of these VCRs to train its mechanics and salespeople.

In 1975 year Betamax appears - f format video recordings for home use; At the same time, the household video cassette recorder appeared.

IN 1979 The company releases the first portable cassette audio player with Walkman headphones. The idea of ​​its creation belongs to , who noticed that there are a great many people who do not want to part with their favorite music - even his daughter, once returning from a trip, the first thing she did was not say hello to her mother, but ran to the tape recorder.

In 1980 year the company introduces Betakam, a half-inch cassette format for home use.

In 1983 Sony and Philips released the first CDs. Initially, discs with a diameter of 11.5 cm were planned, but at Sony's insistence the size was increased to 12 cm - the company wanted the disc to be able to record Beethoven's 9th "chorale" symphony in its entirety, lasting 74 minutes.

The year 1990 became the most fruitful year for innovative developments - Sony released about five thousand new products!

In 1994 In 2009, the company launched the PlayStation gaming console on the Japanese market. This console will conquer a wide market, even entering folklore:

In Russian language lesson:

Teacher: What prefixes do you know?

Vovochka: XboxAndSony PlayStation.

By the way, these game consoles are popular not only among schoolchildren. A funny Sony ad shows how the gaming console turns a grown man into a child.

In the 90s, Cyber-Shot digital cameras, VAIO personal computers, DVD video players, Memory Stick memory cards and much more appeared.

Ibuka Masaru passed away in 1997, and in 1999. Their creative tandem, which lasted more than half a century, led Sony to the heights of success. The lines dedicated to Masaru's farewell say: "Every employee, starting with Akio Morita, worked to make Masaru Ibuki's dream come true." We can say that Masaru’s cherished wish has come true - the life’s work of Japanese businessmen, the Sony company, still lives, develops and wins the trust of more and more new customers.

In 2001, Sony, together with the Swedish company Ericsson, founded a company specializing in mobile phones and accessories. In 2011, having bought out their share from partners, Sony became the sole owner of Sony Ericsson and renamed the company Sony Mobile Communications.

With the new brand name “Xperia”, the company is strengthening its position in the smartphone market.

Since 2005, the company begins to produce televisions under the new brand “BRAVIA”, and already in 2006 it ranks first in the world in sales of plasma televisions.

As for our market, in Russia the history of Sony began in 1991. In 1997, the company owned the highest share of the Russian TV sales market - 22%. In 2013, Sony was awarded the national Product of the Year award, receiving as many as 9 awards.

Is Sony dying?

However, not everything is so rosy. The fact is that over the past five years, not counting 2013, Sony has been unprofitable. That is, she did not make a profit for four years, except for 2013.

The losses are caused by a reduction in Sony's global share in the production of almost all types of electronics. The leading position of the Japanese manufacturer was shaken by companies from Asian countries (South Korea, Taiwan and China), with cheap labor force which were not easy to compete with.

The 2011 earthquake in Japan led to forced plant downtime and additional losses.

The strengthening national currency also played a negative role - the high exchange rate of the yen increased the cost of Japanese goods and made exports less profitable.

Many analysts predict the imminent demise of Sony and advise selling shares of this concern.

To finance its business restructuring program, the company is selling some of its office buildings.

Thus, the sale of a 37-story skyscraper with an area of ​​76 thousand sq.m. in Manhattan brought Sony just over $1 billion in 2013. For 3 years, Sony will still rent the space it previously owned.

To reduce costs, a decision has already been made to cut 5 thousand jobs, as well as to sell the Vaio computer and laptop division. The TV production line is planned to be separated into a separate company.

I don’t know what this is connected with, perhaps due to the fact that the founding fathers passed on to another world. They retired in the mid-nineties, but until last days continued to advise and help colleagues.

• Masaru Ibuka was born on April 11, 1908, died on December 19, 1997.
• born January 26, 1921, died October 3, 1999.

In 2000, Sony's share price reached an all-time high ($149.71) and then began to decline rapidly. They reached a historical low in November 2012, when they cost $9.74 per share.

With the passing of yours founders of Sony It’s as if I’ve lost my sense of fashionable and unusually interesting gadgets. The company has become completely different. More recently, the company was a true pioneer in the world of electronics and led the market.

Under Morita, new products and innovations were placed at the forefront of the company's development. With the arrival of new managers trained in MBA programs, innovation took a back seat, and the first priority was given to reducing production costs and increasing production volumes and sales of existing products.

Previously, the company's management devoted 85% of its time to issues related to research and development, 10% to personnel issues and only the remaining 5% to finance.

Now, most of the time at management planning meetings is devoted to how to increase production volumes, how to avoid spending on one’s own research and innovation in favor of mass production of other people’s developments, how to extend the depreciation period of equipment and other ways to reduce production costs.

The once most popular Walkmans have been pushed out of the market by iPods, which, by the way, appeared in 2001. But they firmly held the palm in this market for almost 20 years.

The same goes for many other areas in which the legendary Japanese brand has lost its technological edge, although some of Sony's products still deserve praise. For example, it was shot with an inexpensive waterproof camera Sony DSC-TX200, which costs about 10,000 rubles. In my opinion, excellent quality and a very affordable price for an underwater camera with HD video recording.

I have had a Sony car radio in my car for many years now. I've been using a Sony-Ericsson cell phone for eight years, which still works great, except that it's outdated. It just needs to be replaced with a battery, otherwise it runs out quickly. I also still have a Sony digital camera that I bought back in 2006. True, the shooting mode switch is a little sticky, but you can get used to it.

While I was writing the article, I was surprised at how many gadgets I have of this brand, although I never considered myself a fan or a fan of this brand.

By the way, in 2006, Sony Corporation inherited all the technological developments from the leaders in the photo industry, KONICA-MINOLTA, which curtailed the production of cameras in 2006. It is worth noting that Konica and Minolta, which merged only in 2003, were considered the luminaries of Japanese photo production.

Both companies have existed since the beginning of the 19th century. Only Konica specialized in the production of rangefinder cameras, photographic film, paper and photo printing systems, and Minolta specialized in the production of SLR cameras and optics, and quite high class and was appreciated not only by amateurs, but also by professional photographers all over the world.

Today, Sony produces a huge variety of cameras equipped with high-quality optics from Carl Zeiss, the legendary German concern with which the Japanese corporation has been working closely since 1995.

Sony remains Sony, just like in the slogan past years– “it’s a Sony” (“this is Sony”).

Now the company has a new slogan. In 2009, the famous advertising phrase “like.no.other” (“like no one else”) was replaced by a new one: “make.believe” (“make it a reality”). This motto accurately reflects the company's philosophy that dreams should come true and plans should be realized; And Sony helps bring ideas to life.

The logo remains the same; the ’73 trademark is currently used. Back in 1981, as part of the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the founding of Sony, the company's logo was planned to be changed. But then, after going through the options, Ibuka decided that none of the proposed ones was better than the existing one. And why change anything, if it is with these letters, simple and expressive, that Sony has entered its name into the list of innovative companies? Let's hope that the new management of the company will remember past victories and traditions and regain the lost greatness of the brand that once thundered throughout the world!

Since 2008, the company has been a participant in the global Eco-Patent Commons project, created to solve environmental problems. Companies participating in the project provide free access to their patents for technologies and inventions that can improve the environmental situation.

Sony is generally one of the most environmentally friendly companies. In 2013, the company took an honorable 11th place in the “Greenest Brands” rating compiled by the Interband agency based on 83 criteria.

In a number of its eco-products, Sony uses kinetic energy. To recharge a “twist and click” digital camera, you need to rotate its body, while you can “charge” stereo “push and play” headphones by pulling the wire out of the case.

Sony specialists have developed new “biobatteries” that generate electricity by breaking down glucose under the action of enzymes.

By 2050, according to schedule environmental activities, the company plans to achieve zero emissions greenhouse gases, both for their factories and for their products.

Personally, I like this company and the reliability of the devices it produces. The only wish is that it keeps up with the times and does not lag behind such geniuses and innovators of the industry as Samsung, who are not afraid to open new markets, create new products and trends in the world of consumer electronics.

In conclusion, I suggest you look at the history of Sony’s development in the form of infographics. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Among fans of social networks, the model, actress and fashion blogger Sonya Yesman is quite famous. Charming girl gives advice to subscribers on how to eat, dress, and apply makeup. And also travel the world.

Sonya Yesman was born in June 1995 in St. Petersburg. But when the girl was 5 years old, the family immigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto. A few years later, Sonya's parents divorced. The head of the family returned to Russia. My daughter had a hard time going through this difficult period. Relationships with classmates did not work out. The girl gained a lot of weight. Due to lack of communication with peers, Sonya Yesman dropped out of school and switched to home schooling. The girl dreamed of returning to Russia and began to independently learn the language, which she had almost forgotten.

My daughter was helped out of a prolonged depression by her mother, who managed to set the girl up for a positive outlook on life. the world. Sonya began to study school subjects intensively and managed to graduate from school six months earlier than her peers.

Model business

At school, Sonya Yesman dreamed of becoming an actress. My mother supported me in this and even accompanied me to acting classes, where classes were held on weekends. The girl turned out to be capable, and soon Sonya was invited to play in episodes of several films.

At that time, Esman had the figure of a model. The girl lost a lot of weight by giving up meat. With a height of 173 cm, the girl weighed 45 kg. This happened as a result of the severe shock the girl experienced after watching a program about the killing of animals.

A Canadian modeling agency invited 16-year-old Sonya Yesman to star in a commercial. The girl was noticed, and soon Sonya was offered to sign a lucrative long-term contract with the large Canadian agency Plutino Models.

Blogger

At the age of 17, Sonya Esman’s modeling biography began. After the release of the first commercial, the girl decided to create her own website classisinternal.com. The first videos of the model appeared on a personal blog in 2010. Esman films the videos with a camera. The video blog soon gained popularity in Canada, the USA, as well as in Europe and Russia.

The model advocates a healthy lifestyle. For one period, Sonya Yesman was a supporter of vegetarianism. But at some point she began to feel unwell and returned to her normal diet. The blogger honestly admitted about all this, as well as the risks of veganism, on her own channel.

However, the model never thought of giving up a healthy lifestyle. The blogger plays sports, does not smoke, and does not drink alcohol. He does not consume fast food and eats only boiled meat. Every morning he starts with a run and a developed set of special exercises.

The girl also has her own style of clothing, which her subscribers like. Followers try to imitate their favorite model. And she, in turn, gives them valuable advice on this matter.

Sonya Yesman has a page in “ Instagram”, which is replete with dozens of photos from different countries. In her own video blog, the girl shares valuable advice on this matter: she talks about the countries she has visited, posting videos from the most beautiful places. It also tells you where you can have a good and inexpensive vacation, and what sights to see.

Fashion occupies a central place in Esman's video blog. New styles and trends, practical advice for teenagers on what clothes are best to wear and how to combine things. How to apply makeup correctly and what to do to avoid looking vulgar. Sonya also shares her own experience on how to overcome problems in communicating with peers and believe in your own strength.

By the way, Sonya Yesman managed to improve her relationship with her father thanks to her video blog. The girl is already in contact with her father, who supports his daughter and is proud of her success.

To her friends – that’s what the girl calls her own subscribers – Sonya advises them to live, radiating radiance and positive emotions. Yesman’s critics respond that it is easy to give positive advice by collaborating with many modeling agencies and fashion publications that give models clothes and accessories from brands such as “,” Givenchy, “Dolce &” and “Alexander Wang.”

Sonya Yesman answers her opponents that her wardrobe contains items from second-hand stores and vintage markets. Repeatedly, the clothes worn by a fashion model have become the subject of beauty research by journalists. Sonya loves dresses in the style of the 70s, short fur coats, jackets, things with bright stripes, shirts and knitwear. The girl is partial to hats and sunglasses.

In 2016, Sonya's followers noticed that in the photo the lips of their favorite began to look larger. The girl was credited with going to a plastic clinic for Botox injections and rhinoplasty. But the blogger herself refrained from commenting.

Personal life

The model and blogger has 4 tattoos on her body. But these images are quite modest and small in size. Most often, Sony fans see a design on the wrist, which serves as decoration.

Sonya Yesman loves animals. On official channel and pages on the social network there are a lot of funny pictures with animals and the blogger’s favorite pet, the parrot Pasha.

Another hobby of the girl is driving a car. The girl prefers Mercedes among car brands.

As far as can be judged from messages on social networks, Sonya Yesman’s personal life is not a topic on which she communicates on her blog and opens up with subscribers. For a long time, followers wondered who the lucky guy was next to the beauty.

At the end of 2015, a candid photo shoot by Sonya Yesman and appeared online, in which it was clear that the young people were connected by something more than just playing for the camera. Soon information about Roma and Sonya’s romance began to spread online. But one day a young man posted the blogger’s phone number on his own page in “

Gadget manufacturers

Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate. Its diversified business is focused primarily on electrical appliances (TVs, refrigerators, game consoles), as well as entertainment and financial services. The company can be called one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony was ranked 105th in the 2014 Fortune Global 500.

Sony Corporation is a business unit of the parent company Sony Group, responsible for the production of electronics. Four core operating segments - electronics (including video games, network services and medical businesses), motion pictures, music and finance - make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world.

Different divisions are responsible for different segments. Sony is one of the Top 20 leaders in the sale of semiconductors, and is also the third largest manufacturer of televisions in the world (after and).

Sony's corporate group focuses primarily on electronics manufacturing and financial services (such as the insurance and banking sectors). Its foundation is associated with the names of Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuki.

They chose the name "Sony" as a derivative of "sonus" (translated from Latin language as “sound”), as well as from the word “sonny”, which in English means “sons” (in the early 50s in Japan, “sonny boys” meant presentable and intelligent young people).

By the way, use Latin letters in the name was quite unusual for a Japanese company. It was Morita who insisted on such a name, demanding that it not be tied to any industry (despite the fact that many were against it).

Future Japanese industrialist and co-founder of Sony, Masaru Ibuki, was born in 1908. He graduated from Waseda University in 1933, after which he got a job in a photochemical laboratory where film was processed. Following this, fate decreed that he enlist in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

At that time the Second was going on World War, and Ibuka was a member of the Naval Research Committee. In 1946, he left the laboratory and the Navy and founded a radio repair shop.

The co-founder of the new enterprise was Akio Morita.

In doing so, Masaru played a critical role in licensing transistor technology to Sony in the 1950s. As a result, Sony became one of the first to pioneer the use of this technology for peaceful purposes. Ibuka was president of the firm for over twenty years and then chairman between '71 and '76.

In 1961 he was awarded the Medal of Honor with a blue ribbon, and in subsequent years he was also awarded various orders and titles. Masaru received an honorary doctorate from Sophia University in Tokyo. He is the author of books on child psychology and learning.

Ibuka died in '97 at the age of 89. He was posthumously awarded the Grand Ribbon of the Order rising sun.

Akio Morita, the future Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony, was born in 1921 in Nagoya. His family had been making miso, soy sauce and sake in the village of Kosugaya (now part of Tokonoma City) on the west coast of the Chita Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture since 1665.

Akio was the eldest of four children, and his father trained him so that he could later run the family business. However, Morita found his true calling in something completely different thanks to his passion for physics and mathematics. He graduated from Osaka Imperial University in 1944 with a degree in physics.

During World War II, he also served in the Imperial Japanese Navy and worked for the scientific research committee, where he met Masaru Ibuka.

Akio Morita's family was Sony's largest shareholder and contributed a lot of money, supporting it financially early on. In 1950, the company sold its first tape recorder in Japan; Then it was the turn of the pocket radio. Akio Morita was the initiator of many of Sony's inventions.

It was he who came up with the idea of ​​giving the radio a “pocket” format. In 1994, Morita resigned as chairman of the company after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He was replaced by Norio Oga. Akio Morita was the author of books about schooling; also wrote an autobiography.

His most scandalous work was his co-authorship with politician S. Ishihara. In this work, they criticized the American business world, and called on the Japanese to take an independent position in running their own affairs. These chapters were later removed from the English version of the book.

Like Ibuka, Akio Morita received various medals and awards, including the Royal Society of Arts Medal in '82, the Legion of Honor two years later, and the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor of Japan in 1991.

In 1993 Morita received the British Order of Chivalry, and so on. He died in 1999 at the age of 78 from pneumonia. He was posthumously awarded the Grand Ribbon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

So, the Sony company actually traces its history back to the Second World War, when its two founders met. In 1946, Masaru Ibuka opened an electronics store in a Tokyo department store that had been damaged by bombing. The new company had an initial capital of $530 and a total of eight employees.

The following year, Masaru was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo.

It was this company that became the creator of the first Japanese cassette recorder (model Type-G). In the summer of 1955, the first Japanese transistor radio, the Sony TR-55, appeared. In 1958 the company name was changed to Sony.

In 1975 Sony launched new format video cassette recordings – Betamax. Unfortunately, the following years were marked by the infamous “video format war.” In the 1980s, Sony supplied Betamax systems for VCRs, competing with JVC's VHS format.

In the end, VHS did manage to become a worldwide standard, and Sony also used the format. However, it is worth noting the following fact: although Betamax can actually be considered an obsolete format, the professionally oriented Betacam format (based on Betamax) is still used, especially in the television industry, although to a lesser extent due to the spread of digital technology and high resolution.

In 1985, Handycam and Video8 format products came along and became popular in the consumer market. Two years later, a new digital audio standard, 4 mm DAT, appeared.

In 1979, the company introduced the world's first portable music player, the Walkman, which supported compact audio cassettes. In 2004 Sony released Hi-MD. This was a format that allowed audio to be played and recorded on the new 1GB Hi-MD discs.

In addition to this, the new format made it possible to store computer files - documents, videos and photographs. It should be added that Sony jointly developed the S/PDIF format, as well as the SACD audio system. Subsequently, the consumer still preferred CDs. Other Sony products include disk storage and flash memory.

The modern range of Sony Corporation includes various consumer electronics, including portable audio and video players, computers and so on.

In 2011, Sony, in an effort to enter the tablet market, launched its Sony Tablet series running Android.

Since 2012, products based on this platform began to enter the market under the Xperia brand (smartphones could also be included in this category).

The company's product range also includes a wide range of digital cameras (including Cyber-shot models), televisions, semiconductors and electronic components (image sensors, laser diodes, OLED panels and so on). The image sensors produced are widely used in Sony digital cameras, tablet computers and smartphones.

The company also has businesses related to medicine, biotechnology and healthcare. In the fall of 2012, Sony announced a joint venture with Olympus to develop new surgical endoscopes. The following year, Sony Olympus Medical Solutions was created.

In 2014, the P5 enterprise was created (together with Illumina and M3) to provide research and development activities.

The company successfully produces portable gaming equipment. By the way, the best-selling video game console of all time is the PlayStation 2. In 2014 it was announced new technology virtual reality for PlayStation 4.

Sony's mobile division is headquartered in the Japanese capital. It was founded in the fall of 2001 as a joint venture with Ericsson. Sony acquired a stake in the Swedish company in the winter of 2012.

In 2013, the flagship Xperia Z3 appeared. The smartphone ran on the Android platform and was equipped with a 5.2-inch display with Full HD resolution. The mobile device had a battery with a capacity of 3100 mAh, as well as a body with a high degree of protection from moisture and dust.

Back in the early 90s, Ericsson collaborated with General Electric in the USA. They were called Ericsson Mobile Communications. This name was not chosen by chance, and primarily so that the company would be recognizable in the USA. Ericsson supplied the chips for its phones from the Philips plant in New Mexico.

In 2000, a fire occurred at this facility, and production was suspended indefinitely. While we had already established supplies from alternative sources, we encountered serious problems. For decades, this company has been in the mobile device market and has managed to achieve significant success.

As a result, there was a lot of speculation about the possible sale of the mobile division, although the president of Ericsson himself denied this, noting that mobile phone- This is a core business. At the time, Sony was a minor player in the global device market, with less than 1% share. The final terms of the merger of the two companies were announced in the summer of 2001.

The strategy of the merged company included the release of new models with digital photography functions, as well as other multimedia capabilities. For this purpose, Sony Ericsson specially released several mobile devices with a camera and a color screen.

Despite the success of selling new products, the joint venture continued to suffer losses. The K750i model was introduced in 2005. The device had a 2 megapixel camera.

The W800i model was also a notable device. It was the first Walkman phone capable of playing music for up to 30 hours.

The first 5-megapixel camera phone, the K850i, was released in 2007, followed by an 8-megapixel camera device the following year. At the 2009 exhibition, the company presented the first device with a 12 megapixel camera – Satio.

It is known that in those years they also repeatedly became sponsors of professional sports teams.

In 2011, Sony announced the acquisition of a stake in Swedish partner Ericsson for $1.47 billion. This buyout was approved by the European Union in 2012. Around the same time, the company decided to completely focus on the production of smartphones, excluding the release of all other mobile devices.

To support the gaming sector, Sony is also purchasing the Gaikai cloud service. The Sony logo was replaced with a new power button, and consumers could clearly see these changes after the new Xperia series mobile devices in 2013. In the same year, the Z and ZL models were introduced. This was followed by the flagships Z1 and Z2. The Z3 was also announced in 2014.

Since 2012, all of the company's mobile products have been released under the Xperia line. The following year, a design known as "OmniBalance" appeared. Since 2014, more and more attention has been paid to high-end products, while the budget segment has been almost completely ignored.

The company is also involved in the production of televisions and film products. Exists special unit under the name Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well as the record company Sony Music Entertainment - the second largest among the Big Four companies, the basis for the formation of which was the acquisition of CBS Records, as well as the buyout of Bertelsmann's share.

The subsidiary, which develops and publishes video games, is called Online Entertainment. There is also a label called ATV Music Publishing. Interesting fact: The label owns most of The Beatles' publishing rights.

23 October 2015, 20:04

Sonya Esman is a fairly well-known Canadian blogger of Russian origin. The girl was born on June 6, 1995 in St. Petersburg, then moved to Kaliningrad, and finally, at the age of 5, she moved with her family to Toronto, Canada. A few years after the move, Sonya's parents divorced, and her father returned to Russia, while Sonya and her mother remained in Canada.

Sonya actively uses social networks and has a large number of followers. The girl has two YouTube channels: English and Russian. Sonya started the Russian-language channel in 2009 in order not to forget the Russian language and to work on her accent. She started her English-language blog, class is internal, at the age of 15. IN this moment she makes videos about travel, fashion, beauty, as well as her daily life.

At the age of 16, Sonya began working as a model, and at the age of 18 she signed a contract with the Plutino Models modeling agency.

She currently lives in Los Angeles, California, traveling the world and attending fashion weeks. A couple of months ago, she returned from a trip to Asia, where she hosted a show about fashion and beauty.

Interesting facts from the life of Sonya Esman:

1. For some time, Sonya adhered to vegetarianism and excluded fish, dairy products, and meat from her diet.

2. I graduated from school as an external student and attended acting classes.

3. Sonya is bilingual and speaks Russian and English.

4. She has a parrot named Pasha.

5. Her favorite artist is The Weekend

6. As a child, Sonya suffered from Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

7. Sonya has a sun tattoo

Some photos from her blog:

Sony Corporation, a world leader in the production of electronics, appeared on the photographic equipment market relatively recently, but has already managed to occupy a very strong position in it. In general, this is not surprising, because rapid technological breakthroughs and risky marketing moves are the company’s usual tactics, which were formed at the dawn of its activities.

The year of Sony's founding is considered to be 1946, when former colleagues at the defense company Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka met in Tokyo bombed by American planes. The friends drank sake, congratulated each other on having survived the war, and immediately decided to organize some kind of production.

The partners' initial capital was small: 84,500 yen, or $375 at the exchange rate of the time, most of which Morita borrowed from his father, a successful distiller. This money was enough for May 7, on the second floor of the dilapidated shopping center Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo - "Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company" - began operating, with a staff of 20 people (all of these people were former employees of the same defense plant).

The first tape recorder

Despite the loud name, the company produced far from the most high-tech products: rice fryers, voltmeters and heating pads, which had to be peddled. With the proceeds, Morita and Ibuka bought a variety of foreign electrical appliances that poured into the country with the arrival of American troops. The engineers were most impressed by the American tape recorder with a metal magnetic tape on which radio programs could be recorded. Quickly realizing that an expensive and heavy metal plate was not the most successful basis for a magnetic coating, the friends set out to develop a more advanced medium. As a result, they came up with the idea of ​​cutting a sheet of whatman paper into narrow strips and applying magnetic paint on them in a thin layer. The simple technology for producing lightweight and flexible magnetic tape was immediately patented, and in 1950, the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company released the first Japanese G-Type tape recorder.

The creation turned out to be complex, bulky and very expensive. It is unlikely that it would have become widespread if not for an unexpected order from the district court: tape recorders were then very rare even in the United States, and the Japanese judicial department, suffering from an eternal shortage of stenographers, was glad to get domestic devices for recording voices. The sale of 24 tape recorders at once brought the company 1 million yen and confidence in its abilities. The following year, the company released a more advanced model of the H tape recorder, weighing only 13 kg. Morita immediately sent the device's designer, Masao Kurahashi, on a lecture tour around the country to talk about new sound recording technologies in educational institutions. And he himself began to convince officials from the Ministry of Education of the need to install tape recorders in schools. In the end, under pressure from Morita and teachers impressed by the new product, officials gave in, and the company received another massive order for its products. And only the third model of the tape recorder, P, became a real bestseller without any government orders - not least due to its attractive price and significantly easier operation.

Transistors from America

In March 1952, Masaru Ibuka went to the United States to study the use of tape recorders in everyday life, and at the same time see how their production was organized in American companies. The main result of this trip was the purchase of a license for the production of transistors from Western Electric. These semiconductor devices are designed to amplify electric current and its controls were invented in Germany before the war, but engineers still had a vague idea of ​​where exactly they could be used. While the Americans were considering the possibility of using transistors in military equipment, Ibuka designed based on them... an innocent household radio. Unlike its bulky counterparts, the transistor model was the size of a thick book and could run not only on mains power, but also on batteries. TR-2 - this is the name given to the new device - became the first truly portable radio receiver in the world.

Inexpensive, lightweight receivers that could be taken anywhere became wildly popular, and Ibuka decided to expand the scope of transistors. In 1960, based on them, he designed a small portable television with an 8-inch screen, and five years later the first video recorder capable of recording television programs on magnetic tape appeared. Both of these devices were released under a new brand, the name of which sounded short and noble: Sony.

Birth of sound

Telecommunications Engineering Company finally changed its complex name in 1958. Akio Morita, who by that time had become responsible for promoting the company’s products, assured, not without reason: “To gain a foothold in the world market, we need a different name - simple, short, easy to pronounce and memorable. And instead of hieroglyphs, you need to use the international Latin alphabet.” For example, Americans could not pronounce not only Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, but even the abbreviation Totsuko - and selling a product in the United States made by a company with an unpronounceable name would have been difficult, to put it mildly. At first, Morita and Ibuka wanted to shorten the name of their brainchild to three letters - TTK, but then problems would inevitably arise in the domestic market. After all, TTK is very similar to TKK - the Japanese railway company. And then, having rummaged through dictionaries, the friends pulled out the Latin word sonus - “sound”, which, in their opinion, ideally reflected the direction of the company’s activities. Having slightly modernized it, Morita and Ibuka came up with the word sony, which was destined to become the international name of the company.

The first Sony logos, which appeared on radios in 1955, were written in a dynamically slanted font. Two years later, the font was replaced with a calmer and more readable one, and since then only the thickness of the letters has changed in the style of the word Sony. The last version of the logo that we now see on Sony products was approved in 1973.

The habit of surprising

In 1968, Sony established its first overseas subsidiary, Sony UK Ltd. in Great Britain, in 1971 it introduced the world's first professional cassette recording system, and in 1972 it received its first (of fifteen subsequent) Emmy music award. People started talking about the Japanese corporation, and both competitors and students of management and marketing departments at major universities began to understand the reasons for its success.

Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Sony, 1996

Akio Morita himself called the main prerequisites for such dynamic development the constant desire to choose major goals and set ambitious scientific and technical tasks. In his book "Made in Japan" he cites simple diagram such tactics: “Scene 1: a now familiar product (transistor radio, portable TV, household VCR) is still missing on the market. Scene 2: experts say that no one needs such a product. Why make a small receiver if a big one has better sound? Why do we need a small screen TV in large rooms in American homes? Who needs a VCR with the abundance of interesting and varied programs on numerous television programs?

“Scene 3: the leader of the company clearly explains the philosophy of the new product - the transistor receiver will follow the owner to any place; The Walkman, the world's first pocket-sized audio player, replaces the hustle and bustle of the big city with the music environment of your choice; the VCR eliminates the tyranny of television companies that force everyone to watch programs only at the time they are broadcast. Scene 4: Sony engineers get down to business and solve a complex problem, production workers ensure impeccable quality, and sales departments ensure a resounding market success of the new product.”

Sony has repeatedly introduced advanced video recording formats. Largely thanks to her, the concept of “high-resolution video” appeared.

From video to photo

Using the tactics Morita described, by the mid-1970s Sony had become the world's largest manufacturer of a variety of electronics, from small household appliances to computers and professional stereo systems. Not least thanks to Sony, video technologies began to actively develop, almost completely displacing movie cameras from the amateur market. And the high-resolution video recording systems developed by the company had a significant impact even on cinema. However, for a long time the company did not pay attention to another profitable segment of the market - the production and sale of amateur photographic equipment. This omission was eliminated in 1981, when Sony made not just a breakthrough into the market, but a real revolution in photographic equipment, introducing the Mavica digital SLR camera (short for Magnetic Video Camera), from the appearance of which the history of modern digital photography is usually counted. A CCD sensor measuring 10 x 12 mm, which contained 0.28 megapixels, was responsible for image registration in this device. The images generated by the matrix were stored in analog NTSC video format on a special flexible magnetic disk, reminiscent of modern floppy disks. The disc was rewritable, it could hold up to 50 frames, and there was also room for audio commentary.

Technically, Mavica was a continuation of Sony’s line of television video cameras based on CCD matrices, but the result of its work was not a video stream, but static pictures, still frames, which could be viewed on a TV or monitor screen. Otherwise, Mavica was a full-fledged DSLR with a familiar viewfinder and an original mount for interchangeable lenses, presented simultaneously with the camera: 25 mm f/2, 50 mm f/1.4 and 16–65 mm f/1.4 zoom.

Having made a lot of noise and becoming one of the pioneers of digital photography, Sony calmed down and forgot about SLR cameras for more than twenty years. In 1986, the company introduced a large camera, the ProMavica MVC-2000, equipped with a 0.38-megapixel 2/3-inch CCD sensor and an excellent fixed 48-288 mm zoom lens with a constant aperture of f/1.4. The model has lost its mirror and pentaprism, and its design and appearance, began to resemble a video camera even more - however, it was still a camera capable of working with shutter speeds in the range from 1/15 to 1/1000 s. The camera came with a special portable drive for magnetic disks, making it easier to view the pictures taken on a TV screen. This model, very interesting for its time, costing $3,395, never went on general sale, but was supplied only to order as a touchstone, with the help of which it was supposed to study the demand for such devices.

Demand was small, and Sony specialists, believing that it was time for professional digital cameras has not yet arrived, they concentrated on developing a simpler and cheaper consumer model. The result of their efforts was the appearance in 1988 of two models at once - Mavica MVC-C1 Personal Camera and MVC-A10 Sound Mavica costing $230 and $350, respectively. Both cameras were equipped with 2/3-inch matrices with a resolution of 0.28 megapixels and fast lenses with a focal length of 15 mm. It was possible to shoot only at a sensitivity value of 80 ISO in the shutter speed range from 1/60 to 1/500 s. You could record 25 photos on a magnetic disk, and the MVC-A10 Sound Mavica model also allowed you to record a ten-second commentary for each photo. The cameras turned out to be quite viable, but by no means revolutionary: in the same year, production models similar in function and even design were released by Canon and Konica, and Pentax presented a prototype of a very similar camera EI.memory card - and most importantly, they could be immediately viewed on 1 .8-inch display and, if you don’t like any of them, delete them immediately. This model became the ancestor of the famous Cyber-shot family of cameras, thanks to which Sony, a few years later, became one of the leaders in the amateur photographic equipment market.

The 2-megapixel Cyber-shot F505 camera of an unusual design became the progenitor of all subsequent Sony “pseudo-mirrors”, up to the Cyber-shot R1 model

In 1999, a serious model, the Cyber-shot F505, appeared, which had a rather impressive-sized Vario-Sonnar zoom lens from Carl Zeiss that could move down or up relative to the camera body. All subsequent “pseudo-DSLRs” of the company, up to the 10-megapixel Cyber-shot R1, released in 2005, can to some extent be considered an evolution of this by no means compact camera. Everyone expected the next step from a company that had mastered the production of such serious devices - the release of a full-fledged digital SLR camera. But the prerequisite for this important stage in the history of Sony was an event that literally shook the entire photo world: in February 2006, Konica Minolta announced its withdrawal from the photo market. It must be said that the companies Konica and Minolta, which merged only in 2003, were considered the luminaries of Japanese photo production. The first began producing format cameras on the Japanese islands back in the 19th century, the second began with the development of medium format photographic systems, analogues of the German Rolleiflex, in the 1920s. Later, Konica concentrated on the production of rangefinder cameras, film, paper and photo printing systems, while Minolta was actively involved in the production of SLR cameras and optics, winning the trust of not only amateurs, but also professional photographers around the world. And at the beginning of 2006, the already united company KonicaMinolta suddenly unexpectedly announced the closure of photo production and the transfer of all technological developments in this area to Sony Corporation! The latest addition was somehow lost amid the shock experienced by numerous adherents of the Minolta photo system. But this news meant one thing: very soon they would have to spend considerable sums to switch to another system.

But before everyone’s amazement had passed, in June of the same year Sony introduced its 10-megapixel amateur SLR camera A100, and a year and a half later released the semi-professional model A700. The Minolta heritage was felt in the characteristic angular design and abundance of various mechanical control units of the new DSLRs. Otherwise, the cameras turned out to be far from conservative: the engineers filled them with the most modern electronic systems, which made it possible to successfully fight for the most demanding consumer on the battlefields of the market. Along with the cameras, which inherited the type of mount from Minolta, several Sony zoom lenses were presented, as well as a whole fleet of high-quality optics from Carl Zeiss, the legendary German concern with which the Japanese corporation has been working closely since 1995. Today, Sony launches a variety of digital cameras on the market with enviable regularity - from sleek compact models to semi-professional SLRs - and is about to try on the laurels of the most prolific and energetic photo manufacturer in the world.