The new millennium is here and Sony has plenty to celebrate. The company’s approach – doing what others don’t – has paid off, in the form of great products that people covet.
Throughout its history, Sony has demonstrated an ability to capture the imagination and enhance people’s lives. The company has been at the cutting edge of technology for more than 50 years, positively impacting the way we live. Further, few companies are as well positioned to drive the digital age into homes and businesses around the world for the next 50 years and beyond.
Sony innovations have become part of mainstream culture, including: the first magnetic tape and tape recorder in 1950; the transistor radio in 1955; the world’s first all-transistor TV set in 1960; the world’s first color video cassette recorder in 1971; the Walkman personal stereo in 1979; the Compact Disc (CD) in 1982; the first 8mm camcorder in 1985; the MiniDisc (MD) player in 1992; the PlayStation game system in 1995; Digital Mavica camera in 1997; Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) player in 1998; and the Network Walkman digital music player in 1999.
Today, Sony continues to fuel industry growth with the sales of innovative Sony products, as well as with the company’s convergence strategy. Examples include: VAIO notebooks that raise the bar in both form and function; digital cameras that capture pictures on a floppy disk, CD-R or Memory Stick; a handheld device that lets you store and view photos as well as moving photo; MiniDisc recorders with a digital PC Link to marry high quality digital audio with downloadable music; DVD/CD multi-disc changers that playback both audio and video; digital network recorders that pause, rewind and fast-forward "live" television using a hard-disc drive; and Hi-Scan flat screen TVs that deliver near HDTV picture quality through Digital Reality Creation (DRC) circuitry.
But Sony is not just the market leader in consumer electronics.
Through research and development, the company has made considerable inroads in the areas of professional broadcasting (with the creation of the Betacam, DVCAM, HDCAM and 24P formats); mobile communications (with digital phones and the CLIE handheld); PCs (with VAIO notebook and desktop computers); storage and media (with the invention of the floppy disk, AIT and DTF drives, and the Memory Stick) and, now, the Internet.
Sony’s future brand success will be determined by how the company meets the challenges of change. Sony has always led the market in terms of innovation. But in a digital networked world, products will no longer be developed with just hardware in mind. The convergence of technologies – consumer electronics, computing and telecommunications – is a reality, with new competitors forming and consumer mindshare up for grabs.