Sony

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"SONY" and "Sony Corporation" redirect here. For the U.S. subsidiary, see Sony Corporation of America. For other uses, see Sony (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Sany.

Sony Group Corporation
Native name
ソニーグループ株式会社
Sonī Gurūpu Kabushiki-gaisha
Formerly
  • Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (1946–1957)
  • Sony Corporation (1958–2021)[a][1]
Company typePublic
ISINJP3435000009 Edit this on Wikidata
IndustryConglomerate
Founded7 May 1946; 77 years ago (1946-05-07)
Nihonbashi, Chūō, Tokyo, Japan[2]
Founders
HeadquartersKōnan,
Minato, Tokyo
,
Japan
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products
Services
RevenueIncrease ¥11.540 trillion (FY2022)
Increase ¥1.208 trillion (FY2022)
Increase ¥943.622 billion (FY2022)
Total assetsIncrease ¥32.041 trillion (FY2022)
Total equityIncrease ¥7.288 trillion (FY2022)
Number of employees
113,000[3] (2023)
Subsidiaries
Websitesony.com
Footnotes / references
Financials as of fiscal year ended 31 March 2021.
References:[4][5]

Sony Group Corporation (ソニーグループ株式会社, Sonī, /ˈsoʊni/ SOH-nee), formerly known as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (東京通信工業株式会社, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) and Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社), commonly known as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.[6] The Sony Group comprises entities such as Sony Corporation, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, Sony Entertainment (including Sony Pictures and Sony Music Group), Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Financial Group, and others.

Sony was established in 1946 as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita. This electronics company, known for creating products such as the transistor radio TR-55, the home video tape recorder CV-2000, the portable audio player Walkman, and the compact disc player CDP-101, embarked on diverse business ventures. In 1988, Sony acquired CBS Records, and in 1989, it acquired Columbia Pictures. The company also introduced the home video game console PlayStation. In Japan, Sony expanded into the financial sector. In 2021, Sony transformed into a holding company, handing over the name Sony Corporation to its subsidiary electronics company.

Sony, with its 55 percent market share in the image sensor market, is the largest manufacturer of image sensors, the second largest camera manufacturer, and is among the semiconductor sales leaders.[7][8][9] It is the world's largest player in the premium TV market for a television of at least 55 inches (140 centimeters) with a price higher than $2,500 as well as second largest TV brand by market share and, as of 2020, the third largest television manufacturer in the world by annual sales figures.[10][11][12][13]

Sony has a weak tie[

American depositary receipts listed in the New York Stock Exchange (traded since 1970, making it the oldest Japanese company to be listed in an American exchange), and was ranked 88th on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list.[15] In 2023, the company was ranked 57th in the Forbes Global 2000.[16]

History

Main article: History of Sony

Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo

Sony's first product was an electric rice cooker in the late 1940s.[17]

Sony began in the wake of World War II. In 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in Shirokiya,[18] a department store building in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. The company started with a capital of ¥190,000[19] and a total of eight employees.[20] On 7 May 1946, Ibuka was joined by Akio Morita to establish a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (東京通信工業, Tōkyō Tsūshin Kōgyō, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation).[21] The company built Japan's first tape recorder, called the Type-G.[21][22] In 1958, the company changed its name to "Sony".[23]

Name

Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo founders Morita and Ibuka realized that to achieve success and grow, their business had to expand to the global market, which required labeling their products with a short and easy brand name.[24] While looking for a romanized name, they at first strongly considered using their initials, TTK. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TTK.[21] The company occasionally used the acronym "Totsuko" in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was "Tokyo Teletech" until Akio Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name.[25]

The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words: one was the

loan word in Japanese, which connoted smart and presentable young men, which Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka considered themselves to be.[26]

The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955, but the company name did not change to Sony until January 1958.[28]

At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui, had strong feelings about the name. They pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company name tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Bank's chairman gave their approval.[21]

Globalization

According to Schiffer, Sony's TR-63 radio "cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics."[29] By the mid-1950s, American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5 million units by the end of 1968.[citation needed]

Sony co-founder Akio Morita founded Sony Corporation of America in 1960.[20] In the process, he was struck by the mobility of employees between American companies, which was unheard of in Japan at that time.[20] When he returned to Japan, he encouraged experienced, middle-aged employees of other companies to reevaluate their careers and consider joining Sony.[20] The company filled many positions in this manner, and inspired other Japanese companies to do the same.[20] Moreover, Sony played a major role in the development of Japan as a powerful exporter during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s,[30] supplying the U.S. Military with bomb parts used in the Vietnam War.[31] It also helped to significantly improve American perceptions of "made in Japan" products.[32] Known for its production quality, Sony was able to charge above-market prices for its consumer electronics and resisted lowering prices.[32]

In 1971, Masaru Ibuka handed the position of president over to his co-founder Akio Morita. Sony began a life insurance company in 1979, one of its many peripheral businesses. Amid a global recession in the early 1980s, electronics sales dropped and the company was forced to cut prices.[32] Sony's profits fell sharply. "It's over for Sony", one analyst concluded. "The company's best days are behind it."[32]

Advertising for Sony transistor radios (TR-6, TR-63 & TR-72), 1957

Around that time, Norio Ohga took up the role of president. He encouraged the development of the compact disc (CD) in the 1970s and 1980s, and of the PlayStation in the early 1990s. Ohga went on to purchase CBS Records in 1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989, greatly expanding Sony's media presence. Ohga would succeed Morita as chief executive officer in 1989.[33][citation needed]

Under the vision of co-founder Akio Morita[34] and his successors, the company had aggressively expanded into new businesses.[30] Part of its motivation for doing so was the pursuit of "convergence", linking film, music and digital electronics via the Internet.[30] This expansion proved unrewarding and unprofitable,[30] threatening Sony's ability to charge a premium on its products[34] as well as its brand name.[34] In 2005, Howard Stringer replaced Nobuyuki Idei as chief executive officer, marking the first time that a foreigner had run a major Japanese electronics firm. Stringer helped to reinvigorate the company's struggling media businesses, encouraging blockbusters such as Spider-Man while cutting 9,000 jobs.[30] He hoped to sell off peripheral business and focus the company again on electronics.[34] Furthermore, he aimed to increase cooperation between business units,[34] which he described as "silos" operating in isolation from one another.[35] In a bid to provide a unified brand for its global operations, Sony introduced a slogan known as "make.believe" in 2009.[33][citation needed]

A Sony TR-730 transistor radio made in Japan, c. 1960

Despite some successes, the company faced continued struggles in the mid- to late-2000s.

Kazuo Hirai was promoted to president and CEO, replacing Stringer. Shortly thereafter, Hirai outlined his company-wide initiative, named "One Sony" to revive Sony from years of financial losses and bureaucratic management structure, which proved difficult for former CEO Stringer to accomplish, partly due to differences in business culture and native languages between Stringer and some of Sony's Japanese divisions and subsidiaries. Hirai outlined three major areas of focus for Sony's electronics business, which include imaging technology, gaming and mobile technology, as well as a focus on reducing the major losses from the television business.[36]

In February 2014, Sony announced the sale of its

Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group to manufacture and market Sony's PlayStation game consoles and associated software in China.[40]

In 2015, Sony purchased Toshiba's image sensor business.[41]

Sony Style store in Bangkok, Thailand
Sony Store (after rebranding from Sony Style[42]) in Markville Shopping Centre, Canada

It was reported in December 2016 by multiple news outlets that Sony was considering restructuring its U.S. operations by merging its TV & film business, Sony Pictures Entertainment, with its gaming business, Sony Interactive Entertainment. According to the reports, such a restructuring would have placed Sony Pictures under Sony Interactive's CEO, Andrew House, though House would not have taken over day-to-day operations of the film studio.[43][44][45] According to one report, Sony was set to make a final decision on the possibility of the merger of the TV, film, & gaming businesses by the end of its fiscal year in March of the following year (2017).[43]

In 2017, Sony sold its lithium-ion battery business to Murata Manufacturing.[46][47][48]

In 2019, Sony merged its mobile, TV and camera businesses.[49][50]

On 1 April 2020, Sony Electronics Corporation was established as an intermediate holding company to own and oversee its electronics and IT solutions businesses.

On 19 May 2020, the company announced that it would rename Sony Group Corporation as of 1 April 2021. Subsequently, Sony Electronics Corporation would be renamed to Sony Corporation.

Sony Financial Holdings (currently Sony Financial Group), of which Sony already owns 65.06% of shares, to a wholly owned subsidiary through a takeover bid.[52]

On 1 April 2021, Sony Corporation was renamed Sony Group Corporation. On the same day, Sony Mobile Communications Inc. absorbed Sony Electronics Corporation, Sony Imaging Products & Solutions Inc., and Sony Home Entertainment & Sound Products Inc. and changed its trade name to Sony Corporation.[53]

Formats and technologies

Further information: List of Sony trademarks

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, while its success in the early years owes to a smooth capitalization on the Digital Compact Cassette standard introduced by Philips,[54] with which Sony went on to enjoy a decades-long technological relationship in various areas. Sony (either alone or with partners) has introduced several of the most popular recording formats, including the 3.5-inch floppy disk, compact disc and Blu-ray disc.[55]

Video recording

A rare Japanese market Betamax TV/VCR combo, the Model SL-MV1

Sony introduced

videocassette format, in 1971, but the standard was unpopular for domestic use due to the high price.[56] The company subsequently launched the Betamax format in 1975.[57] Sony was involved in the videotape format war of the early 1980s, when they were marketing the Betamax system for video cassette recorders against the VHS format developed by JVC.[58] In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketbase and became the worldwide standard for consumer VCRs.[58]

Betamax is, for all practical purposes, an obsolete format. Sony's professional-oriented component video format called Betacam, which was derived from Betamax, was used until 2016 when Sony announced it was stopping production of all remaining 1/2-inch video tape recorders and players, including the Digital Betacam format.[59]

In 1985, Sony launched their Handycam products and the Video8 format.[60] Video8 and the follow-on hi-band Hi8 format became popular in the consumer camcorder market. In 1987 Sony launched the 4 mm DAT or Digital Audio Tape as a new digital audio tape standard.[61]

Visual display

Sony held a patent for its proprietary Trinitron until 1996.

Sony introduced the Triluminos Display, the company's proprietary color reproduction enhancing technology, in 2004, featured in the world's first LED-backlit LCD televisions.[62] It was widely used in other Sony's products as well, including computer monitors, laptops, and smartphones.[63] In 2013, Sony released a new line of televisions with an improved version of the technology, which incorporated quantum dots in the backlight system. It was the first commercial use of quantum dots.[64][65]

In 2012, the company revealed a prototype of an ultrafine RGB LED display, which it calls the Crystal LED Display.[66]

Audio recording

Sony used the Compact Cassette format in many of its tape recorders and players, including the

ATRAC brand, against the more widely used MP3. Until late 2004, Sony's Network Walkman
line of digital portable music players did not support the MP3 standard natively.

In 2004, Sony built upon the

Hi-MD
. Hi-MD allows the playback and recording of audio on newly introduced 1 GB Hi-MD discs in addition to playback and recording on regular MiniDiscs. In addition to saving audio on the discs, Hi-MD allows the storage of computer files such as documents, videos and photos.

Audio encoding

In 1993, Sony challenged the industry standard

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.[70][71]

Sony and Philips jointly developed the Sony-Philips digital interface format (S/PDIF) and the high-fidelity audio system SACD. The latter became entrenched in a format war with DVD-Audio. Still, neither gained a major foothold with the general public. CDs had been preferred by consumers because of the ubiquitous presence of CD drives in consumer devices until the early 2000s when the iPod and streaming services became available.[72]

In 2015, Sony introduced

Android 8.0 "Oreo", enabling every OEM to integrate this standard into their own Android devices freely. However the decoder library is proprietary, so receiving devices require licenses. On 17 September 2019, the Japan Audio Society (JAS) certified LDAC with their Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification. Currently the only codecs with the Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification are LDAC and LHDC
, another competing standard.

Optical storage

Front side of a Sony 200GB Blu-ray disc

Sony demonstrated an optical digital audio disc in 1977 and soon joined hands with Philips, another major contender for the storage technology, to establish a worldwide standard.[73] In 1983, the two company jointly announced the Compact Disc (CD). In 1984, Sony launched the Discman series, an expansion of the Walkman brand to portable CD players. Sony began to improve performance and capacity of the novel format. It launched write-once optical discs (WO) and magneto-optical discs which were around 125MB size for the specific use of archival data storage, in 1986 and 1988 respectively.[74]

In the early 1990s, two high-density optical storage standards were being developed: one was the MultiMedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by Philips and Sony, and the other was the Super Density Disc (SD), supported by Toshiba and many others. Philips and Sony abandoned their MMCD format and agreed upon Toshiba's SD format with only one modification. The unified disc format was called DVD and was introduced in 1997.

Sony was one of the leading developers of the Blu-ray optical disc format, the newest standard for disc-based content delivery. The first Blu-ray players became commercially available in 2006. The format emerged as the standard for HD media over the competing format, Toshiba's HD DVD, after a two-year-long high-definition optical disc format war.

Sony's laser communication devices for small satellites rely on the technologies developed for the company's optical disc products.[75]

Disk storage

In 1983, Sony introduced 90 mm micro diskettes, better known as 3.5-inch (89 mm) floppy disks, which it had developed at a time when there were 4" floppy disks, and many variations from different companies, to replace the then on-going 5.25" floppy disks. Sony had great success and the format became dominant. 3.5" floppy disks gradually became obsolete as they were replaced by current media formats. Sony held more than a 70 percent share of the market when it decided to pull the plug on the format in 2010.[76][77]

Sony still develops magnetic tape storage technologies along with IBM,[78] and are one of only two manufacturers of Linear Tape-Open (LTO) cartridges.

Flash memory

In 1998, Sony launched the

Memory Stick Micro. The company has also released USB flash drive products, branded under the Micro Vault line.[79]

Communication

Sony introduced FeliCa, a contactless IC card technology primarily used in contactless payment, as a result of the company's joint development and commercialization of Near-Field Communication (NFC) with Philips. The standard is largely offered in two forms, either chips embedded in smartphones or plastic cards with chips embedded in them. Sony plans to implement this technology in train systems across Asia.[80]

In 2019, Sony launched the ELTRES, the company's proprietary low-power wide-area wireless communication (

LPWAN) standard.[81]

Video gaming

Super NES with a built-in CD-ROM
drive

Until 1991, Sony had little direct involvement with the video game industry. The company supplied components for other consoles, such as the sound chip for the

SNES-CD). However, a day after the announcement at CES, Nintendo announced that it would be breaking its partnership with Sony, opting to go with Philips instead but using the same technology.[85] The deal was broken by Nintendo after they were unable to come to an agreement on how revenue would be split between the two companies.[85] The breaking of the partnership infuriated Sony President Norio Ohga, who responded by appointing Kutaragi with the responsibility of developing the PlayStation project to rival Nintendo.[85]

At that time, negotiations were still on-going between Nintendo and Sony, with Nintendo offering Sony a "non-gaming role" regarding their new partnership with Philips. This proposal was swiftly rejected by Kutaragi who was facing increasing criticism over his work with regard to entering the video game industry from within Sony. Negotiations officially ended in May 1992 and in order to decide the fate of the PlayStation project, a meeting was held in June 1992, consisting of Sony President Ohga, PlayStation Head Kutaragi and several senior members of Sony's board. At the meeting, Kutaragi unveiled a proprietary CD-ROM-based system he had been working on which involved playing video games with 3D graphics to the board. Eventually, Sony President Ohga decided to retain the project after being reminded by Kutaragi of the humiliation he suffered from Nintendo. Nevertheless, due to strong opposition from a majority present at the meeting as well as widespread internal opposition to the project by the older generation of Sony executives, Kutaragi and his team had to be shifted from Sony's headquarters to Sony Music, a completely separate financial entity owned by Sony, so as to retain the project and maintain relationships with Philips for the MMCD development project (which helped lead to the creation of the DVD)

Continued research and development

In 2021, the WIPO's annual review of the World Intellectual Property Indicators report ranked Sony's as ninth in the world for the number of patent applications published under the PCT System. 1,793 patent applications were published by Sony during 2020.[86] This position is up from their previous ranking as 13th in 2019 with 1,566 applications.[87]

Business units

Further information: List of assets owned by Sony
Sony at Westfield Riccarton shopping centre in Christchurch, New Zealand

Best known for its electronic products, Sony offers a wide variety of product lines in many areas. At its peak, it was dubbed as a "corporate octopus", for its sprawling ventures from private insurance to chemicals to cosmetics to home shopping to a Tokyo-based French food joint, in addition its core businesses such as electronics and entertainment.

Sony Chemicals and Vaio
PC, Sony still runs diverse businesses.

As of 2020, Sony is organized into the following business segments: Game & Network Services (G&NS), Music, Pictures, Electronics Products & Solutions (EP&S), Imaging & Sensing Solutions (I&SS), Financial Services, and Others.[88] Usually, each business segment has a handful of corresponding intermediate holding companies under which all the related businesses are folded into, such as Columbia Records being part of Sony Music Group, a subsidiary and, at the same time, a holding company for Sony's music businesses, along with SMEJ.

Electronics products & solutions

Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics Corporation until 1 April 2021[89]) is the electronics business unit of the Sony Group. It primarily conducts research and development (R&D), planning, designing, manufacturing and marketing for electronics products. Sony Global Manufacturing & Operations Corporation (SGMO) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation and responsible for managing manufacturing operations both in Japan and overseas, through its own factories as well as third party contract manufacturers.

Audio

First Sony Walkman TPS-L2 from 1979 (Expo in Sony Building at Ginza, Chuo-Ku, Tokyo)

In 1979, Sony released the world's first portable music player, the

digital audio players
.

Sony is a major audio products manufacturer and one of the active noise control technology leaders.[93][94]

Sony's high-end microphones and headphones for professional use are produced at Sony/Taiyo Corporation, a designated special subsidiary at which 67% of employees have a disability, in Ōita Prefecture, Japan.[95]

Video

Sony KV-1320UB Trinitron from 1969

Sony produced the

computer monitors
. Sony stopped production of Trinitron for most markets, but continued producing sets for markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. Sony discontinued its series of Trinitron computer monitors in 2005. The company discontinued the last Trinitron-based television set in the US in early 2007. The end of Trinitron marked the end of Sony's analog television sets and monitors.

Sony used the LCD WEGA name for its LCD TVs until summer 2005. The company then introduced the BRAVIA name. BRAVIA is an in-house brand owned by Sony which produces high-definition LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors, home cinemas and the BRAVIA home theatre range. All Sony high-definition flat-panel LCD televisions in North America have carried the logo for BRAVIA since 2005. In 2006, Sony lost its decades-long No.1 market share in the global television market. In November 2007, the Sony XEL-1, the first OLED television, was released and manufactured for two years. Later in 2013, Sony demonstrated the first 4K OLED television.[97][98] As of 2012, Sony was the third-largest maker of televisions in the world and the business unit had been unprofitable for eight consecutive years.[99]

The logo of Bravia television. Its backronym is "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture".

From 2011, Sony started restructuring of its loss-making television business, mainly by downsizing business units and outsourcing the manufacturing of display panels to the companies like

S-LCD) for about $940 million.[101] On 28 March 2012, Sony and Sharp announced that they have agreed to further amend the joint venture agreement originally executed by the parties in July 2009, as amended in April 2011, for the establishment and operation of Sharp Display Products Corporation ("SDP"), a joint venture to produce and sell large-sized LCD panels and modules.[102] The agreement was eventually terminated as Sony parted ways.[103] Sony's small-sized LCD business subsidiary and medium-to-large-sized OLED display business unit were spun off and became part of Japan Display and JOLED, respectively.[104]

In 2017, Sony launched OLED televisions under the BRAVIA brand.[105]

Also, Sony has sold a range of tapes, discs, recorders and players for videocassette, DVD, and Blu-ray formats for decades.

Photography and videography

α99 II

Sony offers a wide range of digital cameras. Its point-and-shoot models are branded

Alpha, though Sony no longer makes DSLRs. It also produces action cameras and camcorders, with the company's cinema-grade products being sold under the CineAlta
name.

Sony demonstrated a prototype of the Sony Mavica in 1981 and released it for the consumer market in 1988. The first Cyber-shot was introduced in 1996. Sony's market share of the digital camera market fell from a high of 20% to 9% by 2005.[106][35]

Sony entered the market for

Canon and Nikon
respectively.

In 2010, Sony introduced their first

MILC
ever and Sony became the largest MILC manufacturer.

Computing

Sony Vaio
. Sony axed its loss-making PC business in 2014.

Sony produced computers (

VAIO brand, began in 1996. Short for "Video Audio Integrated Operation", the line was the first computer brand to highlight visual-audio features.[35]

Sony faced considerable controversy when some of its laptop batteries exploded and caught fire in 2006, resulting in the largest computer-related recall to that point in history.[107][108][109]

In a bid to join the

Xperia brand used for its smartphones.[110]

On 4 February 2014, Sony announced that it would sell its VAIO PC business due to poor sales[111] and Japanese company Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) will purchase the VAIO brand, with the deal finalized by the end of March 2014.[112] As of 2018, Sony maintained a 5% stake in the new, independent company.

In 1990s, Sony was contracted to manufacture laptop computers for Apple and Dell.[113][114] The Raspberry Pi Foundation delegates the manufacture of its single-board computers to Sony. Most Raspberry Pi computers are made at Sony UK Technology Centre in Pencoed, Wales, UK.[115][116][117]

Healthcare and biotechnology

Sony has targeted medical, healthcare and biotechnology business as a growth sector in the future. The company acquired iCyt Mission Technology, Inc. (renamed Sony Biotechnology Inc. in 2012), a manufacturer of flow cytometers, in 2010 and Micronics, Inc., a developer of microfluidics-based diagnostic tools, in 2011.

In 2012, Sony announced that it would acquire all shares of So-net Entertainment Corporation, the largest shareholder of M3, Inc., an operator of portal sites (m3.com, MR-kun, MDLinx and MEDI:GATE) for healthcare professionals.

On 28 September 2012, Olympus and Sony announced that the two companies will establish a joint venture to develop new surgical endoscopes with 4K resolution (or higher) and 3D capability.[118] Sony Olympus Medical Solutions Inc. (Sony 51%, Olympus 49%) was established on 16 April 2013.[119]

On 28 February 2014, Sony, M3 and

Illumina established a joint venture called P5, Inc. to provide a genome analysis service for research institutions and enterprises in Japan.[120]

Mobility

Xperia, the product device name for a range of smartphones from Sony
A historical Sony CMD-CD5 mobile phone
Sony Xperia Z, introduced and released in 2013. The first smartphone with a Full HD display.

In 2000, Sony was a marginal player in the mobile phone market with a share of less than 1 percent. In 2001, Sony entered into a joint venture with Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, forming Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.[121] Initial sales were rocky, and the company posted losses in 2001 and 2002. However, Sony Ericsson reached a profit in 2003. The company distinguished itself with multimedia-capable mobile phones, which included features such as cameras. These were unusual at the time. Despite their innovations, Sony Ericsson faced intense competition from Apple's iPhone, which was released in 2007. From 2008 to 2010, amid a global recession, Sony Ericsson slashed its workforce by several thousand. In 2009, Sony Ericsson was the fourth-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world (after Nokia, Samsung and LG).[122] By 2010, its market share had fallen to sixth place.[123] Sony acquired Ericsson's share of the venture in 2012 for over US$1 billion.[121] Sony Mobile focuses exclusively on the smartphone market under the Xperia brand.

In 2013, Sony contributed to around two percent of the mobile phone market with 37 million mobile phones sold.[124] Sony Mobile's sales reached a peak in 2014 with 40 million handsets, the volume has since decreased. Sony shipped 13.5 million phones in 2017, 6.5 million in 2018, and 2.9 million handsets in FY 2020.[125]

Robotics

Sony QRIO, a humanoid robot

Since the late 1990s, Sony has released numerous consumer robots, including dog-shaped robots called AIBO, a music playing robot called Rolly, and a humanoid robot called QRIO. Despite being a pioneer in the field, Sony had ceased robotics-related operations for 10 years due to financial difficulties, until it decided to revive them in 2016.[126]

In 2015, Sony partnered with an autonomous driving startup ZMP INC. to establish an aerial surveillance and reconnaissance drone manufacturer named Aerosense.[127] At the CES 2021, Sony unveiled a drone with the brand Airpeak, the smallest of its kind that can incorporate a Sony Alpha camera according to the company, entering the drone business on its own for the first time.[128]

Imaging & sensing solutions

Sony traces its roots in the semiconductor business back to 1954, when it became the first Japanese company to commercialize the transistor, invented and licensed by Bell Labs, whilst some of the biggest and well-established names in Japan at the time like Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric initially stuck with vacuum tubes they had been thriving on; despite being an expert on the vacuum tube himself, Ibuka saw potential of the novel technology and had Morita negotiate the terms for licensing, making Sony into one of the earliest and the youngest licensees of the transistor, together with Texas Instruments.[129][130][131] In 1957, Sony employee Leo Esaki and his colleagues invented a tunnel diode (usually referred to as Esaki diode) by which they discovered the quantum tunneling effect in solids, for which Esaki received the Nobel prize in Physics in 1973.[132] Sony has commanded a dominant share in the charge-coupled device market.[133]

As of 2020, Sony is the world's largest manufacturer of

CMOS image sensors as its chips are widely used in digital cameras, tablet computers, smartphones, drones and more recently, self-driving systems in automobiles.[134]

As of 2020, the company, through its chip business arm Sony Semiconductor Solutions, designs, manufactures, and sells a wide range of

BIONZ), laser diodes, system LSIs, mixed-signal LSIs, emerging memory storage, emerging displays (microLED, microOLED, and holographic display), multi-functional microcomputer (SPRESENSE), etc.[135]

In 2020, Sony has launched the first

AI edge computing capabilies.[136]

Game & network services

Main article: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Sony Interactive Entertainment headquarters in San Mateo, California

Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment) is best known for producing the popular line of

the add-on
, as well as a dedicated console known as the "Play Station". However, a disagreement over software licensing for the console caused the partnership to fall through. Sony then continued the project independently.

Launched in 1994, the

Cell processor.[35]

Early on, poor sales performance resulted in significant losses for the company, pushing it to sell the console at a loss.[138] The PlayStation 3 sold generally more poorly than its competitors in the early years of its release but managed to overtake the Xbox 360 in global sales later on.[139] It later introduced the PlayStation Move, an accessory that allows players to control video games using motion gestures.

The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling video game console of all time.
The PlayStation 5 is the current-generation video game console by Sony.

Sony extended the brand to the portable games market in 2004 with the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The console has sold reasonably, but has taken a second place to a rival handheld, the Nintendo DS. Sony developed the Universal Media Disc (UMD) optical disc medium for use on the PlayStation Portable. Early on, the format was used for movies, but it has since lost major studio support. Sony released a disc-less version of its PlayStation Portable, the PSP Go, in 2009. The company went on to release its second portable video game system, PlayStation Vita, in 2011 and 2012. Sony launched its fourth console, the PlayStation 4, on 15 November 2013, which as of 31 December 2017 has sold 73.6 million units globally.[140]

On 18 March 2014, at

SCE Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida announced their new virtual reality technology dubbed Project Morpheus, and later named PlayStation VR, for PlayStation 4. The headset brought VR gaming and non-gaming software to the company's console. According to a report released by Houston-based patent consulting firm LexInnova in May 2015, Sony is leading the virtual reality patent race. According to the firm's analysis of nearly 12,000 patents or patent applications, Sony has 366 virtual reality patents or patent applications.[141] PlayStation VR was released worldwide on 13 October 2016.[142]

On 31 March 2019, the successor to the PlayStation 4 was announced and on 12 November 2020, the PlayStation 5 was released in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. The console was launched in Indonesia on 22 January 2021. Upon completion of the fiscal quarter, Sony sold 4.5 million PlayStation 5 consoles, keeping pace with the best-selling console of all time, the PlayStation 2.[143]

Pictures and music

Further information: Sony Entertainment

Sony Entertainment has two divisions: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Music Group (Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Publishing). Sony USA previously owned and operated Sony Trans Com: a technology business that provided in-flight entertainment programming as well as video and audio playback equipment for the airline industry. Sony had purchased the business from Sundstrand Corp. in 1989 and subsequently sold it to Rockwell Collins in 2000.[144][145]

In 2012, Sony rolled most of its consumer content services (including video, music and gaming) into the Sony Entertainment Network, the predecessor of PlayStation Network.

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Main articles:
Sony Pictures Networks India
Sony Pictures Entertainment studio lot in Los Angeles
, California

Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (SPE) is the television and film production/distribution unit of Sony. With 12.5% box office market share in 2011, the company was ranked third among movie studios.

Wheel of Fortune
.

Sony entered the television and film production market when it acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1989 for $3.4 billion. Columbia lives on in the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of SPE which in turn owns Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures among other film production and distribution companies such as Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. SPE's television division is known as Sony Pictures Television.

For the first several years of its existence, Sony Pictures Entertainment performed poorly, leading many to suspect the company would sell off the division.

ARccOS Protection on some of their film DVDs, but later issued a recall.[150]

In late 2014, Sony Pictures

became the target of a hack attack from a clandestine group called Guardians of Peace, weeks before releasing the anti-North Korean comedy film The Interview.[151]

In February 2024, Sony entered into an agreement with

Disney under which Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Corporation of Japan will handle the release of Disney products on DVD and Blu-ray on a licensing model, as well as production on physical media. Sony will market, sell and distribute new Disney releases and catalog films on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra DVD through Canadian and U.S. retailers and distributors.[152]

Sony Music Group and SMEJ

Main articles: Sony Music, Sony Music Publishing, and Sony Music Entertainment Japan
New York City, United States

Sony Music Entertainment (also known as SME or Sony Music) is the largest global recorded music company of the "big three" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Sony.

In one of its largest-ever acquisitions, Sony purchased

Guinness Book of World Records
to be the most successful entertainer of all time. The acquisition of CBS Records provided the foundation for the formation of Sony Music Entertainment, which Sony established in 1991.

In 1968, Sony and CBS Records had formed a 50:50 joint-venture CBS/Sony Records, later renamed CBS/Sony Group, in Japan. When CBS Records was acquired, a 50% stake in CBS/Sony Group owned by CBS was also transferred to Sony. In March 1988, four wholly owned subsidiaries were folded into CBS/Sony Group and the company was renamed as Sony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ). It operates independently of Sony Music as it is directly owned by Japanese Sony.

In 2004, Sony entered into a joint venture with

copy protection scandal, because its music CDs had installed malware on users' computers that was posing a security risk to affected customers.[154] In 2007, the company acquired Famous Music for US$370 million, gaining the rights to the catalogues of Eminem and Akon
, among others. Sony bought out Bertelsmann's share in Sony BMG and formed a new Sony Music Entertainment in 2008. Since then, the company has undergone management changes.

Sony purchased digital music recognition company

Tribune Media Company acquired Gracenote from Sony in 2014 for $170 million.[156]

Besides its record label, Sony operates other music businesses. In 1995, Sony merged its publisher with

Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, and Taylor Swift
.

In 2012, Sony/ATV acquired a majority stake in EMI Music Publishing, becoming the world's largest music publishing company. In 2018, Sony bought the rest of the shares in the publisher, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.[157][158] Since 2016, Sony owns all of Sony/ATV.[159]

Anime

Main articles: Aniplex and Crunchyroll
Aniplex headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan

Sony's entering into the Japanese animation, or anime, business happened in 1995 when its Sony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ) division established Aniplex as its subsidiary managing creative productions, which founded A-1 Pictures, the first anime studio of Sony, ten years later. Since then, through group-wide and international ventures,[160] Sony has solidified its position in the industry, elevating the business to what is called the "fourth pillar of its entertainment portfolio" according to The Nikkei.[161]

The anime business operations of Sony are scattered around the group, mainly in its Pictures and Music units, as follows: SMEJ's notable related businesses include Aniplex and its subsidiaries

Crunchyroll Pty. Ltd.)[162]

In December 2020, Funimation announced that it would buy AT&T's animation business Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion, which would help the company to compete more globally with entertainment giants such as Netflix.[163] This acquisition was completed in August 2021.[164]

Financial services

Main article: Sony Financial Group
Otemachi, Tokyo
, Japan

Sony Financial Group is a holding company for Sony's financial services business which includes Sony Life (in Japan and the Philippines), Sony Assurance, Sony Bank, etc. The unit proved to be the most profitable of Sony's businesses in FY 2005, earning $1.7 billion in profit.[34] Sony Financial's low fees have aided the unit's popularity while threatening Sony's premium brand name.[34]

Others

Electric vehicles and batteries

Further information: Sony Energy Devices Corporation and Sony Honda Mobility

A company behind the commercialization of

EV charging parking lots.[169] However, the company then decided to sell its lithium-ion battery business to Murata Manufacturing in 2016.[170]

In 2015, Sony invested $842,000 in ZMP INC., drawing speculations that it is contemplating developing self-driving cars.[171] In January 2020, Sony unveiled a concept electric car at the Consumer Electronics Show, named Vision-S, designed in collaboration with components manufacturer Magna International.[172] At the occasion, Sony also stated its goal of developing technology for the automotive sector, especially concerning autonomous driving, sensors, and in-car entertainment.[173]

In 2022, Sony Group and Honda launched a joint venture for their electric vehicle partnership, Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), which would deliver its first electric vehicles by 2026 and sell them online, starting in the United States and Japan.[174][175] The joint venture announced their new "Afeela" brand and its first prototype model at the CES 2023.[176]

Corporate information

Institutional ownership

Sony is a kabushiki gaisha registered to the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan and the New York Stock Exchange for overseas trading. As of 31 March 2020, the largest shareholders of Sony are as follows:[177]

Finances

As of January 2024, Sony, one of the largest Japanese companies by market capitalization and operating profit, was valued at over $112 billion. At the same period, it was also recognized as the most cash-rich Japanese company, with its

net cash reserves of ¥1.8 trillion.[178][179]

The company was immensely profitable throughout the 1990s and early 2000s in part because of the success of its new

global financial crisis, increased competition for PlayStation, and the devastating Japanese earthquake of 2011. The company faced three consecutive years of losses leading up to 2011.[180] While noting the negative effects of intervening circumstances such as natural disasters and fluctuating currency exchange rates, the Financial Times criticized the company for its "lack of resilience" and "inability to gauge the economy," voicing skepticism about Sony's revitalization efforts, given a lack of tangible results.[180]

In September 2000 Sony had a market capitalization of $100 billion; but by December 2011 it had plunged to $18 billion, reflecting falling prospects for Sony but also reflecting grossly inflated share prices of the 'dot-com bubble' years.[181] Net worth, as measured by stockholder equity, has steadily grown from $17.9 billion in March 2002 to $35.6 billion through December 2011.[182] Earnings yield (inverse of the price to earnings ratio) has never been more than 5% and usually much less; thus Sony has always traded in over-priced ranges with the exception of the 2009 market bottom.

On 9 December 2008, Sony announced that it would be cutting 8,000 jobs, dropping 8,000 contractors and reducing its global manufacturing sites by 10% to save $1.1 billion per year.[183]

In April 2012, Sony announced that it would reduce its workforce by 10,000 (6% of its employee base) as part of CEO Kaz Hirai's effort to get the company back into the black. This came after a loss of 520 billion yen (roughly US$6.36 billion) for fiscal 2012, the worst since the company was founded. Accumulation loss for the past four years was 919.32 billion-yen.[184][185] Sony planned to increase its marketing expenses by 30% in 2012.[186] 1,000 of the jobs cut come from the company's mobile phone unit's workforce. 700 jobs will be cut in the 2012–2013 fiscal year and the remaining 300 in the following fiscal year.[187] Sony had revenues of ¥6.493 trillion in 2012 and maintained large reserves of cash, with ¥895 billion on hand as of 2012. In May 2012, Sony's market capitalization was valued at about $15 billion.[188]

Sony's 2009 sales and distribution by geographical region[189]
Geographic region Total sales (in millions of ¥)
Japan 1,873,219
United States 2,512,345
Europe 2,307,658
Other areas 2,041,270

In January 2013, Sony announced it was selling its US headquarters building for $1.1 billion to a consortium led by real estate developer The Chetrit Group.[190]

On 28 January 2014,

Moody's Investors Services dropped Sony's credit rating to Ba1—"judged to have speculative elements and a significant credit risk"—saying that the company's "profitability is likely to remain weak and volatile."[191]

On 6 February 2014, Sony announced it would trim as many as 5,000 jobs as it attempts to sell its PC business and focus on mobile and tablets.[192]

In 2014,[193] Sony South Africa closed its TV, Hi-Fi and camera divisions[194] with the purpose of reconsidering its local distribution model and, in 2017, it returned[195][196] facilitated by Premium Brand Distributors (Pty) Ltd.

Sony's revenue by different
market segments[197]
Segment Revenue FY 2022 (in millions of ¥) Revenue FY 2023 (in millions of ¥) Change
Game & network services 2,739,763 3,644,598 904,835
Music 1,116,949 1,380,632 263,683
Pictures 1,238,911 1,369,422 130,511
Entertainment, technology, & services 2,339,186 2,476,025 136,839
Imaging & sensing solutions 1,076,424 1,402,187 14,558
Financial services 1,533,829 1,454,546 −79,283
All other 98,783 87,623 −11,160
Total 9,921,513 11,539,837 1,618,324

In November 2018, Sony posted its earning report for the second quarter showing it has lost about US$480 million in the mobile phone division,[198] prompting another round of downsizing in the unit, including the closure of a manufacturing plant and halving of its workforce.[199][200]

Community engagement

Criticism

Over the years, Sony has faced a number of allegations and criticism pertaining to their corporate behavior, often leading to legal proceedings and customer dissatisfaction.

In August 2000, then Sony Pictures Entertainment U.S. senior vice president Steve Heckler was quoted saying "The industry will take whatever steps it needs to protect itself and protect its revenue streams ...".[210] Sony then worked on a DRM system that works like a rootkit in order to enforce its copyright claims upon users of music CDs.

With respect to Sony's gaming consoles, subsequent updates are released to the said consoles, many of which strip the user of some of the originally advertised features in order to save the company some licensing fees or protect itself from the modding community. On April 1, 2010, Sony released a patch for the

geohot and fail0verflow for their efforts on exploiting the PS3.[211][212]
In December 2023, Sony announced that it will remove the Discovery app and its content, even if previously paid for, from its gaming consoles.[213]

Environmental record

In November 2011, Sony was ranked ninth (jointly with Panasonic) in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics.[214] This chart grades major electronics companies on their environmental work. The company scored 3.6/10, incurring a penalty point for comments it has made in opposition to energy efficiency standards in California. It also risks a further penalty point in future editions for being a member of trade associations that have commented against energy efficiency standards.[215] Together with Philips, Sony receives the highest score for energy policy advocacy after calling on the EU to adopt an unconditional 30% reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Meanwhile, it receives full marks for the efficiency of its products.[215] In June 2007, Sony ranked 14th on the Greenpeace guide.[216] Sony fell from its earlier 11th-place ranking due to Greenpeace's claims that Sony had double standards in their waste policies.[217]

As of May 2018 Greenpeace's 2017 Guide to Greener Electronics rated Sony approximately in the middle among electronics manufacturers with a grade of D+.[218]

Since 1976, Sony has had an Environmental Conference.

eCycle (Recycling) drop-off points around the U.S. The company has also developed a biobattery that runs on sugars and carbohydrates that works similarly to the way living creatures work. This is the most powerful small biobattery to date.[221]

In 2000, Sony faced criticism for a document entitled "NGO Strategy" that was leaked to the press. The document involved the company's surveillance of environmental activists in an attempt to plan how to counter their movements. It specifically mentioned environmental groups that were trying to pass laws that held electronics-producing companies responsible for the cleanup of the toxic chemicals contained in their merchandise.[222]

Cartel

In 2007 an investigation launched in 2002 by the European Commission culminated in Sony, Fuji and Maxell receiving a total of 110 million US dollar fine for fixing professional videotape prices between the years 1999 and 2002 through regular meetings and other illegal contracts; at the time the three corporations shared a combined 85% control of the market. Sony's part of the fine was raised by a third for trying to obstruct the investigation by refusing to answer inquiries made by the EU officials and shredding of evidence during the multiple law-enforcement raids.[223][224] During the year 2001 prior to the investigation Sony sold professional videotapes for a total of 115 million euros inside the EU.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Since April 2021, the "Sony Corporation" legal name is used for Sony Group's electronics business that was previously known as "Sony Electronics Corporation".

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Further reading

External links