Last week, Sony Corporation celebrated its 80th anniversary since its establishment in Tokyo as an electrical goods store in a department store. Starting with its first product, a rice cooker, Sony then produced the TR-55, the first transistor radio made in Japan.
Now Sony is not only a giant in the world of electronics but also in the world of film, music, photography, and video games. Below, in our opinion, are the 10 most important innovations of Sony Corporation since its establishment, the impact of which can still be seen today.
1. Sony PlayStation
Let's start with the brand that is now most synonymous with Sony, the Sony PlayStation console. Who would have thought that starting with the failure of a collaboration to produce a console with a disc drive with Nintendo would result in a console that is now dominant in the video game industry.
Originally, Sony and Nintendo collaborated to develop the Super Famicon with a compact disc drive in 1991. But Nintendo then chose to collaborate with Sony's competitor, Philips. Angered by this "defection", Sony President Norio Ohga, ordered Ken Kutaragi to produce the PlayStation with the first version of the console launched in 1994.
To date, over 650 million Sony PlayStation, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PlayStation 4, Sony PlayStation, Sony PlayStation Portable and Sony PlayStation Vita consoles have been sold.
2. Lithium Ion Battery
Sony CCD-TR1 8
Sony was the first company to commercially launch a rechargeable lithium ion battery in 1991. It was produced through a collaboration between Sony-Energytec and Asahi Group where the patent for the first lithium ion battery was filed by Akira Yoshino. Sony-Energytec under the leadership of Keizaburo Tozawa discovered stable lithium ion technology in 1990. It was further commercialized before being used in the Sony CCD-TR1 video camera.
The advantages of Sony's lithium battery are that it is safe to use even when exposed to water, has a higher energy density than nickel cadmium batteries and has a charge life of up to 1000 cycles before needing to be replaced. It is now difficult to imagine a world without lithium-based batteries as they are used in smartphones, laptops, video games and electric cars.
3. Walkman
I don't want to write long and please watch the video I made six years ago about the Walkman in conjunction with its 40th anniversary.
4. Compact Disc (CD)
After successfully producing the Walkman that played cassettes, the next evolution was to offer audio at higher quality but still on portable players. Compact discs (CDs) were developed simultaneously but separately by Sony and Philips. Philips produced a prototype of their digital music medium in 1977 with a disc with a diameter of 11.5cm. In the same year, Sony showed the public a prototype of a 30cm diameter disc that could play digital audio for 1 hour.
Both companies realized the potential of the digital disc they were developing. A collaborative team was developed. Philip gave the name Compact Disc because it followed the name Compact Cassette that was already used for cassettes. Philip contributed to the EFM data encoding technique while Sony contributed CIRC technology that allowed data to be read on dirty or scratched CDs.
The CD in its current form was introduced in 1981, with the first commercial CD being printed in 1982, featuring Chopin's music played by Claudio Arrau. The first 50 CDs were sold in Japan in October 1982. However, in 2024, Sony discontinued the production of physical CD-R, DVD-R and BD-R media due to declining demand,
5. 3.5″ Floppy Disk
In 1981, the CD was not the only format created by Sony. In the same year, the 3.5″ floppy disk was also introduced by Sony as a replacement for the 5 1/4″ floppy disk used in computers at the time. Sony's innovation was a portable, compact storage disk that had a hard plastic outer shell to prevent damage to the magnetic disk inside.
The use of the 3.5″ floppy disk began to spread after it was standardized by the Microfloppy Industry Committee (MIC), a consortium of 23 system manufacturers, drives and media manufacturers worldwide. By 1988, the 3.5″ floppy disk had become the default storage medium on Apple computers. Atari, Commodore, Amiga and IBM.
Although the disk is now obsolete, the icon for storing files based on its shape is still used on modern computers today. Sony stopped producing 3.5″ floppy disks in 2011, 30 years after the format was introduced.
6. XH-1000XM Series Headphones
If you’re a frequent flyer, there are only two headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC) that I can recommend, and one of them is Sony’s WH-1000XM series, released in 2016. Since the XM series was first introduced to the public, it has been a favorite among audiophiles due to its comfort for extended periods of time, ANC that blocks out the roar of airplane engines, and long-lasting battery life.
Sony didn’t create commercial headphones with ANC, credit to Bose. But the WH-1000XM series popularized it, and at a more affordable price than any ANC headphone on the market. I personally wouldn’t travel on a plane without a pair of WH-1000XM6s because they make the difference between a comfortable ride and a miserable one.
7. Betacam Tapes
Betacam Tapes – Digitalmix.nz
All of the above products started with a successful idea. But Betacam was different because it started with a failed Betamax product. Betamax tapes were introduced in 1975, allowing up to an hour of TV programming to be recorded at home. Panasonic's VHS tapes were introduced in 1976 for the same purpose.
Although Betamax video quality was better than VHS (250 lines of video vs. 240 lines), VHS tapes could record up to 120 minutes of video. This meant that more programs could be recorded and films could be sold on a single tape for home viewing. As a result, Betamax died as a consumer product.
Out of this failure, Betacam was introduced for the broadcast industry in 1982. It recorded video at a higher resolution of 300 horizontal lines before Betacam SP was introduced in 1986 with 340 horizontal lines. Betacam became the broadcast industry's standard recording tape from the 1980s to the early 2000s before being replaced by the discontinued magnetic tape recording medium. Sony only ended production of Betacam tapes in March 2016.
8. AIBO Robot
In 1998, Sony showed off a prototype of the Artificial Intelligence Robot or AIBO for short, with the aim of demonstrating the capabilities of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) to replace pet dogs. It could walk, bark and do cute things. All 7,000 units of the AIBO ERS-110 released by Sony in 1999 were sold out within 20 minutes despite being sold at a price of 250,000 Yen (around RM8,800 in current currency) each.
Starting as a toy, AIBO later became a platform for testing AI systems, programming and robotics through programs such as Robocup. However, in 2006, AIBO production was discontinued as part of Sony's restructuring. But in 2018, it returned as a cloud AI platform through the ERS-1000 model. For its contributions to robotics, AIBO was inducted into the Carnegie Melon Robot Hall of Fame in 2006.
9. Sony Trinitron
Sony Trinitron 1968
The interest in classic consoles made CRT TVs and monitors popular again. For the best picture quality, many people recommended buying TVs and monitors with Sony Trinitron technology. Sony released the Trinitron TV in 1968. It was the biggest innovation in color TV since its invention in 1953.
Trinitron got its name from the three electron guns used, one each for red, green, and blue. Trinitron technology did not require a “shadow mask” to produce color on the screen. Instead, it used an aperture grille to produce color on the screen. This allowed more electrons to hit the screen, resulting in brighter and sharper color images. In 1973, the Trinitron TV became the first consumer product to receive an Emmy technical award.
In addition, the cylindrical Trinitron screen was flatter than the spherical screens used by other TVs. The image appeared more consistent without distortion. Trinitron was the foundation of Sony's dominance in television for three decades. Over 280 million Trinitron TVs and monitors were sold before production ended in 2006.
9. Sony Xperia
Finally, the Sony Xperia smartphone series that introduced a solid screen comparable to a Bravia TV, a camera comparable to the Alpha series, a good audio system and gaming performance almost comparable to PlayStation. Their expertise in all aspects of entertainment has been used to produce the Xperia series since 2008.
The golden era of Xperia may be over but Sony is committed to producing smartphones without compromise. They still retain the audio jack, microSD card support and camera button on their flagship devices while other industry players have long abandoned them. For hardcore fans, the device may be equipped with a larger sensor and have various latest gimmicks but it is not an Xperia.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S, Xperia Active and Xperia Ray are the three earliest phones reviewed almost 15 years ago. There are many sweet memories between me and the Sony Xperia so they have to be included in this list.
There are many more iconic products from Sony but all of the above I feel have made the most impact on Sony and the world of technology. Happy 80th Birthday Sony Corporation. Keep innovating.
