Sony was established in May of 1946 in Nihonbashi under the name Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. In 1947 the company head office and factory relocated to Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company changed to it�s current name, Sony Corporation in January of 1958. By 1960, Sony Corporatoin of America was established in the United States and Sony Overseas S.A. was established near Zurich, Switzerland. Sony continued to grow and in 1962 established Sony Corporation of Hong Kong, Ltd. By 1964, Osaki plant was established in Shinagawa, Tokyo and ater was renamed Osaki West Technology Center. By 1968 Sony had spread to the United Kingdom and by 1973 to Barcelona, Spain. In 1993, Sony expanded and launched Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Ibuka and Morita made their living repairing radios and manufacturing small numbers of volt meters at the same time as they were looking to develop a future in designing and manufacturing new electronics.
Findings
During the period of the 50s and 60s, Sony Corporation designed and manufactured audio and electronic products in Japan, and exported them to other global regions. In 1950, they developed the type �G� tape recorder which was for government use. In 1951, they came out with the first consumer use tape recorder. 1955 brought about Japan�s first transistor radio, employing five transistors developed in-house. However, by 1960 it generated more than half of its profits outside of Japan, with the largest share of profit in the United States. In 1960, Sony established a U.S. branch, Sony Corporation of America, and in 1961 was the first Japanese company to offer stock in the U.S. market.
Sales boomed in the late 1960s, in part due to Sony's advanced color television. In the early 1970s, Japanese television makers were charged with dumping, prompting a Department of Commerce investigation. Sony's chief executive, Akio Morita, fought the dumping charges, but also decided to reduce Sony's potential weakness to trade conflicts by setting up a manufacturing site in the United States.
By 1972, Sony came out with Japan�s first system component stereo, consisting of a turntable, speakers and an amplifier as a single system. In 1982, the world�s first compact disc player was released along with Sony�s first 8-bit personal computer. The mini-notebook came out in 1998 and by 2002 Sony had manufactured the world�s smallest and lightest PC running Microsoft Windows XP.
Conclusion
Sony has grown in size greatly since it first came out onto the business scene and continues to grow today. Although it has many competitors, it continues to come out with new products and remains one of the top electronics companies.
