Sony, the TV manufacturer

Consumer electronics:
This Japanese manufacturer's focus lies in consumer electronics - and covers the entire range of related products. Besides Sony TV sets, the manufacturer also offers video projectors, AV receivers, complete home-theater systems, DVD players/recorders, Blu-ray players, the "Walkman" range of portable music players, and Mini-HiFi systems.

Sony is also one of the leading companies in the camcorder and digital-camera sector: Apart from those for the home consumer, the company also produces cameras - along with other professional video technology - for filming-companies and broadcasters.

History of Sony TV manufacture:
Having recognized the significance of television early on - and the potential subsequent demand for Sony TV sets - the manufacturer released the portable black-and-white Sony TV "8-301", with an 8-inch (20.3-centimeter) screen, to the Japanese market in 1960. The cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) in the ancient Sony TV, however, were expensive - and of poor-quality; color TVs from other manufacturers had already appeared in the USA in 1953 - and, in smaller numbers, also in Japan.

Then, at a scientific exhibition in New York in 1961, Sony discovered a color CRT, with significantly better quality, which had originally been developed for the military. This led to the 1964 release of the "Chromatron" tube, the predecessor to the legendary Trinitron, after which the Japanese company continued developing the technology. The peak came in 1997 with the world's first fully flat CRT, a Sony TV known as "Flat Trinitron".

During the 1990s, the trend toward flat screens become clearly apparent - Sony intended to get in on the act with a screen-type known as "Plasmatron". This hybrid of liquid-crystal and plasma technology appeared as a prototype at a trade fair in Berlin in 1995, but never entered series production. The unsuccessful Sony TV was also a type of flat CRT, using thousands of tiny electron guns instead of just three - similarly to the "SED" screens from Toshiba and Canon, which also failed to find success.

These failures meant Sony TV sets almost missed their chance on the flat-panel market. At the last minute, the Japanese company teamed up with Korean manufacturer Samsung to found a joint-venture, dubbed "S-LCD", whose factories produce the liquid-crystal displays used in both Samsung and Sony TV models. Let's quickly discredit a common misconception: The quality of the finished TV depends on more than just the panel. In testing at Televisions.com, TVs from the two manufacturers display clearly different pictures - not to mention major differences in features and operation.

Computers, mobile phones, music, and movies:

Sony launched the "Vaio" PC brand in Japan in 1996.

The manufacturer was quick to embrace the home-computing sector: Since 1996, there have been desktop and portable Sony PCs carrying the Vaio logo in Japan and the USA - and, since 1998, also in Europe. Since 2001, the company also produces mobile phones in a joint venture with Swedish manufacturer Ericsson. The year 1995 saw the arrival of the first "PlayStation" games console, and collaboration with the movie and music company Columbia produced subsidiaries known as "Sony Music" and "Sony Pictures".

Corporate history:
The company was founded in May 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita - initially under the name "Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo" (or "Totsuko" for short; roughly "Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation"). After making its first tentative steps in consumer electronics with pickups for record players, Totsuko released the first Japanese tape recorder, the "Type G", in 1950.

Since January 1958, the company has been called Sony - under its new name, the manufacturer has been active in the United States since 1960 and the United Kingdom since 1968, employing around 170,000 people worldwide.

Sony's current CEO, Sir Howard Stringer (pictured), recently appointed a new boss for the company's TV division.

Currently, Sony is trying its hand at OLED - but precisely at the time of writing, the incumbent Sony boss, Howard Stringer, pulled on the handbrake: Ryoji Chubachi, the technology-enthusiast president of the Sony TV branch was replaced by Yoshihisa Ishida. Since his time in the Vaio PC department, the new top man is known to be well-versed in cost-cutting measures.

The following were involved in producing this article on Sony and Sony devices:

Author(s): Karl-Gerhard Haas
Editor in Chief: Florian Friedrich
Photos: Manufacturers and AV T.O.P. Messtechnik GmbH
Last updated: September 2009