50 Fun Facts About Sony

Which two men founded the company that became Sony in 1946?

Ibuka opened an electronics shop in a Tokyo department store; Morita joined him on 7 May 1946.

What did the company's original Japanese name mean in English?

It began with capital of ¥190,000 and eight employees.

What was the company's early product called the Type-G?

The founders realised early they needed a short brand name to sell abroad.

Why did the founders reject the initials TTK as a brand name?

'Totsuko' and 'Tokyo Teletech' were also tried and dropped.

The name Sony combines the Latin 'sonus' with which American slang word?

In 1950s Japan 'sonny boys' meant smart, presentable young men, which the founders reckoned they were.

Which bank pushed for a longer name such as 'Sony Electronic Industries' when the company renamed itself in 1958?

Morita refused to tie the name to any one industry, and won.

What was the first Sony-branded product, released in 1955?

The company itself did not take the Sony name until January 1958.

Which Sony radio is credited with 'cracking open the U.S. market' for consumer microelectronics?

American teens bought portable transistor radios by the million in the late 1950s and 1960s.

In which year did Sony release the Walkman, the world's first portable music player?

It came bundled with MDL-3L2 headphones; a 1979 TPS-L2 model was shown at MoMA in 2025.

Sony's proprietary colour television technology, patented until 1996, was called what?

Triluminos followed in 2004 in the world's first LED-backlit LCD TVs.

Sony's U-matic of 1971 was the world's first what?

It was too expensive for homes, so Betamax followed in 1975.

Sony's Betamax lost the videotape format war to VHS, which was developed by which company?

The professional Betacam derivative survived until Sony stopped making the decks in 2016.

Sony launched its Handycam camcorders in 1985 alongside which tape format?

The follow-on Hi8 also did well in the consumer camcorder market.

With which company did Sony jointly announce the Compact Disc in 1983?

The Discman portable CD player followed in 1984.

Sony introduced which floppy disk size in 1983, going on to dominate the market?

It still held over 70 percent of the market when it stopped making them in 2010.

Which recordable disc format did Sony launch in 1992 as a successor to the cassette?

Sony pushed its ATRAC compression against MP3, which its Network Walkmans did not support until late 2004.

Sony's SDDS cinema sound format of 1993 used how many audio channels?

It lost out to Dolby Digital and DTS and was never made for home theatres.

Which flash card format did Sony launch in 1998?

It saw little support outside Sony's own products as SD cards took over.

Blu-ray, which Sony helped develop, beat which rival high-definition disc format?

The two-year format war ended in Blu-ray's favour; PS3 was the first console to use it.

Sony's contactless IC card technology, used for payments and transit, is called what?

It grew out of NFC work with Philips.

Which Nintendo console did Sony supply the sound chip for?

The two companies also worked on a CD-ROM add-on until Nintendo walked away in 1991.

Which company did Nintendo choose over Sony for its CD-ROM add-on, a day after Sony's 1991 reveal?

The snub infuriated Sony president Norio Ohga, who put Ken Kutaragi in charge of building a Sony console.

Who is the Sony engineer credited with developing the PlayStation?

He faced strong opposition from older Sony executives who did not want the company in games.

In which year did the first PlayStation launch?

It took 61 percent of global console sales and ended Nintendo's long lead.

How many units had the PlayStation 2, the best-selling console of all time, sold as of 2011?

It launched in 2000; the PS3 followed in 2006 with a costly Cell processor.

Which optical format did Sony create for the PlayStation Portable?

Movies were released on it early on, but studios soon lost interest.

Sony's virtual reality headset for PS4 was originally revealed in 2014 under what code name?

PlayStation VR shipped worldwide on 13 October 2016.

Which record company did Sony buy in 1988 for about $2 billion?

It became the foundation of Sony Music Entertainment in 1991.

Which Hollywood studio did Sony buy in 1989 for $3.4 billion?

TriStar and Screen Gems came with it; the studio struggled for years afterwards.

Which Sony president drove the CD, the PlayStation and the CBS and Columbia purchases?

He succeeded Morita as chief executive in 1989.

Who became the first foreigner to run a major Japanese electronics firm when he took over Sony in 2005?

He backed hits like Spider-Man, cut 9,000 jobs and complained of business 'silos'.

What slogan did Sony introduce in 2009 as a unified global brand message?

It came under Howard Stringer's push to unify the group's businesses.

Kazuo Hirai's 2012 turnaround plan was known by what name?

It focused on imaging, gaming and mobile while stemming losses from televisions.

Which PC brand did Sony sell off in 2014?

The buyer was investment fund Japan Industrial Partners; the TV division was spun off the same year.

Which two US game shows are produced by Sony Pictures Television?

Spider-Man, The Karate Kid and Men in Black are among its film franchises.

The 2014 hack of Sony Pictures came weeks before the release of which film?

The attackers called themselves Guardians of Peace.

Sony's 1995 music-publishing merger was with a catalogue owned by which star?

Sony/ATV holds rights to the Lennon-McCartney songs; Sony bought out his estate's share in 2016.

With which German media group did Sony merge its music arm in 2004?

Sony BMG hit a copy-protection scandal in 2005 when its CDs installed malware; Sony bought out the partner in 2008.

Which anime streaming service is co-owned by Sony's Aniplex and Sony Pictures?

It absorbed Funimation, which Sony bought in 2017, and became the successor brand in 2022.

What kind of animal was Sony's AIBO robot?

Sony also made a music-playing robot called Rolly and a humanoid called QRIO before pausing robotics for a decade.

With which carmaker did Sony form an electric vehicle joint venture in 2022?

The Afeela brand and its first prototype were shown at CES 2023.

Sony held what share of the global image sensor market in 2020?

It made Sony the largest image sensor maker and second-largest camera manufacturer.

In which Tokyo ward is Sony's headquarters, Sony City, located?

The parent became Sony Group Corporation in 2021, with electronics carrying on as Sony Corporation.

Masaru Ibuka's 1946 electronics shop, the seed of Sony, was inside which Tokyo department store building?

It stood in the Nihonbashi area; Akio Morita joined him that May to found Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo.

How many employees did the company that became Sony have when it started in 1946?

Its starting capital was ¥190,000.

Since which year has Sony maintained American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange?

At home it trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as part of the Nikkei 225.

What was the name of Sony's humanoid robot, a stablemate of the dog-shaped AIBO?

Rolly was Sony's music-playing robot; the firm later paused robotics for a decade amid financial trouble.

Sony entered the DSLR market in 2006 by buying the camera business of which company?

It rebranded the line as Alpha and is now the world's third-largest camera maker behind Canon and Nikon.

Under what brand did Sony unveil its first drone at CES 2021?

The company said it was the smallest drone able to carry a Sony Alpha camera.

At its sprawling peak, with ventures from cosmetics to a French restaurant, Sony was dubbed a corporate what?

It has since unwound units such as Sony Chemicals and the Vaio PC business.