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Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社, Sonī kabushiki gaisha, commonly known as Sony) is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo.[1][2] The company operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional electronic products, the largest video game console company, the second largest video game publisher, the second largest record company, as well as one of the most comprehensive media companies,[3][4] being the largest Japanese media conglomerate by size overtaking the privately held, family-owned Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, the largest Japanese media conglomerate by revenue.

Microsoft and Sony are known to enter into strategic partnerships to jointly develop technologies, while also competing in the video game marketplace.[5][6]

Background[]

Sony, with its 50 percent market share in the image sensor market, is among the semiconductor sales leaders[7][8] and, as of 2015, the fifth-largest television manufacturer in the world by annual sales figures. It is the world's largest player in the premium TV market, a market for a television of at least 55 inches with a price higher than $2,500.[9][10]

Sony Corporation is the holding company of the Sony Group (ソニー・グループ), which comprises Sony Electronics, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, Sony Pictures, Sony Music, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Financial Holdings, and others.

The company's slogan is Be Moved. Their former slogans were The One and Only (1979–1982), It's a Sony (1982–2005), like.no.other (2005–2009)[11] and make.believe (2009–2013).[12]

Sony has a weak tie to the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) corporate group, the successor to the Mitsui group.[13] Sony is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (in which it is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX Core30 indexes) with an additional listing in the form of 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 122nd on the 2020 Fortune Global 500 list.[14]

History[]

Sony began in the wake of World War II. In 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in Shirokiya,[15] a department store building in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. The company started with a capital of ¥190,000[16] and a total of eight employees.[17] On 7 May 1946, Ibuka was joined by Akio Morita to establish a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (東京通信工業, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation).[18] The company built Japan's first tape recorder, called the Type-G.[18][19] In 1958, the company changed its name to "Sony".[20] The first Sony store in the United States was opened on 5th Avenue in New York City on October 1, 1962.[21]

Microsoft and Sony[]

Kenichiro Yoshida and Satya Nadella

Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida meets with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Sony's personal computer line, which was spun off as VAIO in 2014, runs the Microsoft Windows operating systems.[22] In May 2019, Microsoft and Sony entered into a joint partnership to develop cloud services based on Microsoft Azure for artificial intelligence (AI) and entertainment.[5] In May 2020, Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Microsoft announced their partnership to jointly develop AI-driven smart cameras with video analytics.[23]

Xbox vs. PlayStation[]

Microsoft and Sony have long been competitors in the video game market with successive generations of their respective Xbox and PlayStation consoles. However, Microsoft aims to move the Xbox platform away from direct competition by transitioning towards cloud-based streaming services that are available for other devices, ranging from Surface to Windows.[6]

Microsoft consoles Year Sony consoles Year
Sega Saturn (kernel only)
Dreamcast (OS only)
1994
1998
PlayStation (original) 1994
Xbox (original) 2001 PlayStation 2 2000
Xbox 360 2005 PlayStation 3 2006
Xbox One 2013 PlayStation 4 2013
Xbox Series X and S 2020 PlayStation 5 2020

References[]

  1. "Access & Map." Sony Global. Retrieved 6 December 2011. "1–7–1 Konan Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0075, Japan" – MapAddress in Japanese: "〒108-0075 東京都港区港南1–7–1"
  2. 20-F (FY2015) pages 1, 25 and F-2, Sony Corporation
  3. "Sony in US$2.3 billion deal, becomes the world's biggest music publisher". 
  4. "Sony embraces its inner conglomerate" (in en). Reuters. 2 May 2020. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 Sony and Microsoft to explore strategic partnership, Microsoft News Center. 2019-05-16.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Microsoft's new Xbox is actually the next step in an ambitious master plan to shake up the video game industry, and end the rivalry with PlayStation forever by Ben Gilbert, Business Insider. 2020-07-25.
  7. "Top 20 semiconductor sales leaders for Q1 2016" (in en). Retrieved 1 June 2020. 
  8. "Sony's key image sensor business hit by smartphone market decline". 
  9. "Global LCD TV manufacturer market share from 2008 to 2017.". Statista. Retrieved 26 February 2017. 
  10. "How Samsung fell behind Sony and LG in the premium TV market" (in en). Reuters. 2 May 2018. 
  11. "Sony like.no.other Global Brand Development". Blind. Retrieved 16 November 2016. 
  12. Christopher MacManus (2 September 2009). "Sony Insider. 2010-10-27. Retrieved 2016-08-07". Sonyinsider.com. Retrieved 21 April 2017. 
  13. Morck, R. K. & Nakamura, M. (2005). "A Frog in a Well Knows Nothing of the Ocean: A History of Corporate Ownership in Japan". In Morck, Randall K.. University of Chicago Press. pp. 367–466. ISBN 0-226-53680-7. 
  14. "Sony 2020 Global 500 – Fortune". 
  15. Sundberg, Stephen (18 September 2016). "Shirokiya Department Store, c. 1910-1940. | Old Tokyo" (in en-us). Retrieved 5 November 2020. 
  16. "Sony Global – History" (in en). Retrieved 7 July 2017. 
  17. Nobuo Abiko (26 March 1966). "Pioneering firm upsets Japan hiring: Pattern broken". The Christian Science Monitor: p. 14. 
  18. 18.0 18.1 "Sony Global – Sony History". Retrieved 16 February 2007. 
  19. Neate, Rupert (1 December 2014). "A history of Sony's successes and failures". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. 
  20. Chang, Sea-Jin (25 February 2011) (in en). Sony vs Samsung: The Inside Story of the Electronics Giants' Battle For Global Supremacy. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470830444. 
  21. About Sony: Chapter 13, Sony Corporation. Accessed 2021-02-01.
  22. Split from Sony, Vaio takes another shot at China, Nikkei Asia. 2017-08-02.
  23. Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Microsoft partner to create smart camera solutions for enterprise customers, Microsoft News Center. 2020-05-18.

External links[]

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