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Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita Founded Their Company
On May 7, 1946, just after the end of World War II, Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita founded Sony Company. It was orignally called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo also known as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. -
Sony's first Radio
Sony released their first commercial radio, the TR-55 Transistor Radio. It became the first portable radio. The TR-55 Transisitor Radio was smaller than any other radio at that time. -
Sony was Created
Ibuka and Morita wanted a shorter and easier name for their company because Americans couldn't say it. They wanted to make it "TTK" but that was already taken. They moved on to "Tokyo Teletech" but that was also taken because their was an American company with Teletech. Finally they took the word "Sonus" from Latin, which means sound and sonic, and the word "Sonny" from English, which was a popular nickname for American boys. They combined the two words and so Sony was made in January of 1958. -
The Walkman was Made
On July 1, 1979, Sony released the Walkman Radio. The Walkman Radio is a portable audio and cassete player. It was highly popular at that time. It allowed people to listen to music on the go that was already recorded. -
The First Playstation was released
Sony released the first Playstation video game console. Sony sold 100 million consoles worldwide. The Nintendo 64 and the Saga Saturn were the only competion for the Playstation. The Playstation was the most popular console. -
Death of Masaru Ibuka
Masaru Ibuka, one of the two founders of Sony Entertainment died on December 19, 1997 due to Heart Failures. He was 89 years old at the time of his death. However before his death, he left Sony in 1997 but was acting as an advisor for Sony. -
The Playstation 2 Released
On March 4, 2000, Sony released the Playstation 2. After having a huge success for the orginal Playstation released their second version. Sony introduced the Playstation 2 with a feature called backwards comaptability, meaning a game from previous Playstation can be played on the PS2. -
The PSP
Sony Interactive Entertainment released the Playstation Portable (PSP) on 12 December 2004 in Japan but was released on March 24, 2005 in North America. Its main competitor was Nintendo with the DS. It became the most popular portable gaming device because it could connect to the PS3 and have the ability to watch TV on it. -
PS3 relased
Sony released the third generation of the Playstation Console on November 11 2006. The PS3 was the first Playstation Console to have blue-ray capibilities. Sony's main competitors were Microsoft with the Xbox 360 and Nintendo with the Wii. Also the PS3 was the first console by Sony that had the ability to play online with other users. Lastly, the PS3 was also the first in the Playstation series to have a wireless controller. -
Sony was Hacked 2011
In 2011, Sony was hacked and around 77 million accounts were affected by this. This cyber attack was among the worst in history. Later, Sony released a security update that forces all users to change their password. -
The PS4 was released
The latest generation in the Playstation Console era, the PS4, was released by Sony on November 15, 2013. The PS4 has increased graphics and a touchpad was added on the controller. The main competitor continues to Microsoft, releasing the Xbox 1 around the same time Sony released the Playstation 4. The Playstation 4 is increasingly positve and very popular. -
Death of Akio Morita
Akio Morita, one of the founders of Sony, passed away on October 3, 1999 at the age of 78. Previous to his death, he expierenced a stroke while playing tennis in 1993. He gave up his position as chairmen for Sony on November 25, 1994. However in 1999 he passed away from pneumonia.
