Sony

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, whose roots go back to 1946, when Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (TTK) in a reconstructed warehouse near Tokyo Station. The company adopted its name Sony in 1958, and grew from a small electronics workshop into a global powerhouse through landmark products such as the TR-63 transistor radio, the 1982 CDP-101 - the world's first commercial CD player, the Walkman portable cassette player, the Betamax video format, Trinitron televisions and the PlayStation game consoles, while also building major film, music and semiconductor businesses. Sony's mobile-phone history began in the early 2000s, when it partnered with Ericsson to form Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, a joint venture that marketed phones under the Sony Ericsson brand from 2001. The venture produced popular devices such as the Cyber-shot camera phones, the Walkman-branded series and the flagship Xperias, and in 2007 the Sony Ericsson Xperia - one of the first Android smartphones - helped establish Sony in the new smartphone era. In 2012 Ericsson sold its 50% share for about $1.05 billion, and the business was rebranded simply as Sony Mobile Communications, continuing the Xperia line that became Sony's flagship smartphone family, ranging from compact mid-range Xperia phones to premium models such as the Xperia XZ, XZ2, XZ3, 5 and 1 series. Sony smartphones are known for carrying the company's imaging expertise: high-quality cameras with large sensors, G Master optics and BIONZ image processing, together with BRAVIA-quality displays, Hi-Res audio and Walkman heritage in sound. The Xperia line also featured early adoption of 5G, water and dust resistance and long software support, though Sony has kept a deliberately small portfolio, focusing on a handful of models per year rather than volume. In 2021 Sony restructured its organisation, folding Sony Mobile Communications into Sony Corporation as part of a broader simplification of its group structure, so smartphone development now sits within the main company alongside its imaging, entertainment and semiconductor divisions. Sony remains a top global brand in consumer electronics, and its Android devices continue to appear under the Sony name on the market, carrying forward more than seven decades of electronics innovation.