Milestones
In 1950, Totsuko launched the 'Soni-Tape', Japan's first magnetite-coated, paper-based recording tape. This was soon followed by Japan's first magnetic tape recorder, the G-Type.
In 1954, the company won a licence to make transistors, a new technology that had been invented in America but had not yet been applied to radios which were still bulky valve-driven appliances. In May of that year, Totsuko launched Japan's first transistor and then followed this with the world’s first all-transistor radio in 1955.
Ground-breaking developments and Sony milestones include the first Trinitron colour television in 1968, the colour video cassette player in 1971, the Betamax VCR in 1975, the Walkman in 1979, the world's first CD player in 1982, the 8mm camcorder based on a universal standard in 1985, the first consumer-use digital video camcorder in 1995, the next generation high capacity optical disc "Blu-ray Disc" recorder in 2003, and the world's first consumer use digital HD video camera recorder conforming to HDV standards in 2004.
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