There is no doubt that Sony has been successful and innovative. The company is extremely well known for being innovative and originating from a country that does not encourage that attribute. It is just one of the features which set it apart from its Japanese competitors in it's early stages.
When you consider the innovations Sony has brought us, it is clearly apparent that it has a definite track record for being a highly innovative leader rather than a follower with its products.
Sony - Important Innovations
1949 - First tape recorder
1954 - First all-transistor radio
1968 - first Trinitron colour television
1971 - The colour video-cassette
1975 - First home-use video system, the Betamax
1979 - The Walkman
1981 - The electronic camera
1982 - The CD player
1983 - First consumer camcorder
1988 - 8mm format video media
1989 - The 3.5" floppy disk
1992 - The Minidisc media
1993 - Digital video discs (DVDs) and digital video players
and digital video players (DVPs)
1995 - CD ROM based dedicated gaming console, Playstation
2000 - Combined gaming console, DVD player and Internet
browser, Playstation 2
Shortly after Sony introduced most of these, competitors imitated them.
English: 2.88 MB floppy disk drive
Imation USB 3.5" floppy disk drive
Walkman NWZ-1051 USA modelSome of the products have become standard and integral parts of modern lifestyles eg transistor radio.3.5" floppy disk. The Sony Walkman is the single best selling consumer electronics product ever - it has sold 150 million units worldwide. It was so popular that the name 'Walkman' has become synonymous with the personal cassette player product, just like Hoover and the vacuum cleaner. When you look at the dates, you can see that since 1968, there has been 5 years or less between the major product innovations. This suggests they have the whole process down to a 't'. In fact, in 1995, Sony...