CONSUMER ELECTRONIC COMPANIES IN INDIA.

1.LG

IN INDIA Televisions, Personal Computers, Kitchen items, Vaccum Cleaners and corporate products like LCD projectors, AC's etc.

2.NATIONAL PANASONIC We create products that sets standars in the world of consumer electronics, home appliances and telecommunications. 3.PHILIPS INDIA Makers of audio, video products, domestic appliances, and more. 4. SALORA INTERNATIONAL LTD, NEW DELHI- TV, TV COMPONENTS, ETC. 5.Manufactures black & white and color Television sets,flyback transformers, speakers and other components. Markets under its own brand name panasonic brand of printers,fax machines, panaboards and digital cameras. Also markets under its own brand name colour monitors and cordless phones manufactured by some other renowned international brands. 6.SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS,COMPUTER PERIPHERALS & CONSUMER ELECTRONICS 7.Manufacturer of Computer peripherals, televisions, refregerators, washing machines, air conditioners, microwave ovens, audio and video systems.
8. SONY INDIA

In a fiercely competitive Indian consumer durables market, Sony India's mission is to "make a difference in the lifestyles and introduce new dimensions to enjoyment, offer new age technology and digital concepts.
9.SUPERFREEZE INDIA LTD,

Superfreeze manufactures complete range of refrigeration equipments and accessories like compressors, pressure vessels, evaporators, fittings and spare parts.condensers, valves & TOSHIBA Makers of consumer electronics, medical systems, semiconductors, and more.
10.VOLTAS

Established in 1954, Voltas is India's premier air-conditioning and engineering services provider. It offers engineering solutions for a wide spectrum of industries in areas such as heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, refrigeration, climate control, textile machinery, machine tools, mining and construction, materials handling, water management, building management systems, pollution control and chemicals.

JAPAN'S TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR

Japans telecommunications sector is one of the most active markets in the world. Entering 2011 the country was witnessing the continued growth of VoIP and strong competition among the mobile operators in the 3G segment of the market. Japan had also become the fourth country to introduce LTE services with NTT DoCoMo leading the charge. Especially noteworthy has been the continued strong uptake of FttH services (with a corresponding move away from DSL) and the big strides taken in developing digital and mobile broadcasting. The telecommunications regulatory authorities in Japan have been very active in shaping the industry in this country. The control that the incumbent operator, NTT Corp, has continued to exert over virtually all local customers remains a particular challenge for the regulator. This report presents a range of key statistical indicators and fixed-line forecasts to 2016 as well as an overview of the Japanese telecommunications regulatory environment.

Intoduction
The economy of Japan is the third largest in the world[7] after the United States and the People's Republic of China, and ahead of Germany at 4th. According to the International Monetary Fund, the country's per capita GDPPPPwas at $33,805 or the 24th highest in 2010. For three decades from 1960, Japan experienced rapid economic growth, which was referred to as the Japanese post-war economic miracle. With average growth rates of 10% in the 1960s, 5% in the 1970s, and 4% in the 1980s, Japan was able to establish and maintain itself as the world's second largest economy from 1968 until 2010, when it was supplanted by the People's Republic of China. However, in the second half of the 1980s, rising stock and real estate prices caused the Japanese economy to overheat in what was later to be known as the Japanese asset price

bubble. The economic bubble came to an abrupt end as the Tokyo Stock Exchange crashed in 199092 and real estate prices peaked in 1991. Growth in Japan throughout the 1990s at 1.5% was slower than growth in other major developed economies, giving rise to the term Lost Decade. The problems of the 1990s may have been exacerbated by domestic policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. With government efforts to revive economic growth throughout the 1990s unsuccessful, Junichiro Koizumi adopted policies to promote exports, effectively raising GDP on an average of 2.1% annually from 2003 to 2007. Subsequently, the global financial crisis and a collapse in domestic demand saw the economy shrink 1.2% in 2008 and 5.0% in 2009. Japan has the world's highest gross sovereign debt amounting at 225% of GDP or US$10.55 trillion. A mountainous, volcanic island country, Japan has inadequate natural resources to support its growing economy and large population. Although many kinds of minerals were extracted throughout the country, most mineral resources had to be imported in the postwar era. Local deposits of metal-bearing ores were difficult to process because they were low grade. The nation's large and varied forest resources, which covered 70 percent of the country in the late 1980s, were not utilized extensively. Because of political decisions on local, prefectural, and nation levels, Japan decided not to exploit its forest resources for economic gain. Domestic sources only supplied between 25 and 30 percent of the nation's timber needs. Agriculture and fishing were the best developed resources, but only through years of painstaking investment and toil. The nation therefore built up the manufacturing and processing industries to convert raw materials imported from abroad. This strategy of economic development necessitated the establishment of a strong economic infrastructure to provide the needed energy, transportation, communications, and technological know-how. Deposits of gold, magnesium, and silver meet current industrial demands, but Japan is dependent on foreign sources for many of the

minerals essential to modern industry. Iron ore, copper, bauxite, and alumina must be imported, as well as many forest products. In 2010 GDP Growth in the final three months was -2.9% but total GDP Growth for 2010 was 4.0%, one of the highest growth rates for about 20 years. But Japan's economy was disrupted in March 2011 due to the earthquake and the effect of the tsunami. Growth contracted by 3.5% in Q1 of 2011. As Japan's economy has suffered two quarterly contractions in a row, Japan reentered recession. In 2008-09 the economy had contracted 6.4%. However, output is expected to bounce back in the second half of 2011, as supply constraints ease and reconstruction accelerates. From 1992 up until now Japan has had economic problems with an average GDP growth of 1%-2% growth. 2011 GDP Growth is expected to Contract 0.7%, 2012 GDP Growth is expected to be at 2.9%, according to the OECD.
Infrastructure

Japanese manufacturing is very diversified, with a variety of advanced industries that are highly successful. The fields in which Japan enjoys high technological development include consumer electronics, automobile manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturing, optical fibers, optoelectronics, optical media, facsimile and copy machines, and fermentation processes in food and biochemistry
AGRICULTURE

Only 12% of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation. Due to this lack of arable land, a system of terraces is used to farm in small areas. This results in one of the world's highest levels of crop yields per unit area, with an overall agricultural selfsufficiency rate of about 50% on fewer than 56,000 km (14 million acres) cultivated. Japan's small agricultural sector, however, is also highly subsidized and protected, with government regulations that favor small-scale cultivation instead of largescale agriculture as practiced in North America. Imported rice, the most protected crop, is subject to tariffs of 490% and was

restricted to a quota of only 7.2% of average rice consumption from 1968 to 1988. Imports beyond the quota are unrestricted in legal terms, but subject to a 341 yen per kilogram tariff. This tariff is now estimated at 490%, but the rate will soar to a massive 778% under new calculation rules to be introduced as part of the Doha Round.[23] Although Japan is usually self-sufficient in rice (except for its use in making rice crackers and processed foods) and wheat, the country must import about 50% [24] of its requirements of other grain and fodder crops and relies on imports for most of its supply of meat. Japan imports large quantities of wheat, sorghum, and soybeans, primarily from the United States. Japan is the largest market for EU agricultural exports.
LAW AND GOVERNMENT Japan has one of the smallest tax rates in the developed world.[28] After deductions, the majority of workers are free from personal income taxes. Value-added tax rate is only 5%, while corporate tax rates are high.[28] Shareholder activism is rare despite the fact that the corporate law gives shareholders strong powers over managers. Recently, more shareholders have stood up against managers.[29] The government's liabilities include the second largest public debt of any nation. Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called the situation 'urgent'. [5] Japan's central bank has the second largest foreign-exchange reserves after People's Republic of China

The Japanese consumer electronics industry is one of the most prominent industries in the world and is the world's largest electronics manufacturer by companies such as Sony, Pentax, Casio, Citizen Watches, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic, Roland, Sharp, Canon, Epson, Yamaha, Sanyo,Fujitsu, Korg , Fujifilm, JVC Kenwood Inc, Toshiba, Pioneer, Nikon, TDK, Nintendo, Olympus, Star Micronics Co., Ltd etc.
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 The industry today 3 References 4 External links

[edit]History

After World War II, Japanese business began to rapidly develop consumer electronics products using keiretsu methods. By the 1980s, a relatively small number of industries dominated Japan's international trade and investment interaction with the rest of the world. Sony was founded in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita and rapidly advanced in the electronics field. The invention of the pocket transistor radio placed the company at the forefront of electronics development, both in Japan and worldwide. As other companies were formed to compete in this area, the consumer electronics industry became major exporters that invested overseas in the 1980s. In 1991, 46.7 percent of color televisions and 87.3 percent of video cassette recorders produced in Japan were exported. The export shares of some products were too small to show separately in summary trade data, however audio tape recorders represented 2.9% of total Japanese exports in 1988, video cassette recorders 2.3 percent, radio receivers 0.8 percent, and television receivers 0.7 percent, totaling 6.7 percent.[citation needed] These industries built Japan's success in developing commercial applications for the transistor in the 1950s and generations of semiconductor devices of the 1970s and 1980s. Output came from large, integrated electronics firms

manufacturing semiconductor devices, consumer electronics, and computers. The companies international success came from continually pushing miniaturization and driving down manufacturing costs.[citation needed]
[edit]The

industry today

The current headquarters of Sony Corporationin Tokyo.

With a high concentration of electronics companies, dominant global market share in electronics, and high quality of its products, Japan is the largest consumer electronics manufacturer in the world.[1] Japanese companies have a reputation for high quality and innovation, having introduced products such as the Sony Walkman and VHS recorder. Japan's success overpowered the United States consumer electronics industry. Unproved charges of dumping and other predatory practices led toorderly marketing arrangements by Japan in 1977. Restraints limited the export of color televisions to 1.75 million units annually from 1977 to 1980. The agreement gave some protection to the United States' domestic industry. Japanese companies responded by investing in the United States, by the end of the 1980s, only one United States-owned television manufacturer remained.[citation needed] The Japanese electronic industry as a result has maintained its dominance in the market over the United States, and maintained its export strength in this field due to the high reputation of its electronics. Japan's foreign direct investment in the consumer electronics industry was motivated by protectionism and labor costs. After three years of voluntary export restraints, seven Japanese firms located plants in the United States by 1980. Japanese firms continued production of the most technologically-advanced products especially in Japan but also U.S., while shifting production of less-

advanced products to developing countries, such as Taiwan[dubious discuss]. Since the beginning of the 21st century Japanese electronics companies have been facing tougher competition from South Korean companies. For instance, Samsung Electronics operating profit is more than two times larger than the combined operating profit of nine of Japans largest consumer electronic companies.[2] With Japanese companies losing their top position in categories like portable media players, TVs, computers and semiconductors.[3] Hit hard by the economic crisis of 2008 Sony, Hitachi, Panasonic, Fujitsu, Sharp, NEC and Toshiba reported losses amounting to $17 billion.[4]This has forced some of the smaller players like JVC and Kenwood to merge forming JVC Kenwood Holdings, [5] and Renesas Technology and NEC Electronics -the semiconductors arm of NEC- to merge forming Renesas Electronics.[6] In a similar move, in 2009 Panasonic acquired a voting stock majority of Sanyo, making the latter part of the Panasonic Group. Also some of the bigger players resorted to merging some of their operations as Hitachi, Casio and NEC, and Fujitsu and Toshiba, did with their cellphone business.[7]

Sony
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article appears to contradict the article media conglomerate. Please see discussion on the linked talk page. Please do not remove this message until the contradictions are resolved. (June 2011)

Sony Corporation

Type

Public company

Traded as

TYO: 6758 NYSE: SNE Conglomerate

Industry 7 May 1946[1] Founded Masaru Ibuka Akio Morita Minato, Tokyo, Japan Headquarters Worldwide Area served Howard Stringer[1] (Chairman, President & CEO) Ryji Chbachi[2] (Vice Chairman) Kazuo Hirai[3] (Executive Deputy President) Masaru Kato[2] (EVP & CFO) Consumer & professional electronic equipment Communication & information-related equipment Semiconductor Electronic devices & components Battery Chemicals PlayStation Blu-ray Financial services Internet service US$ 86.64 billion (2011)[4] Revenue US$ 2.41 billion (2011)[4] Operating income US$ -2.96 billion (2011)[4] Net income US$ 155.94 billion (2011)[4] Total assets US$ 30.74 billion (2011)[4] Total equity

Founder(s)

Key people

Products

Services

168,200 (2011)[4] Employees List of subsidiaries Subsidiaries

Website

Sony.net

Sony Corporation ( Son Kabushiki Gaisha?) (TYO: 6758, NYSE: SNE), commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinationalconglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate with US$86.64 billion (FY2011)[clarification needed].[4] Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, products for the consumer and professional markets.[5] Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its six operating segments Consumer Products & Services Group (consumer electronics, game & network services), Professional, Device & Solutions Group (B2B products & services), Pictures, Music, Financial Services and Sony Ericsson.[6][7] These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, and Sony Financial. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. The Sony Group ( Son Gurpu?) is a Japan-based corporate group primarily focused on the Electronics (such as AV/IT products & components), Game (such as PlayStation), Entertainment (such as motion pictures and music), and Financial Services (such as insurance and banking) sectors. The group consists of Sony Corporation (holding & electronics), Sony Computer Entertainment (game), Sony Pictures Entertainment (motion pictures), Sony Music Entertainment (music), Sony Financial Holdings (financial services) and others. Its founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka derived the name from sonus, the Latin word for sound, and also from the English slang word "sonny", since they considered themselves to be "sonny boys", a loan word into Japanese which in the early 1950s connoted smart and presentable young men.[5]
Contents
[hide]

1 History

1.1 Origin of name

2 Formats and technologies 3 Products

o o

3.1 PlayStation 3.2 VAIO

3.2.1 Laptop batteries dysfunction

o o o

3.3 Sony Pictures Entertainment 3.4 Sony BMG 3.5 Digital photography

4 Corporate information

4.1 Mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures

4.2 Regional manufacturing and distribution

4.3 Finance and Revenue

5 Environmental record

o o o

5.1 Improvement efforts 5.2 Green TV 5.3 Criticism

6 Controversy and cyber attacks 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit]History

Masaru Ibuka, the co-founder of Sony

In late 1945, after the end of World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop in a bomb-damaged department store building in Nihonbashi of Tokyo. The next year, he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K.,[8] (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). The company built Japan's first tape recorder, called the Type-G.[8]

The old sony logo, used from 1955-1957

In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs' invention of the transistor.[8] He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company. While most American companies were researching the transistor for its military applications, Ibuka and Morita looked to apply it to communications. Although the American companies Regency Electronics and Texas Instruments built the first transistor radio as joint venture, it was Ibuka's company that made them commercially successful for the first time. In August 1955, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo released the Sony TR-55, Japan's first commercially produced transistor radio.
[9]

They followed up in December of the same year by releasing the Sony TR-72, a product that won favor both within

Japan and in export markets, including Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. Featuring six transistors, push-pull output and greatly improved sound quality, the TR-72 continued to be a popular seller into the early sixties. In May 1956, the company released the TR-6, which featured an innovative slim design and sound quality capable of rivaling portable tube radios. It was for the TR-6 that Sony first contracted "Atchan", a cartoon character created by Fuyuhiko Okabe, to become its advertising character. Now known as "Sony Boy", the character first appeared in a cartoon ad holding a TR-6 to his ear, but went on to represent the company in ads for a variety of products well into the mid-sixties.[8] The following year, 1957, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo came out with the TR-63 model, then the smallest (112 71 32 mm) transistor radio in commercial production. It was a worldwide commercial success.[8] University of Arizona professor Michael Brian Schiffer, PhD, says, "Sony was not first, but its transistor radio was the most successful. The TR-63 of 1957 cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics." By the mid 1950s, American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1968. Sony's headquarters moved to Minato, Tokyo from Shinagawa, Tokyo around the end of 2006.[10][11] [edit]Origin

of name

When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a romanized name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials, TTK. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TKK.[8] The company occasionally used the acronym "Totsuko" in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was "Tokyo Teletech" until Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name.[12] The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word "Sonus", which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was "Sonny", a familiar term used in 1950s America to call a boy.[5] The first Sonybranded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955 but the company name did not change to Sony until January 1958.[13]

At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui, had strong feelings about the name. They pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company name tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Bank's chairman gave their approval.[8] [edit]Formats

and technologies

Further information: List of Sony trademarks

Sony has historically been notable for creating its own in-house standards for new recording and storage technologies, instead of adopting those of other manufacturers and standards bodies. The most infamous of these was the videotape format war of the early 1980s, when Sony marketed the Betamax system for video cassette recorders against the VHS format developed by JVC. In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketbase and became the worldwide standard for consumer VCRs and Sony adopted the format. While Betamax is for all practical purposes an obsolete format, a professional-oriented component video format called Betacam that was derived from Betamax is still used today, especially in the television industry, although far less so in recent years with the introduction of digitial and high definition. In 1968 Sony introduced the Trinitron brand name for its lines of aperture grille cathode ray tube televisions and (later) computer monitors. Trinitron displays are still produced, but only for markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. Sony discontinued the last Trinitron-based television set in the USA in early 2007. Trinitron computer monitors were discontinued in 2005. Sony launched the Betamax videocassette recording format in 1975. In 1979 the Walkman brand was introduced, in the form of the world's first portable music player. 1982 saw the launch of Sony's professional Betacam videotape format and the collaborative Compact Disc (CD) format. In 1983 Sony introduced 90 mm micro diskettes (better known as 3.5-inch (89 mm) floppy disks), which it had developed at a time when there were 4" floppy disks and a lot of variations from different companies to replace the then on-going 5.25" floppy disks. Sony had great success and the format became dominant; 3.5" floppy disks gradually became obsolete as they were replaced by current media formats. In 1983 Sony launched the MSX, a home computer system, and introduced the world (with their counterpart Philips) to the Compact Disc (CD). In 1984 Sony launched the Discman series which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products. In 1985 Sony launched their Handycam products and the Video8 format. Video8 and the follow-on hi-band Hi8 format became popular in the consumer camcorder market. In 1987 Sony launched the 4 mm DAT or Digital Audio Tape as a new digital audio tape standard.

Sony Discman

In addition to developing consumer-based recording media, after the launch of the CD Sony began development of commercially based recording media. In 1986 they launched Write-Once optical discs (WO) and in 1988 launched Magneto-optical discs which were around 125MB size for the specific use of archival data storage.[14] In the early 1990s two high-density optical storage standards were being developed: one was the MultiMedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by Philips and Sony, and the other was the Super Density disc (SD), supported by Toshiba and many others. Philips and Sony abandoned their MMCD format and agreed upon Toshiba's SD format with only one modification based on MMCD technology, viz EFMPlus. The unified disc format was called DVD which was marketed in 1997. Sony introduced the MiniDisc format in 1993 as an alternative to Philips DCC or Digital Compact Cassette. Since the introduction of MiniDisc, Sony has attempted to promote its own audio compression technologies under the ATRAC brand, against the more widely used MP3. Until late 2004, Sony's Network Walkman line of digital portable music players did not support the MP3 de facto standard natively, although the provided software SonicStage would convert MP3 files into the ATRAC or ATRAC3 formats. In 1993, Sony challenged the industry standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound format with a newer and more advanced proprietary motion picture digital audio format called SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound). This format employed eight channels (7.1) of audio opposed to just six used in Dolby Digital 5.1 at the time. Unlike Dolby Digital, SDDS utilized a method of backup by having mirrored arrays of bits on both sides of the film which acted as a measure of reliability in case the film was partially damaged. Ultimately, SDDS has been vastly overshadowed by the preferred DTS (Digital Theatre System) and Dolby Digital standards in the motion picture industry. SDDS was solely developed for use in the theatre circuit; Sony never intended to develop a home theatre version of SDDS.

In 1998, Sony launched their Memory Stick format; flash memory cards for use in Sony lines of digital cameras and portable music players. It has seen little support outside of Sony's own products with Secure Digital cards (SD) commanding considerably greater popularity. This is due in part to the SD format's greater throughput (which allows faster recording and access), higher capacities, and significantly lower price per unit capacity compared to Memory Sticks available at the same time. Sony has made updates to the Memory Stick format with Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Micro. Sony and Philips jointly developed the Sony-Philips digital interface format (S/PDIF) and the high-fidelity audio system SACD. The latter has since been entrenched in a format war with DVD-Audio. At present, neither has gained a major foothold with the general public. CDs are preferred by consumers because of ubiquitous presence of CD drives in consumer devices.

Sony VAIO fashion show in 2008

In 2004, Sony built upon the MiniDisc format by releasing Hi-MD. Hi-MD allows the playback and recording of audio on newly-introduced 1 GB Hi-MD discs in addition to playback and recording on regular MiniDiscs. Recordings on the Hi-MD Walkmans can be transferred to and from the computer virtually unrestricted, unlike earlier NetMD. In addition to saving audio on the discs, Hi-MD allows the storage of computer files such as documents, videos and photos. HiMD introduced the ability to record CD-quality audio with a linear PCM recording feature. It was the first time since MiniDisc's introduction in 1992 that the ATRAC codec could be bypassed and lossless CD-quality audio could be recorded on the small discs. Sony was one of the leading developers and remains one of the strongest proponents of the Blu-ray Disc optical disc format, which eventually emerged as the market leader over the competing standard, Toshiba's HD DVD, after a 2 year-long format war. The first Blu-ray players became commercially available in June 2006, and Sony's first Blu-ray player, the Sony BDP-S1, debuted in December 2006 with an MSRP of US $999.95. By the end of 2007 the format had the backing of every major motion picture studio except Universal, Paramount, and DreamWorks.[15][16][17] The Bluray format's popularity continued to increase, solidifying its position as the dominant HD media format, and Toshiba announced its decision to stop supporting HD DVD on 19 February 2008.

Over the years, Sony has introduced these standards:

Umatic (~1968) Betamax (1975) Betacam (1981) Compact Disc with Philips (1982) 3.5 inch Floppy Disk (1982) Video8 (1985) DAT (1987) Hi8 (1988) MiniDisc (~1990) Digital Betacam (~1990) miniDV (1992) DVD with others (~1995) DVCAM (1996) Memory Stick (1998) Digital8 (1999) Universal Media Disc (~2003) HDV with JVC (~2004) Blu-ray Disc with Panasonic and others (2006)

[edit]Products

Sony's retail store, Sony Style

Sony offers a number of products in a variety of product lines around the world. Sony has developed a music playing robot called Rolly, dog-shaped robots called AIBO, humanoids, and QRIO. [edit]PlayStation

The Slimline PlayStation 2 with controller

In late 1994 Sony launched the PlayStation to compete with other consoles. This successful console was succeeded by the PlayStation 2 in 2000. The PlayStation 2 has become the most successful video game console of all time, selling over 150 million units as of 2011. The PlayStation brand was extended to the portable games market in 2005 by the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Sony developed the Universal Media Disc (UMD) optical disc medium for use on the PlayStation Portable. Although Sony tried to push the UMD format for movies, major-studio support for the format was cut back in spring 2006, though as of 2009 some major-studio titles continue to be released on UMD. Sony released the PlayStation 3, a high-definition console, in 2006. It later introduced the PlayStation Move, an accessory that allows players to control video games using motion controllers. Sony announced that on 1 April 2010[18] it was electronically removingLinux[19] functionality from the first generation PS3.[20] A class action has been taken out in California challenging the legality of "the disablement of valuable functionality originally advertised".[21] Sony admitted in late 2005 to hiring graffiti artists to spray paint advertisements for their PlayStation Portable game system in seven major cities including New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco,[22] and Sydney Australia. The mayor of Philadelphia filed a cease and desist order. According to Sony, they paid businesses and building owners for the right to graffiti their walls.[23] As of early January 2006, Sony had no plans to keep or withdraw them.

In November 2006, a marketing company employed by Sony created a website entitled "All I want for Xmas is a PSP", designed to promote the PSP throughviral marketing. The site contained a blog, which was purportedly written by "Charlie", a teenager attempting to get his friend "Jeremy"'s parents to buy him a PSP, providing links to t-shirt iron-ons, Christmas cards, and a "music video" of either Charlie or Jeremy "rapping". However, visitors to the website soon discovered that the website was registered to a marketing company, exposing the site on sites such as YouTube and digg, and Sony was forced to admit the site's true origin in a post on the blog, stating that they would from then on "stick to making cool products" and that they would use the website for "the facts on the PSP". The site has since been taken down. In an interview with next-gen.biz, Sony admitted that the idea was "poorly executed".[24] In 2003, Sony Computer Entertainment America, marketer of the popular PlayStation game consoles, was sued by Immersion Corporation of San Jose, California which claimed that Sony's PlayStation "Dual Shock" controllers infringed on Immersion's patents. In 2004, a federal jury agreed with Immersion, awarding the company US$82 million in damages. A U.S. district court judge ruled on the matter in March 2005 and not only agreed with the federal jury's ruling but also added another US$8.7 million in damages. This is likely the reason that the Sixaxis controller for the PlayStation 3 had no rumble feature. The DualShock 3 has since been made available for the PlayStation 3, reintroducing rumble capabilities. Microsoft Corp. was also sued for its Xbox controller, however, unlike Sony, they settled out of court so they could continue using the technology for the follow-up Xbox 360.[25] A California judge ordered Sony to pay Immersion a licensing fee of 1.37 percent per quarter based on the sales of PlayStation units, Dual Shock controllers, and a selection of PlayStation 2 games that use Immersion's technology.[citation needed] [edit]VAIO Main article: VAIO

Sony offers a line up laptops branded as VAIO. Previously Sony has disabled hardware virtualization on their high end VAIO laptops, citing concern for users running malicious code.[26] However, most new VAIO laptops can utilize virtualization.[27] [edit]Laptop batteries dysfunction In April 2006, a Sony laptop battery exploded in Japan and caught fire. A Japanese couple in Tokyo sued both Sony and Apple Japan for over 2 million (US$16,700) regarding the incident. The suit argues that the man suffered burns on his finger when the battery burst into flames while being used, and his wife had to be treated for mental distress due to the incident.[28] On 14 August 2006, Sony and Dell admitted to major flaws in several Sony batteries that could result in the battery overheating and catching fire. As a result they recalled over 4.1 million laptop batteries in the largest computerrelated recall to that point in history. The cost of this recall was shared between Dell and Sony. Dell also confirmed

that one of its laptops caught fire in Illinois.[29][30]This recall also prompted Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to order the companies to investigate the troubles with the batteries. The ministry said that Sony must have reported on their findings and drawn up a plan to prevent future problems by the end of August, or face a fine under consumer safety laws.[31] On 23 September 2006, Sony announced its investigation[32] of a LenovoThinkPad T43 laptop which overheated and caught fire in the Los Angeles International Airport on 16 September, an incident that was confirmed by Lenovo. On 28 September 2006, Sony announced a global battery exchange program in response to growing consumer concerns.[33] Acer, Apple Computer, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, andToshiba all recalled Sony laptop batteries.[34] It was also reported that Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Hitachi were considering the possibility of seeking compensation from Sony over the battery recalls.[35] A Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, reported that Sony was aware of faults in its notebook PC batteries in December 2005 but failed to fully study the problem.[36][37] [edit]Sony

Pictures Entertainment

In July 2000, a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation created a fictitious film critic, David Manning, who gave consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Picturesthat generally received poor reviews amongst real critics.[38] When the scandal was revealed, Sony apologised to Ridgefield Press, the newspaper Manning was claimed to be from. Sony claimed it was unaware of the marketing ploy, and pulled the ads and suspended Manning's creator and his supervisor. In 2003, Sony paid the state of Connecticut $325,000 in fines following the Connecticut Attorney General's investigation into Sony's alleged fraudulent marketing practices.[39] In August 2005, Sony finalized a settlement to pay $1.5m to fans who saw the reviewed films in the US.[40] In 2006 Sony started using ARccOS Protection on some of their film DVDs, which caused compatibility problems with some DVD players including models manufactured by Sony. After complaints, Sony was forced to issue a recall.[41] [edit]Sony

BMG

Main article: Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal

In October 2005, it was revealed by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals that Sony BMG's music CDs had installed a rootkit on the user's computer as a DRM measure (called Extended Copy Protectionby its creator, British company First 4 Internet), which was difficult to detect or remove.[42] This constitutes a crime in many countries, and poses a major security risk to affected users. The uninstaller Sony initially provided removed the rootkit, but in turn installed a dial-home program that posed an even greater security risk. Sony eventually provided an actual uninstaller that removed all of Sony's DRM program from the user's computer. Sony BMG faced several class action lawsuits regarding this matter.[43] On 31 January 2007, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a news releaseannouncing that Sony BMG had agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that Sony BMG committed several offenses

against United States federal law. This settlement required that Sony BMG allow consumers to exchange the CDs through 30 June 2007, and to reimburse consumers for up to $150 for the repair of damage to their computers that they may have incurred while removing the software. In September 2009 Sony had its Mexican office raided by police to recover over 6000 CDs, masters and artwork, by the popular Latin American artist Alejandro Fernndez. Fernndez's lawyers claimed that Sony was in breach of contract as Fernndez had been contracted to Sony for seven albums and the recordings were an eighth album made after the contract had expired.[44] [edit]Digital

photography

Sony offers a range of digital cameras, ranging from point-and-shoot models to digital SLRs. Initially, in October 2005, it was reported by Sony that there were problems with the charge-coupled devices (CCD) in 20 models of digital still cameras. The problems can prevent the cameras from taking clear pictures, and in some cases, possibly prevent a picture being taken at all. In late November 2006, the recall was broadened to eight additional models of digital cameras sold between 2003 and 2005. The problem appears to manifest itself mostly when the camera is used in areas with hot weather. The eight models affected are the following: DSC-F88, DSC-M1, DSC-T1, DSC-T11, DSC-T3, DSC-T33, DSC-U40 and DSC-U50. Sony indicated that they would repair or replace the affected camera at no charge. Since Sony is one of the largest producers of CCD chips, this recall may affect other manufacturers and models of cameras, possibly as many as 100 models or more. Other manufacturers of digital cameras, including Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus or Fuji have indicated they will replace faulty CCDs in their respective models of cameras if necessary.[45] [edit]Corporate

information

Sony's current CEO, president and chairman SirHoward Stringer

On 22 June 2005, Nobuyuki Idei stepped down as Sony Corp. Chairman and Group CEO and was replaced by Howard Stringer, then Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation of America, Corporate Executive Officer, Vice Chairman and COO Sony Entertainment Business Group. Sony's decision to replace Idei with the BritishHoward Stringer marked the first time that a foreigner has run a major Japanese electronics firm. On the same date, Kunitake Ando stepped down as President and was replaced by Ryoji Chubachi.[46] Sony's former slogans were "It's a Sony", "like.no.other" and its current slogan is "make.believe". [edit]Mergers,

acquisitions, and joint ventures

This section requires expansion.

Further information: List of acquisitions by Sony Corporation [edit]Regional

manufacturing and distribution

Slightly more than 50% of the electronics' segment's total annual production during the fiscal year 2005 took place in Japan, including the production of digital cameras, video cameras, flat panel televisions, personal computers, semiconductors and components such as batteries and Memory Sticks. Approximately 65% of the annual production in Japan was destined for other regions. China accounted for slightly more than 10% of total annual production, approximately 70% of which was destined for other regions. Asia, excluding Japan and China, accounted for slightly more than 10% of total annual production with approximately 60% destined for Japan, the US and the EU. The Americas and Europe together accounted for the remaining slightly less than 25% of total annual production, most of which was destined for local distribution and sale.[47] Sony's Sales and Distribution by Geographical Regions in 2009[48] Geographic Region Japan Total Sales (yen in millions) 1,873,219

United States 2,512,345 Europe Other Area 2,307,658 2,041,270

On 9 December 2008, Sony Corp. said it will cut 8,000 jobs, drop 8,000 contractors and reduce its global manufacturing sites by 10% to save $1.1 billion a year.[49] [edit]Finance

and Revenue

In May 2011, Sony expected to lose a total of 260 billion yen ($3.2 billion) for the year, due to the effects of the

Japanese earthquake. The forecast of a $3.2 billion loss was quite different than its earlier projection of a profit of 70 billion yen ($857 million) for the year.[50] [edit]Environmental

record

In October 2010, Sony was ranked 6th (jointly with Panasonic and Motorola) in Greenpeaces Guide to Greener Electronics that assesses the policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change of 18 leading electronics manufacturers.[51] Number of Sonys models on the market are partially free of PVC and BFRs, including all models of the VAIO PC, and many models of video recorder, Walkman, camcorder and digital camera.[52] The company has committed to removing PVC in all new models of mobile products (excluding accessories), and BFRs in the casing and main PWBs of all new models of mobile products by April 2011. However for the improvement in its ranking it still needs to set a timeline for eliminating all phthalates, beryllium copper and antimony and its compounds.[52] Sony publishes on its website a list of products, for which the company had (as of February 2010) or intended to replace PVC and BFR with alternative substances by the end of FY 2010 (April 2011), nevertheless as of January 2011 the list does not identify which products are fulfilling these criteria at the moment.[53] [edit]Improvement

efforts

Since 1976, Sony has had an Environmental Conference.[54] Sony's policies address their effects on global warming, the environment, and resources. They are taking steps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that they put out as well as regulating the products they get from their suppliers in a process that they call "green procurement".
[55]

Sony has said that they have signed on to have about 75 percent of their Sony Building running on geothermal

power. The "Sony Take Back Recycling Program" allows consumers to recycle the electronics products that they buy from Sony by taking them to eCycle (Recycling) drop-off points around the U.S. The company has also developed a biobattery that runs on sugars and carbohydrates that works similarly to the way living creatures work. This is the most powerful small biobattery to date.[56] [edit]Green

TV

For sale in Japan on 30 July 2008, Sony's green product, new flat-panel 32-inch (810 mm) TV 150,000 yen (US$ 1,400; 900) Bravia KDL-32JE1 offers ecological consumers advantages of less energy consumption (70% less) than regular models with the same image quality. Sony was able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions totaling 79 kilograms (174 pounds) a year, without sacrificing quality by developing a brighter back light and better filtering, which produces light more efficiently. The TVs will have liquid crystal displays along with high-definition digital broadcast capabilities.[57][58][59]

[edit]Criticism In 2000, Sony was ridiculed for a document entitled "NGO Strategy" that was leaked to the press. The document involved the company's surveillance of environmental activists in an attempt to plan how to counter their movements. It specifically mentioned environmental groups that were trying to pass laws that held electronics-producing companies responsible for the clean up of the toxic chemicals contained in their merchandise.[60] In early July 2007, Sony ranked 14th on the Greenpeace chart "Guide to Greener Electronics." This chart graded major electronics companies on their environmental work. Sony fell from its earlier 11th place ranking due to Greenpeace's claims that Sony had double standards in their waste policies.[61] [edit]Controversy

and cyber attacks

On 11 January 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) filed suit against George Hotz for publishing a technique for hacking the PlayStation 3 to allow it to run alternative operating systems. The case, Sony Computer Entertainment America v. George Hotz, attracted much negative publicity among hackers and on the Internet at large. On or about 4 April 2011, adherents of the Anonymousmovement declared in an open letter[62] that they were directing their hostile "undivided attention" against Sony, largely in response to the Hotz case.[63] On 21 April 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment was subjected to distributed denial of service attacks, apparently in retaliation for its case against Hotz.[64][65] On April 26 Sony announced that thePlayStation Network (PSN) had been attacked, allegedly resulting in the theft of the personal information of 77 million account holders. It seems that the attack took place between April 17 and 19.[66]Sony blamed Anonymous for the attack,[67] although at least some Anonymous members denied responsibility.[68] Sony decided to shut down the PlayStation Network "indefinitely" following the attack,[69] although it returned to service on 14 May, following a 26 day outage.[70] Sony was criticized for waiting 6 days after the 21 April attack to disclose the breach to users who may have been impacted,[71] and for storing information including credit card numbers, passwords, and security questions, without sufficient encryption.[72] The company now faces a class action lawsuit seeking redress for PlayStation Network users.
[73]

A subsequent lawsuit[74] between Sonys insurers sought declaratory action for clarification of their responsibilities

listed under the individual policies they had written for Sony. The insurers facing litigation are Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, AIG, and ACE Ltd.[75] On 5 May, Sony released a letter from chairman Sir Howard Stringer, directed at PSN and Qriocity Music Service users, announcing plans for a program which includes a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user.[76] Australia has called for a ban on PSN until Sony can prove network security,[77] while Japan is the first country to place an outright ban on the service.[78] On 25 May, Sony announced that its Sony Ericsson website in Canada and the Sony Music Entertainment website in Greece had been compromised, putting the personal information of more than 10,000 users at risk.[79] Security consultant Phil Lieberman said Sony's approach to customers that wanted to modify PlayStation 3 software, including

the decision to sue Hotz, was a fatal mistake. "Telling them to bring it on is not the best strategy. I think Sony is beginning to understand it horribly underinvested in security," Lieberman said.[80][81] On 29 May 2011, a group called Lulz Securityannounced[82] a campaign against Sony, using language emblematic of the Anonymous movement. On 2 June 2011, Sony Pictures Entertainment was the subject of an attack, disclosing 1 million user passwords, which were then distributed via BitTorrent.[83]

Indian Television Brands

Chinese Television Brands

Korean Television Brands

Japanese Television Brands

Other Country brands

Taiwan - Holland - USA Now that we know the brand names (and have added to the confusion) it is time to decide which brand is the best and worth your hard earned money. If only there were a precise answer for this question ! In our opinion a lot of factors go into the decision making process:

Price Reputation of the company Model Diversity (i.e. closest match to your requirements) After sales service Word of mouth from friends and colleagues

If you feel there are more factors apart from the ones listed above, feel free to comment. We will have a part 2 to this post where we cover some other technical factors which have to be looked into before buying a television. Our take on the whole thing is, do not get carried away by advertisements, word of mouth or massive discounts. There is usually a pitfall in all of these.

Also, do not completely rely on the showroom salesmen. Their knowledge may be limited or biased to a specific brand. More tomorrow. happy weekend.

Ting Ting Ting Project time !! HHhhhh. BORING ! This is what most of our budding software professionals think. Its sad but its true. They are so horrified just by the idea of working on the project that they are even ready to buy one from the market and just show it to their faculty members. Which is the most crooked thing one can do to himself / herself. Engineering as a whole and software engineering in particular are so simple and interesting that anyone would fall in love with them.You all feel that these things are difficult just because you have no knowledge about how simple they are! They are actually not difficult, its just that you dont have an understanding about how simple they are. There are many different pieces which have to be brought together for building a CAREER ! And i wish to help you all in building an understanding about what all is needed through my blog posts and my LONG speeches during my training sessions ! Click here to download sample project synopsis (PDF Format). Click here to download sample project synopsis ( .docx format, Office 2007 ) Click here to download sample project synopsis ( .doc format, Office 97 2003 ) In this post lets try and understand what a project synopsis is, whats its purpose and what all things you should include in your project synopsis. Also you can download a sample project synopsis attached with this blog post. Lets see what all things should be present in your project synopsis. Summary of what you need to include in your project synopsis : Project title Team details Aim / Objective Technologies used Module Introduction (Post Management) Module Introduction ( Comments management) Module Introduction ( Admin Module) Current status of project development Target audience Market potential and expected popularity All the above points are discussed and explained below :

Project title :
Name your project, provide it such a title that the intent of your project is clear. Refer to your project by this title in all your conversations about your project. Providing a title to your project helps your team develop a bonding with the idea they are working on.

Team details:
Next in your project synopsis you should mention the size of your team and provide a brief about what the roles and responsibilities of each team member are. Think of a project synopsis as a project proposal cum estimate you are giving to a client. The client would be paying for your work and he would obviously be interested in knowing how big is the team that will work on his stuff and for what all things is he paying ! If you provide a small section in your synopsis discussing about your team, it will help the client / faculty member understand and appreciate that the team size you chose is actually required. A sample of what you can write in this section is as follows : Team details: Total team strength: 5 Total number of modules: 4

The team would be divided to work on each module. Each of the team members will play separate roles during the development of their modules. They would acts as leads, team members and QA person for different sections of the module. Once they code their modules they will be responsible as a team in performing integration with other modules developed in parallel by other teams. During this process they will be performing integration testing to make sure that all the modules get plugged in properly. After the integration is performed successfully the complete team as a whole would be responsible for deploying the system on UAT server , staging server and finally on the production server. At each step of deployment a regression testing phase will be undertaken to make sure that the functionality is working properly.

Aim / Objective
This section describes the motive behind development of your project. It should clearly define what your project is and what you intent to achieve by developing this project. A sample aim / object would be as follows : Aim / Objective Open source asp.net MVC blog engine would be used by individuals, companies or any other entity for hosting their blogs. It would provide full functionality that is required in a good blog website. Anybody using this blog engine would be able to post his / her blogs, receive and reply to comments, add / remove categories, enable / disable comments, add / remove users etc. This blog engine will have a complete admin panel which will beavailable to users in admin role. They can login to the admin section and change the settings from the project.

Technologies Used ( Technology stack )

What do i mean by technology stack ? Well a technology stack is the complete set of technologies required for the completion of a project. Projects are not completed by using just one technology. We often use more than one technologies during our project work. So this section should mention a list of all technologies that you plan to use in your project. A sample of a technology stack would be : Technologies used : This project will be using the following technology stack: a) Asp.net MVC b) C# c) LINQ d) WCF e) JQuery

Module Information :
Next in your synopsis you should discuss the modules which shall form a part of your project. The intent of this section is to provide information about what all each module will accomplish in brief ! Just put all the functionality each module is supposed to do in bullet points, not need to explain each point. For example if i have an admin module in my project, i shall summarize that module as follows : Module Introduction ( Admin Module) This blog application has a complete admin panel for performing administration. The main administration is done for user management, role allocation, determining what permissions to be given to which role etc. Following are the features that would be included in this module 1) Manager blog user. 2) Manage user roles. User management would be done using asp.net membership profiles. 3) Assigning permissions to each roles. This would decide what that role can do. 4) Managing styles and themes for the blog. The user would be able to change the look and feel of the blog using this feature. 5) Add / remove categories for posts.

6) Managing user profiles. 7) Password management 8 ) Each of the steps above would have an email sent to the user and the admin to inform them about the changes and also to ask for their approval if required.

Current status of project development :

Mention the current status of your project development in this section. If you are starting your project from then very beginning then mention that your project is in the planning stage and you are about to start with the development efforts. In case you already have a project which is in a semi completed state, then mention the current state of your project and quantify the amount of work that has already been done in your project and the amount of work you shall be doing to complete it. It is very much possible that you get a project from your seniors ( or from another company ) and are carrying forward this project. This section will help your supervisor understand the effort you shall be putting towards completing your project.

Target audience :
Mention the target audience over here, the section of people for whom this project is being developed, or the section of people to whom this project will be beneficial. For example a sampletarget audience content would be: Target audience This project would be of useful to anybody interested in hosting his / her individual blog. Also this will be used for hosting blogs in a company where there will be multiple users using this blog and managing their profiles. This is an open source project so the users can at anytime modify the code as per their priorities. They would be able to share their posts with the world using RSS feeds and also categorize their posts as per their liking.

Market Potential :
Provide a brief description about what potential your project has if launched in the market. What are its acceptance chances and expected popularity in case your project is launched in market. Sample content that can be put in this section is : Market potential and expected popularity As this is an open source project the market potential for it makes no sense. There are no financial motivations behind building this project. The main motivation is experimentation and developing a world class piece of software. On the flip side the popularity of this project is expected to be huge. We expect that the number of downloads of this project would surpass 1000 in the very first year. Then with more addition in functionality the popularity of this project is expected to raise more.