Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony and inventor of the Walkman portable music player, was born 94 years ago today. Morita was a true inventor, in the rare mold of Steve Jobs at Apple and Amar Bose, founder of Bose. His unique vision resulted in products that changed the world. His vision was unique. Sony’s decline as a great company began after Morita’s death. Morita was born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. His family was involved in sake, miso and soy sauce production in the village of Kosugaya (currently a part of Tokoname City) on the western coast of Chita Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture since 1665. He was the oldest of four siblings and his father Kyuzaemon trained him as a child to take over the family business. Akio, however, found his true calling in mathematics and physics and in 1944 he graduated from Osaka Imperial University with a degree in physics. He was later commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and served in World War II. During his service, Morita met his future business partner Masaru Ibuka in the Navys Wartime Research Committee. On May 7, 1946, Morita and Masaru Ibuka founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, the forerunner of Sony Corporation) with about 20 employees. Moritas family invested in Sony during the early period and was the largest shareholder. In 1949, the company developed magnetic recording tape and in 1950, sold the first tape recorder in Japan. In 1957, it produced a pocket-sized radio (the first to be fully transistorized), and in 1958, Morita and Ibuka decided to rename their company Sony (derived from sonus—Latin for sound.”) Since the early Sony radio was slightly too big to fit in a shirt pocket, Morita made his employees wear shirts with slightly larger pockets to give the radio a pocket sized appearance. In 1960, Sony produced the first transistor television in the world. In 1975, it released the first Betamax home video recorder, a year before VHS format came out. In 1979, the Walkman was introduced, making it the worlds first portable music player. In 1984, Sony launched the Discman series which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products. Morita moved his entire family to the United States in 1963 to learn American culture. He built a valuable network by continually socializing and giving parties during the week, a habit he maintained throughout his career. Morita followed art and music, and was a sports fanatic. In his 60s, he took up wind surfing and scuba diving and started skiing to ensure good exercise through the winter. He loved to water-ski and even crafted a water-resistant microphone on a handle, connected by a wire on the ski rope to a speaker on the boat so he could relay instructions to his wife, Yoshiko. To simply have a good time, he would invent and perfect products. The Walkman is just such an invention. Morita watched as his children and their friends played music from morning until night. He noticed people listening to music in their cars and carrying large stereos to the beach and the park. Sonys engineering department was generally opposed to the concept of a tape player without a recording function (it would be added later), but Morita would not be denied. He insisted on a product that sounded like a high-quality car stereo yet was portable and allowed the user to listen while doing something else — thus the name Walkman. It is this contrary vision lacking at Sony since Morita’s death. Morita suffered a stroke in 1993, during a game of tennis. On November 25, 1994, he stepped down as Sony chairman. On October 3, 1999, Morita died of pneumonia at the age of 78.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 06:59:20 +0000
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