Sony Corporation (commonly referred to as Sony) is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world’s largest media conglomerates with revenue exceeding ￥ 7730 trillion, or $78.88 billion US (FY2008). Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video game consoles, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its name is derived from sonus，the Latin word for sound.
新力公司（一般指索尼）是一家跨国企业，总部设在日本东京 的佐渡市，是全球最大的媒体公司之一。年收益高达7.73万亿元人民 币，约合788.8亿美元(2008财政年度数据)。索尼是众多制造领域的 领军人物，其生产的产品包括电子产品、录像、通讯、视频游戏机和信 息技术产品。他们生产的产品即供应普通消费者又满足专业人士需 要。该公司的名字是从拉丁字母“sonus”演化而来,意思是“声音”。
Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its five operating segments-electronics, games, entertainment (motion pictures and music), financial services and other. 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 US), 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 company’s slogan is make believe.
索尼公司是一家电子企业并且是索尼株式会社的总公司。该公 司的业务横跨5大领域——电子、游戏、娱乐（电影和音乐）、金融服 务及其他。这些使得索尼成为全球业务最全面的娱乐公司之一。索 尼的主要机构包括索尼公司（在美国被称为索尼电子）、索尼影音 娱乐公司、索尼电脑娱乐公司、索尼音乐娱乐公司、索尼爱立信和 索尼金融。做为一个生产半导体的公司’索尼位列全球半导体销售 前20强。这家公司的口号是“梦想成真”。
In 1945，after World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop in a bombed-out 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.,which translates in English to Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. The company built Japan’s first tape recorder called the Type-G.
1945年二战结束后，井深大在东京被废弃的白木屋百货开设 了一家录音机维修店。次年，他的大学同学盛田昭夫加盟并创立了 Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K.,英语名为东京通信工业社。这家公 司制造了日本的第一台录音机——Type-G。
In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs’ invention of the transistor. 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 and Texas Instruments built the first transistor radios, it was Ibuka’s company that made them commercially successful for the first time. In August 1955，Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering released the Sony TR-55, Japan’s first commercially produced transistor radio.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 1968 Sony introduced the rinitron brand name for its line of aperture grille cathode ray tube televisions and (later) computer monitors. Trinitron displays are still produced, but only for markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and China. Sony discontinued the last Trinitron-based television set in the USA spring of 2007. Trinitron computer monitors were discontinued in 2005.
上世纪50年代早期，井深大再去美国时听闻贝尔实验室发明 了晶体管。于是他说服贝尔将晶体管技术授权给他的公司。与此同时，大部分美国公司在研究开发晶体管在军事上的运用，井深大和盛田昭夫则将注意力放在其在 通讯上的运用。尽管美国的Regency和德州仪器公司制造了第一台晶体管收音机,但井深大的公 司第一次使晶体管收音机获得商业成功。1955年8月，东京通信工业社发表了索尼TR - 55，这是日 本的第一台用于销售的晶体管收音机。他们紧接着在同年12月发表了 TR-72,该产品在国内外市 场都广受欢迎，包括在加拿大、澳大利亚、荷兰和德国等地。该产品特点是拥有6个晶体管、推挽 式输出和大幅改善的音质,这使得TR-72—直流行到60年代早期。1968年索尼引进了 Trinitron品 牌,用于命名其荫栅显象管电视及之后的电脑显示屏生产线。Trinitron显示屏仍在生产，不过只针对 巴基斯坦、孟加拉国、印度和中国市场-2007年春天，索尼终止了在美国的以Trinitron技术为基础的 电视机的生产项目.Trinitron电脑主机也于2005年停产。
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. Sony has made updates to the Memory Stick format with Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Mic.
1998年索尼发布了他们的记忆卡格式，适用于索尼生产的数码相机和随身音乐播放器的闪存 式存储卡。这种记忆卡一般不支持索尼之外的其他产品，而适用于其他产品的SD卡应用则更为广 泛。索尼将记忆卡格式更新为MSD和MSM两种。
On June 22, 2005, Nobuyuki Idei stepped down as Sony Corp.Chairman and GroupCEOand was replaced by Howard Stringer, then Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporationof America,Corporate Executive Officer, Vice Chairman and COO Sony Entertainment Business Group.
2005年6月22日井出信幸离职，由当时索尼美国公司的总裁及董事,COO索尼娱乐商务公司的 副总裁霍华德?斯特林格接替其出任社长。