Description
Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony, died on October 3, 1999, in Tokyo from pneumonia at the age of 78. Morita founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo with Masaru Ibuka in 1946; the company later became Sony. In 1957, the company introduced a pocket transistor radio, and in 1958 Morita decided to rename the company Sony; the name was derived from the Latin “sonus” (“sound”) and the then-common American expression “sonny.” Morita strongly supported the company's development of new products. In 1979, Sony introduced the portable Walkman player, which fundamentally changed the way people around the world listened to music; by 2010, cumulative Walkman sales had reached approximately 400 million units.