Sanyo
Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. more...
三洋電機株式会社 San'yō Denki Kabushiki Gaisha) TYO: 6764 , NASDAQ: SANYY is a Japanese electronics company whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan targeting the middle of the market, and whose Tokyo plant is located in Oizumi, Gunma prefecture, Japan.
Sanyo was founded by Toshio Iue (井植 歳男 Iue Toshio, 1902 - 1969), a former Matsushita employee, in 1947 and was incorporated in 1950. The company's name means three oceans in Japanese, referring to the founder's ambition to sell their products worldwide, across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
History
Sanyo got its start as a manufacturer of bicycle lamps. In 1952 they made Japan's first plastic radio and in 1954 they made Japan's first pulsator-type washing machine.
Samsung Japan was originally launched in 1969 as Samsung-Sanyo Electronics.
Technologically Sanyo has had good ties with Sony, supporting the Betamax video format from invention until the mid 1980's (the best selling video recording in the UK in 1983 was the Sanyo VTC5000), and later being an early adopter of the highly successful Video8 camcorder format. Lately Sanyo and Sony have seemingly had a technological falling out, with Sanyo backing HD-DVD and Sony backing their Blu-ray Disc, as of 2005 this format battle has not been resolved.
Sanyo also manufactures cellular phones exclusively for Sprint-Nextel corporation's Sprint PCS brand. Sanyo has received the J.D. Power and Associates award for having the highest overall satisfaction out of 8 of the most popular mobile phone manufacturers three years in a row. However, in 2005 Sanyo tied with LG for the number one spot.
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