改變世界的12家公司

????8. 索尼公司

????二十世紀五十至八十年代，索尼公司（Sony ）從根本上重新定義了人類看待音頻和視頻產品的方式。雖然索尼公司不是第一臺半導體收音機的制造者，但在1957年，它推出了一款極為成功的產品，幫助推動了流行音樂的并發變革。索尼公司20世紀6、70年代生產的彩色電視機提高了全球的質量標準。1979年，索尼推出的隨身聽Walkman又一次徹底改變了人類聽音樂的方式；它預示了iPod的出現，顯然它本應誕生在索尼公司。然而，等到iPod出現的時候，索尼公司的命運發生了變化。除了變革行業外，索尼公司還幫助推動了一個國家的進步。二十世紀五六十年代，“日本制造”是代表品質低劣的警示信號。到二十世紀八十年代，它含義恰恰相反，而索尼產品是促成這個變化的最明顯的原因。—Geoff Colvin

????8. Sony

????The way the world thinks of audio and video products was fundamentally redirected by Sony SNE -1.17% from the 1950s through the 1980s. The company didn't make the first transistor radio, but in 1957 it introduced a hugely successful one that helped propel the concurrent revolution in popular music. Its color TV sets of the 1960s and 1970s raised the global standard for quality. The Walkman, introduced in 1979, again revolutionized the way the world listens to music; it foreshadowed the iPod, which Sony obviously should have invented. But by then its fortunes had changed. Beyond transforming an industry, Sony also helped advance its country. In the 1950s and 1960s, “Made in Japan” was a punchline that meant laughably poor quality. By the 1980s it meant the opposite, and Sony products were the most visible cause of the change. —Geoff Colvin