Aiwa

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Aiwa (アイワ, Aiwa^?) was a Japanese consumer electronics company, founded in 1951. It experienced considerable success in the 1970s and 1980s producing audio and video equipment that was sold around the world. Aiwa had a number of electronics 'firsts' including: Japan's first cassette tape recorder, Japan's first stereo cassette deck, the first company to manufacture digital audio tape (DAT) products, the first to market a recording headphone stereo, and leading in mini systems.

During the 1990s the market for Aiwa's core products, stereo HiFi systems and analogue radios, saw considerable competition, softening prices and slack demand. Aiwa became a volume producer competing on price and gradually reduced its spending on research and development of new products. When the digital revolution began in the late 1990s Aiwa was ill-equipped to provide the products that consumers desired.

As a result, the Corporation slid inexorably towards bankruptcy until it was saved by its old rival, Sony Corporation. As of October 1, 2002, Aiwa ceased to be a separate company and became a wholly owned division of Sony Corporation.

Sony's reasoning for acquiring the company is unclear, other than that it was already a shareholder in Aiwa Corporation. However Aiwa has been good for an exorbitant tax refund in Japan for FY2002. This polished up the dropping figures in Sony's financial report for FY 2002/2003. In January 2003 Sony announced the rebranding and relaunch of Aiwa as a "youth focussed, PC-Centric" electronics brand. A new logo was presented to the world's media along with a statement of Sony's intention to invest in and "revitalize" the Aiwa brand. The direction proposed was to capitalize on the growing trend among PC-literate teenagers and young adults to use their PCs for all forms of entertainment (TV, films, music, chat), an area in which Sony itself was struggling primarily due to the heavy copyright protections it imposed upon its products.

Unfortunately, the new Aiwa products that came to market in 2003 were necessarily rushed and poorly implemented. Sales were poor. Also, the brand strength of Aiwa was primarily concentrated in the 30-60 year old market and lacked credibility with the 13-25 year old target market. In 2004 a range of personal MP3 players and USB-connective HiFi systems were launched, including the world's smallest and lightest Hard Disk audio device, intended to rival the Apple iPod. However, success was limited and many of these products received negative press reviews. As a result Aiwa's global sales were disastrous and somewhat embarrassing for Sony.

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