Panasonic Corporation , previously called Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. , is a multinational company from Japan. It has its headquarters in Kadoma city of the Osaka region in Japan. Its primary business is manufacturing of electronic gadgets and it produces a number of products under various names including Technics and Panasonic.
History and Achievements:
Panasonic Corporation was founded in 1918 by famous Japanese industrialist, Konosuke Matsushita. Initially it sold duplex lamp sockets. In 1927, it started creating lamps for bicycles. This was the first product marketed by Panasonic Corp. under the brand name National. It had factories within Japan and also in other places in Asia throughout World War II, producing electrical machinery and appliances like motors, light fixtures and electric irons. Panasonic managed to take advantage of the post war boom and started producing and supplying many devices like radios and bicycles.
Since its origin in 1918, it developed to become the biggest electronic gadgets producer in Japan. Apart from electronic gadgets, Panasonic is also into non-electronic products and services like house renovation services. Forbes Global 2000 ranked Panasonic as the 89th-largest company in the world in 2009.
In the early 1960s, Matsushita came to the United States, to have a discussion with American dealers. After this Panasonic started mass production of TV sets for the US. This was the first time that the name Panasonic was used. After its initial success in the US, Panasonic moved to Europe in the late 1970s. Sure enough, within a span of 20 years, Panasonic was widely recognized as a reliable company which sold quality products. All through the 70s and 80s, Panasonic produced excellent electronic gadgets including CD players and stereo receivers. The most famous product sold by Panasonic was the SL-1200 record player which was well known for its excellent performance, durability and precision.
In recent times, Panasonic has been highly involved in the production of high density optical discs, intending to replace the SD memory cards and DVDs.
In December, 2009, Panasonic Corporation took over its long time rival company, Sanyo for $4.5 billion. Most of the employees of Sanyo were retained as a subsidiary.
Audio related products produced by Panasonic Corporation:
Panasonic is one of the leading producers in the field of digital audio players. It produces a vast quantity of high quality CD, DVD and BD players. It also produces the famous Panasonic RS-790S Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder. It also produces other non-audio products like LCD TV sets, digital cameras and video gaming consoles as well as other unbranded products like the audio players for leading automobile companies and BL-5C phone batteries for leading cell phone manufacturer Nokia.