is a

consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...

brand owned and used by various companies in different regions of the world. American and other regions are owned by

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

-based Aiwa Corporation.

Towada Audio Towada Audio Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of radio, television broadcasting and communications equipment headquartered in Kosaka, Akita. Sony models manufactured by Towada Audio ICF-801* ICF-SW7600GR * ICF-SW77 XC-75 Gallery Image:SONY ...

based in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

owns the rights to the brand in Japan and other countries, and has been manufacturing Aiwa-branded products since 2017. In Mexico and other countries in Latin America, the rights are owned by Audio Mobile Americas, S.A. Aiwa was founded in 1951 and was once a globally well-regarded brand known for making quality audio products such as speakers,

boombox A boombox is a transistorized portable music player featuring one or two cassette tape recorder/players and AM/FM radio, generally with a carrying handle. Beginning in the mid 1980s, a CD player was often included. Sound is delivered throu ...

es and

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

systems. It was the market leader in several product categories. Aiwa created the first Japanese cassette tape recorder in 1964. The company was listed on the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed ...

from October 1961 until September 2003. The company became unprofitable in the late 1990s, and was fully bought by

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

in 2003. Aiwa was then rebranded as a new youth-focused division of Sony, but it was unsuccessful and the brand was discontinued by 2006. In 2015, an American audio company known as Hale Devices, Inc. was granted the rights to the brand name, with the company renaming itself Aiwa Corporation under which it produces audio equipment.

History

The company was founded on June 20, 1951, as AIKO Denki Sangyo Co., Ltd., manufacturing

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publ ...

s, and changed its name to , on March 10, 1959. Mitsuo Ikejiri served as president until 1969. The company was a leading manufacturer of audio products, including headphone stereos, minicomponent stereo systems, portable stereo systems, minidisc players, CD and cassette players, and car stereo systems throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Nearly 86 percent of company revenues were derived from such audio products. 12 percent came from products such as televisions and VCRs, and the remaining two percent from computer peripherals and other life products. Aiwa marketed Japan's first boombox, the TPR-101, in 1968, as well as the first cassette deck, TP-1009. In 1980, Aiwa created the world's first personal stereo recorder, TP-S30. Despite Sony being the major shareholder, healthy competition between the two brands was believed to be profitable. In 1990, Aiwa created the HP-J7 earbuds, designed to be vertically inserted into the ear. In 1993, the first

CD+G CD+G (also known as CD-G, CD+Graphics and TV-Graphics) is an extension of the compact disc standard that can present low-resolution graphics alongside the audio data on the disc when played on a compatible device. CD+G discs are often used for ...

-compatible portable CD player, the XP-80G, was made. Apart from audio products, Aiwa also has been present in other industries. The company also made and sold video products such as VCRs, color televisions, DVD players, and digital satellite television tuners. Aiwa was also involved in the production of computer peripheral devices, such as modems, terminal adapters, and speakers, and what the company termed "life amenity products," such as air cleaners and humidifiers. In 1995, it released a PHS mobile phone, called the PT-H50, which was made for the

DDI Pocket Y!mobile is a Japanese mobile phone operator. Y!mobile is a brand used by SoftBank Corp., a subsidiary of Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Group Corporation, that provides mobile telecommunications and ADSL services. The current CEO ...

network in Japan. That same year, an

electric toothbrush An electric toothbrush is a toothbrush that makes rapid automatic bristle motions, either back-and-forth oscillation or rotation-oscillation (where the brush head alternates clockwise and counterclockwise rotation), in order to clean teeth. Moti ...

, the HA-C10, was released. Aiwa manufactured more than 89 percent of its output outside Japan, with a heavy emphasis on the lower-cost southeast Asian nations of Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The company was also heavily dependent on overseas sales, with more than 80 percent of total revenues being generated outside Japan, with 43 percent in North and South America, 25 percent in Europe, and 13 percent in areas of Asia outside Japan and in other regions. Although not then officially an affiliated company of consumer electronics giant

Sony Corporation , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

, by 1982, Sony had a 54.6% stake in the company, effectively giving it a majority control. With growing competition throughout the late 1990s, the company slid towards bankruptcy. In March 2001, the company's president, Masayoshi Morimoto, announced the halving of its workforce, following a second consecutive loss–making year.

Acquisition by Sony

The troubled company was then fully purchased by Sony Corporation. As of December 31, 2003, Aiwa ceased to be a separate company and became a wholly owned division of Sony. In January 2004, Sony announced the

rebranding Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investo ...

and relaunch of Aiwa as a "youth focused, 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 personal-computer-literate teenagers and young adults to use their PCs for all forms of entertainment (television, films, music, chat). It was also used to expand in markets where Sony is not as strong. However the new direction of Aiwa under Sony did not meet consumer and sales expectations. On January 21, 2005, new product development ended, and by 2006
Aiwa products
were discontinued and no longer sold in the market. Sony announced the termination of the brand entirely on May 14, 2008. As of January 2014, the Aiwa website still existed to provide customer-support telephone numbers for some territories and regions, but it also contained many broken links and blank pages. In other regions, such as Europe, it redirected to a page on the Sony website stating that the Aiwa website had closed.

Aiwa Co., Ltd. (2017–)

On April 11, 2017, Japanese audio equipment manufacturer

announced that it acquired the Aiwa brand rights from Sony and would produce Aiwa-branded audio and record player products. In 2021, Aiwa partnered with 5,000 retailers in India to relaunch in the country.

Aiwa Corporation (Chicago, USA)

From a public statement released by Aiwa Co., Ltd (Tokyo, Japan), "Aiwa Corporation (Chicago, USA) are in not in any way related to us, Aiwa Co., Ltd (Tokyo, Japan) or Aiwa Japan since 1951 to date".

Products

Products of ''Aiwa'' include

music centre A music centre (or center), also known as a music complex, is a type of integrated audio system for home use, used to play from a variety of media. The term is usually used for lower end or sub- high fidelity equipment. In American English, th ...

s, Hi-Fi,

compact disc player A CD player is an electronic device that plays audio compact discs, which are a digital optical disc data storage format. CD players were first sold to consumers in 1982. CDs typically contain recordings of audio material such as music or audio ...

radios and

portable CD player A portable CD player is a portable audio player used to play compact discs. The first audio player released was the Discman D-50 by Sony.Lungu, R"History of the Portable Audio Player." 2008-11-27. Features The basic features of a portable CD ...

s. ''Aiwa'' is currently also making

home appliance A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation. Appliances are divided into three ...

s, including

air conditioner Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

refrigerator A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...

s and

washing machine A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...

s. HS-P06 stereo cassette players debuted in 1984. Shipped with TU-01 FM/AM Stereo Tuner Pack Aiwa's portable CD players are equipped with a so-called ''E.A.S.S. G.P.'' (''Electronic Anti-Shock System'') feature with the aim of allowing smooth, skip-free

Audio CD Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named ...

playback despite of damaged media and external shaking.

Logos

The first logo of the company contained ''AIWA'' in capital letters, in use until 1991. The second logo changed the font to a

lowercase Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

one, as ''aiwa''. In 2004, after the acquisition by Sony, the logo was rebranded as part of Sony's efforts to 'revitalize' the brand, and was in use until the brand's retirement in 2006. Since the brand's resurrection in 2015, the second (1991–2003) logo is back in use. All logos were colored red.

Gallery

AIWA CA-W30 Dual Cassette With Equalizer Boombox.jpg, AIWA CA-W30 dual cassette boombox Aiwa MINIDISC PLAYER AM-HX55.JPG, Aiwa AM-XH55

MiniDisc MiniDisc (MD) is an erasable magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 60, 74, and later, 80 minutes of digitized audio. Sony announced the MiniDisc in September 1992 and released it in November of that year fo ...

player Radio AIWA.jpg, AIWA AR-888 AM receiver AIWA CSD-ES100 Compact Disc Stereo Radio Cassette Recorder.jpg, Aiwa CSD-ES100 compact CD/radio/cassette recorder AIWA AD WX 333.jpg, AIWA AD WX 333 cassette deck AIWA CD／MD MICRO COMPONENT XR-H330MD YEAR1999.JPG, Aiwa XR-H330 MD micro system (1999) Aiwa TV-A2017S and PlayStation 20090102.jpg, Aiwa TV-A2017S 21" television Aiwa S7000-130311-0004EC.jpg, Aiwa S7000 cassette recorder Micro Aiwa CM-S32.jpg, Aiwa CM-S32 microphone AIWA TPR-950 - 4 Band Radio Cassette Recorder.jpg, AIWA TPR-950 boombox Aiwa XR-FD55.jpg, Aiwa XR-FD55 micro system Vintage Aiwa 8 Transistor Radio, Model AR-852, Made in Japan (12352345425).jpg, AIWA AR-852 8-transistor radio Vintage Aiwa 10-Transistor Two-Band (AM-FM) Radio, Model AR-127. Made In Japan, Circa 1964 (12887691514).jpg, AIWA AR-127 10-transistor dual band radio (c. 1964) Vintage Aiwa Mark IV 10-Transistor Radio, Three Band (AM-FM-SW), Made In Japan (May Be Model AR-123) (12886883044).jpg, AIWA AR-123 10-transistor triple band radio Aiwa Sound GT - Right ear bud (Sold circa mid 90s).jpg, AIWA Sound GT earphone (c. 1990s) Stereo system.jpg, Aiwa stereo system アイワ MD-CDシステム CSD-MD3.JPG, Aiwa CSD-MD3 compact CD/cassette/radio/MiniDisc player 4th order bandpass.JPG, Aiwa loudspeaker enclosure Lettore CD per auto - Museo scienza tecnologia Milano 15004 06.jpg, Aiwa CDC-R176M car CD/radio receiver (c. mid-1990s) Aiwa XR-V10MD.jpg, Aiwa XR-V10MD micro system with MD/DVD support 151004-Aiwa-01.jpg, Aiwa TP-32A AIWA Micro Cassette Recorder.webm, Aiwa Micro Cassette Recorder, ca. 1990s (video)

References

External links

Aiwa Corporation (USA)

Aiwa Co., Ltd. (Japan)

Aiwa closure message

Aiwa India
{{portalbar, Companies, Electronics, Japan, Technology Japanese companies established in 1951 Audio equipment manufacturers of Japan Defunct consumer brands Defunct companies of Japan Japanese brands Manufacturing companies based in Chicago Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Japanese companies established in 2017 Electronics companies established in 1951 Electronics companies disestablished in 2002 Re-established companies Sony subsidiaries 2002 mergers and acquisitions Video equipment manufacturers