have a look here
Akio Morita – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
much of their USP is due to the physical appearance and ergonomics of their kit. this certainly still carries through today, even to their mobile telephone equipment (Sony Ericsson) which at its best tends to make use of the best aspects of both the Japanese and Scandinavian form of engineering.
however if you are going to do a impartial project on Sony and not just parrot one of their sales releases its worth noting that their product quality plummeted towards the mid-late 90s (Asian financial crisis?).
my experience of Sony as an engineer is that they make innovative products but release them to market with often serious design faults, using the first loyal customers as unpaid testers – plus they do virtually everything possible to make their products incompatible with competitors’ goods, to the point I no longer purchase their equipment as a first choice.
