Sony released the TR-55, its first transistor radio, but its focus was almost exclusively on the Japanese domestic market. True international success came with the more advanced TR-63 model in 1957. The first transistor radio, however, was the TR-1 from the American Regency Division of IDEA, in 1954, which sold 150,000 units. Sony had purchased a license to produce transistors thanks to the fact that Masaru Ibuka was on a business trip to the United States when Bell put them up for sale. Masaru Ibuka had a special mandate from the Japanese government to spend the $50,000 of the license. Which paid off handsomely…
