Sony in 1989 bought CBS which got renamed to Sony Music Entertainment (SME) in 1991. This was the beginning of the end for Sony as an engineering pioneer. Walkman, CD -- completely gone from these markets, crushed by noname, at the time tiny rivals. But seriously, Apple in 2001 was basically nothing and yet they won the US market with the iPod, more or less. Sony was too busy DRMing its music to bring an MP3 player to the market. It was an astounding defeat.