‘The days of radio are over. The future lies in television,’ said Sony co-founder Masru Ibuka in the late 1950s. Having developed a successful line of transistor radios, the recently renamed Sony Corporation turned to the next development in post-war media electronics to produce a miniature transistor television. The idea for the transistor television required a completely different design approach. Whilst the transistors used in radios were suitable for low voltage and low current circuits, televisions required a higher voltage circuit and a vastly higher frequency than radios. When Sony succeeded in manufacturing the first portable transistor television in 1960, the TV8-301, they demonstrated the extraordinary ability of Japanese manufacturers to miniaturise technology in consumer products. Televisions no longer had to be static furniture in the user’s home.

In a magazine interview in early 1959, co-founder of Sony, Masru Ibuka stated that his dream for the coming year was the realisation of a transistorized television. He achieved this dream with the design and production of the TV8-301, the first non-projection type transistorized television, where a transistor was used instead of a vacuum tube, allowing the device to be small and portable. It was also the first Japanese TV to be sold in the United States and was included in the V&A/Boilerhouse exhibition (1982).