Kyocera
More info
- Creator
- Kazuo Inamori
- Released
- 1959
- Type
- Electronics and ceramics
- Website
- global.kyocera.com
Japanese conglomerate that started with ceramic chip packages and ended up with printers, phones and a founder who rescued an airline.
Kazuo Inamori founded Kyoto Ceramic in 1959 to make technical ceramic parts, and the company soon became a supplier of ceramic packages to American chipmakers. It spread outward from there: Kyocera bought copier maker Mita in 2000 and today sells office printers under the Ecosys name, driven by its own page description language, PRESCRIBE.
The same year it took over Qualcomm's handset business. The Kyocera VP-210 from 1999 is often cited as one of the first phones with a built-in camera — 110,000 pixels, intended for video calls rather than holiday snaps. Inamori also founded the carrier DDI, later KDDI, and in 2010 took over bankrupt Japan Airlines without drawing a salary.