page_title: Philips
section_title: 1945–1999
hierarchical_section_title: Philips / History / 1945–1999
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Evoluon, Eindhoven, Provinz Nord-Brabant, Niederlande English: Evoluon, Eindhoven, Province of North Brabant, Netherlands
context_page_description: Koninklijke Philips N.V. is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Amsterdam, formerly one of the largest electronics companies in the world, currently focused in the area of health technology, with other divisions being successfully divested. It was founded in Eindhoven in 1891 by Gerard Philips and his father Frederik, with their first products being light bulbs. It currently employs around 74,000 people across 100 countries. The company gained its royal honorary title in 1998 and dropped the "Electronics" in its name in 2013, due to its refocusing from consumer electronics to healthcare technology.
  Philips is organized into three main divisions: Personal Health, Connected Care, and Diagnosis & Treatment. The lighting division was spun off as a separate company, Signify N.V. The company started making electric shavers in 1939 under the Philishave brand, and post-war they developed the Compact Cassette format and co-developed the Compact Disc format with Sony, as well as numerous other technologies. As of 2012, Philips was the largest manufacturer of lighting in the world as measured by applicable revenues.
context_section_description: After the war, the company was moved back to the Netherlands, with their headquarters in Eindhoven.
  In 1949, the company began selling television sets. In 1950, it formed Philips Records, which eventually formed part of PolyGram in 1962.
  Philips introduced the audio Compact Audio Cassette tape in 1963, and it was wildly successful. Compact cassettes were initially used for dictation machines for office typing stenographers and professional journalists. As their sound quality improved, cassettes would also be used to record sound and became the second mass media alongside vinyl records used to sell recorded music.
  Philips introduced the first combination portable radio and cassette recorder, which was marketed as the "radiorecorder", and is now better known as the boom box. Later, the cassette was used in telephone answering machines, including a special form of cassette where the tape was wound on an endless loop. The C-cassette was used as the first mass storage device for early personal computers in the 1970s and 1980s. Philips reduced the cassette size for professional needs with the Mini-Cassette, although it would not be as successful as the Olympus Microcassette.  This became the predominant dictation medium up to the advent of fully digital dictation machines. Philips continued with computers through the early 1990s (see separate article: Philips Computers).
  In 1972, Philips launched the world's first home video cassette recorder, in the UK, the N1500. Its relatively bulky video cassettes could record 30 minutes or 45 minutes. Later one-hour tapes were also offered. As competition came from Sony's Betamax and the VHS group of manufacturers, Philips introduced the N1700 system which allowed double-length recording. For the first time, a 2-hour movie could fit onto one video cassette.  In 1977, the company unveiled a special promotional film for this system in the UK, featuring comedy writer and presenter Denis Norden. The concept was quickly copied by the Japanese makers, whose tapes were significantly cheaper. Philips made one last attempt at a new standard for video recorders with the Video 2000 system, with tapes that could be used on both sides and had 8 hours of total recording time. As Philips only sold its systems on the PAL standard and in Europe, and the Japanese makers sold globally, the scale advantages of the Japanese proved insurmountable and Philips withdrew the V2000 system and joined the VHS Coalition.
  Philips had developed a LaserDisc early on for selling movies, but delayed its commercial launch for fear of cannibalizing its video recorder sales. Later Philips joined with MCA to launch the first commercial LaserDisc standard and players. In 1982, Philips teamed with Sony to launch the Compact Disc; this format evolved into the CD-R, CD-RW, DVD and later Blu-ray, which Philips launched with Sony in 1997 and 2006 respectively.
  In 1984, the Dutch Philips Group bought out nearly a one-third share and took over the management of German company Grundig.
  In 1984, Philips split off its activities on the field of photolithographic integrated circuit production equipment, the so-called wafer steppers, into a joint venture with ASM International, located in Veldhoven under the name ASML. Over the years, this new company has evolved into the world's leading manufacturer of chip production machines at the expense of competitors like Nikon and Canon.
  Philips partnered with Sony again later to develop a new "interactive" disc format called CD-i, described by them as a "new way of interacting with a television set". Philips created the majority of CD-i compatible players. After low sales, Philips repositioned the format as a video game console, but it was soon discontinued after being heavily criticized amongst the gaming community.
  In the 1980s, Philips's profit margin dropped below 1 percent, and in 1990 the company lost more than US$2 billion (biggest corporate loss in Dutch history). Troubles for the company continued into the 1990s as its status as a leading electronics company was swiftly lost.
  In 1991, the
caption: The Evoluon in Eindhoven, opened in 1966
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