 Companies that don't understand computers will not survive the 1990s. In 1975, Morita and Iwama repeated these words as if a chant. Iwama brought up the subject with Yoshiro Kato on their way to a computer show in Tokyo that year.  We can make floppy disks from existing technology at Sony. If we could make one with more than five megabytes of memory, then the disk will be able to store both text and graphics, said Kato. Iwama replied sadly, The company seems to be allergic to computers and floppy disks. At the time, Kato worked in the TV Business Group. He had no idea he would eventually spearhead the floppy disk project several years later.
Four years later in 1979, Iwama created the System Development Division. He approached Kato and said, Will you make some computer-related products? Sony already has a market in the US. How about an English-language word processor targeting this market? This will involve using Sony's high resolution CRTs, and you can make full use of magnetic recording technology to make floppy disks if you like. Kato immediately thought, He has been preparing me for this new assignment all along. In fact, Iwama had asked Kato a year earlier to transfer to ISD (Information Systems Division), the group responsible for promoting the use of computers within the company. He now finally understood Iwama's strategy.
Kato and the ISD engineers had already been using computers and they had a number of criticisms about computers and floppy disks. Therefore, their development approach was based on creating the ideal equipment from the user's point of view. However, these engineers were all amateurs when it came to developing computers, so they had no idea of the difficulty involved. At the same time, they were fearless due to their ignorance.
Sony's development of floppy disks started as a project to create a storage medium for the English-language word processor. At the time, the mainstream floppy disk consisted of a magnetic film housed in a thin black resin cover. The 5.25 inch disk, developed by Alan Shugart's company in 1976, was set to replace the 8 inch disk developed by IBM.
We want something smaller and easier to use with a larger storage capacity. A plastic shell is good, because it'll protect the magnetic film from potential damage through handling and will also keep dust out. As for the disk size, three inches is good. The first idea for the disk drive was of a thin box, measuring 10 cm square. They made a cardboard model and exclaimed, This is good! This will do!
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