Sony timer

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The Sony timer is a Japanese urban legend with a basis in reality. The legend suggests that the Sony Corporation installs a device in its electronics products which causes them to fail soon after their warranty expires.

While the authenticity of this legend has never been proven definitively, Google returns a large number of search results in relation to the "Sony timer". Many of these pages are spoofs on Sony's recent poor manufacturing debacles, but some of these sites take the concept very seriously.

Searching for the phrase "Sony Free Replacement" (in Japanese) shows the number of faulty products Sony has released in Japan, thus spurring customers to imagine the existence of a "Sony Timer".

While it is unlikely that Sony is explicitly adding expiration devices to their hardware, the "Sony Timer" has also been taken to mean that Sony manufactures devices to withstand just enough use for Sony to produce a new line of the device. This claim is far more difficult to dispute, and may even have some merit.

At the annual shareholders meeting held in June 21 2007 in Japan, the president Ryoji Chubachi said that he knew the word "Sony Timer"^[1].