Trinitron was Sony's brand name for its line of aperture-grille-based CRTs used in television sets and computer monitors. It was one of the first television systems to enter the market since the 1950s. The first color Trinitron system was released in October 1968. 100 million Trinitron systems had been sold by 1994.
Patent protection on the basic Trinitron design ran out in 1996, and it quickly faced a number of competitors at much lower prices. Sony ended production from Japanese plants in 2004, and stopped selling them in the United States and Canada in 2006. Sony continued to sell Trinitrons in China, India, and regions of South America using tubes delivered from their Singapore plant until it ended production in March 2008. During its lifespan, 280 million Trinitron tubes were built. At its peak, 20 million were made annually.
