The Japanese company Kyocera (which is short for Kyoto Ceramics) is based in Kyoto, Japan and built together with Philips the very first CD-i player: The modular CD-i 180 set, including the CD-i 181 and CD-i 182 module. Kyocera was part of the CD-i consortium that originally planned to launch CD-i together as the next step of the compact disc: Next to a general CD standard for audio, CD-i was going to be its brother for multimedia. Along with Kyocera, also Matsushita (Panasonic) and Sony were part of the CD-i team, and of course Philips. Kyocera also released its own CD-i unit, the Kyocera Pro 100S. One of the proud owner of such a unit is CD-i member Jacob Davis. As his unit was not working properly, he took it apart and made some pictures for our archive. More will follow!
The Kyocera Pro 1000S is another very rare CD-i player. It did not have a digital video cartridge and it was released in 1992, we believe for the professional market. Kyocera of Japan was a partner of Philips in the early development years. Both companies jointly developed the first CD-i system CDI 180. Kyocera also sold their own players, like the Pro 1000S (see picture). The small portable unit could be connected to an optional LCD screen.
And this is what it looks like when it is all put back together:
[Thanks, Jacob Davis]