The beginning of the "fall" of the giant Sony after the marriage with Xiaomi

Although the domestic TV market has been dominated by domestic brands in recent years, as a benchmark in the imaging industry, Sony still occupies an important position in the high-end TV market segment through its strong strength in 4K ultra-clear and 3D technologies. Its leading technical strength and strict quality control have enabled it to maintain this high-end brand posture.

Just on August 7 , Sony once again brought new 4K imaging products to the Chinese market, unsurprisingly launching two new products: the second-generation curved 4K TV and 4K video player. At the same time, the surprising cooperation news announced by Sony at the tasting event even overshadowed the new products. Almost no one could have expected that this time the "high-end" " SONY " would choose Xiaomi as its partner.

How Xiaomi "broke into" Sony's home

Sony BRAVIA LCD TVs will support seamless connection with Xiaomi Box through system updates. After Xiaomi Box is connected to Sony TV via HDMI cable, its video resources and applications will be embedded in Sony's system interface. Users can quickly browse or play content from Xiaomi Box through the TV entertainment interface, or directly select and open Xiaomi applications through the TV application interface. During this process, users only need to use Sony remote control to complete various operations on Xiaomi Box.

In terms of cooperation form, Sony's future BRAVIA products will "integrate" the Xiaomi Box into the system to a large extent. Although users can still directly enter the Xiaomi Box's own operating interface through a specific "Xiaomi Box" application entrance, compared to TV products that are generally only used as TV box display devices, the integration with the box at the system level is definitely rare. What's more, this time the cooperation with Xiaomi is not some domestic TV manufacturers, but Sony.

Regarding the cooperation between Sony and Xiaomi, some people in the industry compare it to "the seven fairies marrying Dong Yong", and the "loser" who "hooks up with the beautiful, rich and white girl" this time is the Xiaomi Box.  

Does it make sense for Sony to join hands with Xiaomi?

In fact, the Xiaomi Mi Box is a content peripheral for Sony BRAVIA TVs, and it is not at a high "strategic level". The reason why such a cooperation has caused such a big response is probably because the cooperation took place between Sony and Xiaomi, two brands with contrasting positioning and tonality.

As a domestic brand that has only been established for a few years but has developed rapidly, there is controversy wherever Xiaomi is. Whether it is forums or Weibo, they have become battlefields for "Mi fans" and "Mi haters" to fight each other. Therefore, some people jokingly say that "Sony TV also became popular with the help of Xiaomi."

Although Sony and Xiaomi both have mobile phones, tablets, TVs, and player products, the XPERIA phones and Xiaomi phones, Sony tablets and Xiaomi tablets, BRAVIA TVs and Xiaomi TVs are very different in terms of price and R&D concepts, and their target users are even more different. Such differences are more prominent at the TV product level.

If Xiaomi's success is a passionate "struggle history of losers", then this high-performance, low-price style is contrary to Sony's product strategy of style first. It is almost an impossible task to expect Xiaomi's success to be recognized by Sony's supporters. No wonder Sony fans on Weibo are wailing about their "shattered faith".

Whether it is cloud services or audio-visual entertainment, Sony's TV products currently cover a wide range of content. With the support of Wasu and Sony's video and audio industry, Sony already has a certain content advantage compared to other international brands. How much of a role can Xiaomi Box play? Putting aside the Xiaomi TV 2nd generation, the only 4K element of Xiaomi products is the enhanced version of Xiaomi Box. As a content peripheral, from the product level, Xiaomi does not play a big role in the "perfect 4K ecosystem" built by Sony.

It is worth noting that the 4K video player released at the same time , which costs as high as 3999 yuan, can download complete 4K movies (including complete videos and audio tracks), and its video resource cooperation mode is Wasu. The various disputes between Wasu and CNTV , the resource partner of Xiaomi Box, have also further complicated the entire incident at a time when the situation of smart TV content services is grim.

The giant has fallen, and Sony's era is really over

Sony joins hands with Xiaomi. The news came suddenly, and what puzzled many people was the chaotic brand strategy.

Traditional imperial enterprises are being swallowed up by the tide of the times. Kazuo Hirai was once highly expected by the industry to be Sony's CEO , but various efforts over the past two years have failed to prevent Sony's decline.

Once upon a time, as long as you wanted, all your electronic products could be branded with " SONY ", and the slogan "Global Sony" also appeared in Sony's development map.

But now, the era when " Walkman " was popular is gone forever, the VAIO personal computer business has been sold, the BRAVIA TV department has become independent, and games, imaging technology and mobile devices have become Sony's only three remaining traditional core businesses.

In the Chinese market, Sony's game consoles have gone from being "unable to enter" to being overshadowed by Microsoft's XBOX ONE . Mobile devices are being squeezed from both Chinese and foreign brands. The BRAVIA TV products with a good reputation in the high-end market have become Sony's only product line in the Chinese market.

In recent years, the share of smart TV has increased rapidly. However, even in the high-end TV market, Sony has not been able to get a share of it. In contrast, international brands such as Sharp and Samsung in the high-end TV market have taken completely different approaches. Sharp launched 4K smart TVs through cooperation with Lenovo. Sharp is responsible for hardware, ensuring high quality with AQUOS and the reputation of "the father of LCD panels", while Lenovo focuses on building a smart audio-visual entertainment platform for Sharp TVs. Samsung is the first international manufacturer to launch SmartTV . Both BesTV and the latest content cooperation platform Mango TV provide complete content support for Samsung SmartTV .

In such an environment, the fact that the BRAVIA brand has a "coarse grain flavor" is not the most frustrating reality, although relevant sources have revealed that Sony's cooperation with Xiaomi is not as complicated as most people think. The cooperation is only an individual existence on the TV product. However, even such a simple cooperation shows that Sony BRAVIA TV has no intention of building its own smart TV and content ecosystem, the current situation of being "screenized", and the mentality of "willing to be screenized".

Whether it is the first trial of cooperation with domestic manufacturers or the opportunity to expand localized cooperation with Xiaomi, whether the connection is limited to TV products or not, Sony has already focused on manufacturers that are contrary to its own brand tone. So what about the future? Will there be another similar cooperation?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.