On the morning of January 20, sony reportedly announced at the 2022 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2022) that it will set up a company called Sony Mobility Inc. in the first half of this year. of operating companies, officially exploring the possibility of entering the electric vehicle market. The former consumer electronics giant also took the initiative to participate in the popular track of new cars, and its entry point is not hardware, but software.
"Sony Dafa" has failed in the mobile phone market in recent years, gradually drowning in the "Others" in the list, making it difficult for consumers to recharge their faith; Microsoft's official announcement of the acquisition of game giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in cash plunged Sony's market value in the Japanese market by 13%, the biggest decline since September 2014, and the valuation shrank by about $20 billion (about 126.9 billion yuan).
Activision Blizzard suit "soft", a number of large IP is held by the Xbox Microsoft revenue under the command, the popular fried chicken PlayStation seems to be not so stable. Behind the choice to build a car, it may be Sony's exploration of a new growth curve.
Sony believes that electric vehicles will be the most profound revolution in the automotive industry in a century. However, there are already many large and small players in the industry, there are giants such as Tesla, Toyota, Ford, FAW, Geely and other traditional car companies have also turned to trams, and more "Wei Xiaoli", Rivian led by new forces at home and abroad have entered the game. Sony chose to cross over into such a competitive market, can it find its place by relying on all the entry points of software?
At CES 2022, Sony showcased the new electric concept car Vision-S 02
Software, Sony's chances?
Producing the hardware shell of electric vehicles is not the ultimate goal of the Japanese electronics giant.
Sony's electric car plans stem from a conversation between two executive vice presidents, Totoki Hiroki, and Izumi Kawanishi in 2017. At the time, the former was president of Sony's mobile communications division, while the latter was in charge of the then fledgling AI robotics division and later became the head of Sony's automotive software program. As Sony's chairman, president and CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida's longtime right-hand man, Totoki is now the top CEO of the entire Sony Group.
Both believe that the key to the revolution in the "electrification" of the automotive industry is that the future of the car will shift from mechanical to electronics. That said, software will be a core component of the cars of the future – an excellent opportunity for Sony to grow in this area.
At the time, the biggest project Kawanishi had at hand was the Aibo robotic dog project. This robot dog combines AI and robotics, and its core technology lies in software, not hardware. Sony's electric car program is actually an extension of this robotic dog project.
At a 2017 Tokyo press conference, Kawanishi showed off the smart robot dog Aibo
Kawanishi revealed to the media that in a conversation with Totoki in 2017, he believed that the car of the future could be seen as a kind of "mobile smartphone". But since then, Kawanishi has never expressed this view, because he feels that cars have extremely high safety requirements, and smartphones are relatively fine; Comparing the two will seem too rash and easy to cause misunderstanding in public opinion.
Kawanishi's core point is that for new and existing players, the key to electric vehicles is software, not hardware, and software determines success or failure. "Our ultimate pursuit is not electric vehicles, but mobility," he said. ”
After the release of the new version of the Aibo robot dog in early 2018, Kawanishi's AI robotics team officially set out to study the "mobility" problem of the future "Software-Defined Vehicle" (SDV). He used the term SDV several times in his exchanges with Totoki.
"Software-Defined" was an IT term from the early 2010s that described virtualization technology that operated multiple hardware devices in an integrated manner. At present, automakers such as Toyota, which holds the concept of "software first", have incorporated the term into their industry dictionaries.
Various phenomena show that Sony is using software as a starting point to try to occupy a place in the field of electric vehicles.
The question is, how will Sony act?
Sony is trying to extend its software business into the field of moving cars
Kawanishi is ambitious about this. He said Sony will be responsible for producing the "brain of electric vehicles", specializing in the development of car software involving driving, self-driving, entertainment and other aspects. CEO Kenichiro Yoshida also said that Sony entered the game to build a car to create a "mobile entertainment space", which can make full use of the advantages of consumer electronics giants.
Sony's roadmap in the automotive business is not only an attempt to enter the automotive industry, but also a product of the structural reforms of the Sony Group over the past decade.
Sony's structural reforms began in 2012. At the time, Kazuo Hirai had just begun as president of Sony. Sony has made a sweeping revamp of its loss-making electronics division, shrinking its PC and TV businesses. At the time, Kenichiro Yoshida served as Hirai's chief of staff.
Hirai has long hoped to transform Sony into a software company through reforms. Some shareholders wanted to divest the film and music businesses, but the management team decided to keep those businesses and financial services. Because Sony's operations are built on software, these types of business are very important to Sony's operations. Sony also considered that resources from the film, gaming and electronics sectors could be integrated.
Sony plans to compete primarily in the SDV market, which will test the company's overall technology integration capabilities. The development will involve cloud computing, AI and software development, as well as expertise in semiconductors, machinery and power storage.
The previous personnel reshuffle also reflects Sony's shift in consciousness. Electronics-based R&D is obsolete for SDV, and conservatism is doomed to fail.
At a time when Sony's label was still a mainstream "consumer electronics company," Kawanishi was a marginal figure. When he first joined Sony in 1986, Kawanishi was mainly involved in the development of computer software. Since the mid-1990s, he has been working on the PlayStation console, but the focus is not on the device, but on the platform content. Subsequently, he entered the production of television and audio equipment, where he was responsible for businesses such as Felica's contactless IC card systems.
In some ways, Kawanishi's Sony career is similar to that of Kazuo Hirai. Hirai is mainly engaged in the music and gaming business. Yoshida has long been in the So-net Internet business. Totoki's specialty is financial management.
Former Sony president Kazuo Hirai (left) and his successor, Kenichiro Yoshida (right), both have extensive experience in the software field In the past, these executives were more involved in software development than in the core business of Sony at that time, the electronics business. With Sony's restructuring, they are likely to dominate Sony's electric vehicle project.
But will the automotive software business go as smoothly as smartphones?
Being able to build a mobile phone does not mean that you can build a car
Kawanishi has been careful not to hook up future cars with "mobile smartphones" again, as security is at the core. Smartphones and computers allow for occasional software failures, but similar failures must not occur on a moving car.
Sony's prospects in this area are unknown. After all, Sony has been difficult to say successful in the field of smart phones in recent years, and in the field of electric vehicles, there are already some bad precedents. Smartphone giant Apple, for example, launched the Titan project for the electric car about 15 years ago, but in the end, the project was shelved.
Although electric vehicles are structurally much simpler than fuel vehicles, the supply chain for such vehicles is particularly fragile. In terms of market capitalization, Tesla is currently much higher than Toyota, but it has been struggling with the inability to mass-produce. Tesla opened its store in 2003, but it wasn't until 2020 that it achieved full-year net profitability for the first time.
Tesla took a tough road for the development of electric cars and SDVs and ended up reaping high returns. The market will be watching closely how Sony makes it through the bumpy road Tesla once took.
Sony needs to breathe new life into its weak business, and the electric vehicle plan will be a key battle.