The era of Sony TVs is over. Sony has announced a “strategic partnership” in home entertainment which sees TCL acquire 51% of the Sony TV business.
Frankly, we all should have seen this coming – the company has persisted with their Bravia TVs including OLED screens for years now despite the absolute dominance of Samsung and LG, and Hisense’s rise up the ranks.
TCL meanwhile – like Hisense has been pushing hard by adopting the latest tech and offering bigger screens and better prices so a partnership with Sony allows them to leverage the Sony brand name in their portfolio, while also building the TCL brand using new innovations from Sony.
This includes the new push into “RGB” TVs – something Sony has announced, while TCL seems very much silent on.
Sony in the last five years has barely shown a gadget at CES – gone are the days of actual TV launches at CES:
Today, they show a car in partnership with Honda – strange, and still something I don’t fully understand.
Bottom line, while its sold as a partnership, this is Sony saying hey – TCL – run this for us, we’ll clip the ticket as it goes.
Sad really, but – the reality of the consumer home entertainment world.
Trev is a Technology Commentator, Dad, Speaker and Rev Head.
He produces and hosts several popular podcasts, EFTM, Two Blokes Talking Tech, Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars, The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, and the Private Feed. He is the resident tech expert for Triple M on radio across Australia, and is the resident Tech Expert on Channel 9’s Today Show and appears regularly on 9 News, A Current Affair and Sky News Early Edition.
Father of three, he is often found in his Man Cave.
