Industry members expressed sadness, concern about consolidation of the industry, and nostalgia for Sony’s past achievements upon hearing the news two days ago that the iconic brand will exit the North American car audio market at the end of the year.
Few, however, were surprised. Rumors had swirled for months about Sony leaving the market.
Industry members, speculating on the reasons behind Sony’s departure noted that the company’s sales were heavily slanted to head units, a category that is shrinking by double digits by some estimates. Additionally, Sony is reducing its presence in TVs and home audio, so car audio would naturally follow. Sony sold off a 51 percent stake in its TV and audio business this year to TCL Electronics, forming a new joint venture called Bravia Inc.
But the Sony brand has had an outsized presence in the car audio market. It, along with Philips, developed the compact disc–the technology that caused a meteoric rise in car audio and enriched car audio dealers and suppliers for decades. It’s other accomplishments are listed here.
Current Sony dealers said they appreciated the brand for its solid reliability, easy user interface, and great warranty. Sony management, they said, was a pleasure to work with. Many also praised Sony for stepping up during the COVID pandemic to keep inventory flowing when many other brands were out of stock.
But no brand is perfect and some mentioned that Sony would seem to commit to a new technology or brand effort only to abandon it, such as discontinuing the well-loved MobileES high end series for a time.
Here are some of the reactions to Sony’s departure we gathered in a poll of industry members:
“Sony’s exit from our industry saddens me — but is yet understandable,” said Jim Warren, President of Sound Distributions, which oversees twenty Car Toys, WA stores. “Our niche [car stereo] is very small, and likely a rounding error for a company the size of Sony. I am thankful for the many fine products they have provided our industry over the years, but I’m also thankful that other fine companies will fill the void with future products. Sony’s departure is, in no way, a harbinger of problems for our industry – but simply a fact that their corporate direction and the consumer marketplace are no longer a fit.”
Milton Benavides of Speed of Sound CT, said, “We sell Kenwood, Sony and Alpine in our store and probably 95 percent of our sales are Sony and 50 percent of those are MobileES. In COVID, they really stepped up when none of the other manufacturers did. It wasn’t something they had to do, they did it because it was the right thing. It’s sad to see them go. They were a bunch of great people.”
He said of the head units, “I never had to fuss around with the RCA outputs, never had noise or signal issues. The graphic user interface was really up to date and modern. People seemed to like it. We never had issues with CarPlay or Android Auto that wasn’t a phone problem. We’ve had other brands where it takes 2 minutes to connect to the car.”
Shawn Gunnels of Mobile Music, WA has sold Sony since 1990. He liked the brand for ease of use. “The Sony user interface has been more thought out than others in the industry. The sound quality with Sony is really good. The warranty was the best in the industry. We don’t have defectives with Sony, their stuff is great. As far as Sony going away, when they pulled the product out of the European market it was a flag.”
Chris Pritts, of Car Toys Texas remembers, “Back in the day, I sold a ton of Xplod subs and amps. That was basically the go-to bass package for the high school kid on a budget. High school parking lots were full of Sony Xplod. My all-time favorite radio was the M750 and M800. I had them back in high school and loved them.”
Dan Jeancola, a former buyer for Tweeter, Etc, MA, Sound Advice, MA and Car Toys, WA said, “They were always a little ahead of their time. But did not hang one long enough to a new product category within 12V to reap the benefits. A great example is when they bought out navigation before it gained steam in the market. MobileES was great for a while but they didn’t follow through with it. I always admired their stuff …”
Paul Papadeas of Soundcrafters, FL said of Sony, “It was great, it had very few defects and the brand carried me through the supply chain issues in the pandemic. …I don’t know what prompted this [exit]. It’d really like to know. I’d continue selling Sony if they continued, if there was enough of an outcry. Tell me why. I think Sony owes that to the independent specialists.”
Get the news before your competitors do. CEoutlook is the daily brief read by over 6,500 dealers, reps and manufacturers across the mobile electronics industry. Subscribe free.
