You’ll likely often see me shaking my head or flat out disagreeing with the direction that Sony takes or lack of direction. When it’s not the the former, it tends to be about another missed earnings report or layoffs which unfortunately leads to very sober coverage of Sony without much room for celebration or excitement. Today’s news about Sony getting in the drone business, while odd at first, not only makes sense for company, but in fact might be a brilliant move.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising to know that Hiroki Totoki, the new Sony Mobile CEO and President, is the mastermind behind this vision, a person we’ve covered in great detail these past two weeks. After the jump, the full story behind Sony’s drone ambitions.

First let’s get the dry stuff out of the way. Sony is teaming up with Japanese robotics firm ZMP to create Aerosens. This new drone subsidiary will come online in 2016 with a focus on

 automated driving and robotics technologies 

According to Totoki

 We’re looking to explore new opportunities beyond our core consumer portfolio in enterprise markets 

In short, Sony along with ZMP wants to get in the ever growing drone industry which includes much bigger players like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Parrot, Lockheed Martin, and DJI. So how can Sony compete with players with far deeper pockets? Once again Totoki:

 The key to driving growth in these areas will be adapting Sony’s innovation in various technologies 

While not spelled out specifically, Sony’s interest here isn’t to make drones at all and in fact, it’s not to directly compete with some of the mentioned companies. Instead Sony wants Aerosens to utilize the company’s expertise in image sensors and other camera-related technologies and in turn get the attention and hopefully business of the larger players who are investing billions into this space.

We’ve already seen Sony do something similar in mobile where the company’s mobile division has reported losses quarter after quarter. However, Sony’s image sensors, which are used in their own mobile products, are in turn sold to Apple and Samsung and is one of the company’s biggest profit drivers and growth divisions.

Drones in the future, if not already, will serve a multitude of markets which range from recreation to defense, surveillance, delivery, and much more. If able to align its technology with the needs of this growing sector that’s just in its infancy, Sony will be poised to reap an enormous reward for years to come and finally partake in a new market/product category from its start, something they’ve been unable to do in over a decade. Sony just recently announced an investment of $4 billion in order to ramp up their sensor business.

Discuss:

Do you think it makes sense for Sony to get into the drone business?

[Via Sony]