I haven’t had a chance to write about it quite yet but if early reviews are any indication, the Sony Xperia Ear is a hot mess of a product which I’ll be covering soon. Regular readers will know that recently I’ve been banging hard on the AI drums and believe like mobile, which set the precedence in tech for a decade and dramatically shifted the power players of the world, AI will do the same for the next decade. To their credit, unlike with mobile, Sony is getting into it early and it will be some time before true market leaders are established. Till then, we’re going to get a bevy of products that incorporate voice and AI in one way or another.

Today’s news that Google Assistant is coming to Sony TVs and speakers is a big win for Sony in the short term. From Sony:

 Sony Electronics announced today that with recent firmware updates, Google Home users can now use voice control to stream music and video to several models of new and existing Chromecast built-in Sony speakers and Android TV Sony 4K HDR televisions. With Google Home, a voice-activated speaker powered by the Google Assistant, users can cast several music streaming services, including Youtube Music, to turn up the volume, or skip to the next track just by using their voice, starting with “Ok Google.” Google’s Multi-room group feature allows users to group Google Home and supported Sony speakers together in the Google Home app to play the same song on both Google Home and the Sony speakers using their voice or mobile device. 

Specifically, with Google Home

 users can play music on their connected Sony devices from popular music services by artist, song, genre, album, playlist, mood or activity. For example, a Google Home user can say, “Ok Google, play some workout music on my Sony speaker” or request to stream their favorite playlist from their music service. They can also control the speaker by saying, “Ok Google, turn it up/down, play, stop, skip” etc. or ask for the music title, “Ok Google, what is playing?” and Google Home will respond. 

As I mentioned, this is a short term win for Sony because it gives their devices a potential up on competitors like Samsung who are hard at work creating their own AI assistant and OS. To that end, Samsung has been heavily investing into Tizen, their own open OS and recently acquired Viv, the team behind the original Siri which Apple eventually bought and adopted across their entire product line. As it stands, Samsung has yet to launch Viv or incorporate any form of true voice integration in their hardware line and it will likely be quite a while before they can. That’s where the short term win comes for Sony.

In the long term, this isn’t much of a victory for Sony for two key reasons – it will have people accustomed to a Google service which, as hardware differentiators continue to diminish, become the primary driver of adoption and any and all data collected from it will not be seen by Sony. That means for all the use from Google Assistant on Sony hardware, Sony themselves won’t be able to learn much from the experience. For Sony, who outside of PlayStation doesn’t have any high selling devices, learning from AI in terms of both what works and doesn’t means putting as many units as possible into the marketplace and if products like the Xperia Ear are any indication, they have a long way to go.

 Sony audio products with Chromecast built-in include: The model HT-ST9, HT-NT5, HT-CT790, HT-XT2, HT-RT5 sound bars, model STR-DN1070, STR-DN1060, and STR-DN860 receivers, model SRS-X99, SRS-ZR7, SRS-ZR5, and the SRS-HG1 wireless speakers. For more information on Chromecast built-incompatible Sony audio devices see https://www.sony.com/electronics/music-streaming-services-devices#googlecast 

As for consumers and users of the Google ecosystem, this is a win. Do you think Sony is relying on Google too much or are these necessary concessions?