Bosch Security Systems and Sony on Tuesday announced that they have entered into a partnership that will result in an unprecedented level of cooperation between the two companies’ video surveillance business units. Not only will the collaboration result in a combination of the companies’ respective technologies, but Bosch will be taking over the sales and marketing of Sony-branded products in every market with the exception of Japan.
Company officials stopped short of calling the agreement a “merger” of their video operations despite the fact that the partnership is subject to approval by antitrust authorities. “From a technology perspective, the companies will be working together but Sony will continue to manufacture the Sony products,” says Bosch spokesperson Anne Insero. “The sales and marketing employees will be transferring from Sony to Bosch, so Bosch will be selling the Sony branded products as part of that.”
Sony’s video security customers will be served and supported by a dedicated sales and marketing team within Bosch, offering customer support, after-sales service and training in different languages in over 50 countries worldwide. “The global Bosch Security Systems organization will support the dedicated sales and marketing team responsible for Sony-branded products as well as Sony’s customers to grow the business by excellent support and service,” Bosch Security Systems President Gert van Iperen said in a statement.
Under the partnership, which will become effective at the beginning of 2017, the companies will combine their respective strengths in video surveillance to deliver solutions that deliver optimum image quality in all lighting conditions, as well as superior video analytics and bitrate performance.
“Sony certainly has its’ strengths… and offers some unique imaging technologies, such as high resolution solutions like 4K and also superb light sensitivity, while Bosch brings to the table technologies that it has been working on with video analytics at the edge and technology that it offers to make bitrate management efficient,” Insero says. “The organizations will work more closely together now, so (Bosch) will have the ability to exchange (ideas) with the development department of Sony concerning their technology.”
“This partnership will revolutionize the video security industry since it combines the unique technological expertise and strengths of two leading companies in the field of video security applications,” Toru Katsumoto, Deputy President of Imaging Products and Solutions, Sector President of Professional Products Group, Sony, said in the statement.
Given the changing market dynamics within the video surveillance industry, Jon Cropley, principal analyst for video surveillance equipment at IHS, says both companies have seen their market share decline in recent years, and moves like this could become more commonplace in the video surveillance market. “The global video surveillance equipment market is highly competitive and both companies are estimated to have lost share in recent years. They, along with many other companies, are looking to forge new relationships to help them compete in the future,” Cropley says. “In the short term, this move allows Bosch and Sony to share technology and resources as well as providing them better access to foreign markets.”
In a blog post, Jim McHale, director of UK-based market research firm Memoori, said that this partnership goes "much deeper" than most of the vendor alliances that have been announced in the surveillance industry over the past decade. "This union should significantly reduce operating costs through reducing duplication, strengthen their technology and improve profitability," he wrote.
While some have suggested that the partnership might be intended to combat increasing competition from Asian-based suppliers, McHale isn’t buying that as a rationale for the move.
"This partnership will have little impact on that issue," he added. "The combination of super high resolution, low-light cameras with built-in leading analytics will, however, make their products more appealing to the growing (Building Internet of Things) business and we believe this is their objective. The video camera should become the ‘King of Sensors’ and its capacity and capability to deliver actionable information will be critical for BIoT and Smart Cities."
Insero says the Sony and Bosch brands will continue to be marketed separately. Moving forward, Insero says any future initiative to market the companies’ products together have yet to be determined. “As far as future products, discussions are still ongoing and we will be providing more details at a later date. As of right now, there will be no co-branded products or anything like that. Bosch products and Sony products will be marketed separately,” she explains.
In terms of how the two organizations might integrate some of their operations moving forward, Insero says they are not ready to share all of the details as of yet. “There will be coordination in product development and also support functions like order processing, logistics, and after-sales and service will also be integrated into the Bosch organization but we’re not sharing the details of that yet,” Insero adds.
