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Sony to drop projection TVs to focus on flat-panels

Sony to drop projection TVs to focus on flat-panels

TOKYO -- Sony is dropping its money-losing rear-projection TV business to focus on two flat panel technologies -- liquid crystal display and organic light-emitting diode, the company said yesterday.

This spring, the company announced that 800 workers at the Sony Technology Center in Mount Pleasant would be laid off as a result of the shift of production of rear-projection television sets to Mexico. The company, which opened its Westmoreland County facility in 1992, once employed about 3,300 area residents.

Sales of rear-projection TVs had been declining recently as LCD TVs gained in popularity and got bigger in size, Sony Corp. spokesman Shinji Obana said.

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In October, Sony lowered its global sales forecast for rear-projection TVs -- which use a projector to create images on large screens -- to 400,000 from 700,000, which is down from 1.1 million the previous fiscal year.

By contrast, Sony expects to sell 10 million LCD TVs this fiscal year through March, up from 6.3 million the previous year.

Sony sells 85 percent of its rear-projection TVs in the United States, and about 10 percent in Europe, according to Mr. Obana.

The decision to abandon rear-projection TVs underlines Sony's strategy of focusing on LCDs and OLEDs at a time when competition is heating up in flat TVs.

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In the fiscal half-year through September, Sony lost $526.3 million in its TV operations, partly because of losses tied to rear-projection TVs, Mr. Obana said.

Earlier this month, Sony began selling a small 11-inch TV that uses a relatively new but expensive flat-panel technology called OLED. Sony's XEL-1 measures just 3 millimeters, or 0.12 inches, thick and delivers clear, vivid images.

First Published: December 28, 2007, 5:00 a.m.

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