Sony Corp. is studying scaling down its plasma television business and might withdraw from it completely by the end of next year, industry sources said Monday.
The electronics giant intends to concentrate its flat-panel TV operations on liquid crystal displays and rear-projection models in a bid to enhance its competitiveness, they said.
The move was spurred by the development of technology leading to bigger LCD TVs, the sources said.
In the flat-panel market, LCD TVs were previously considered suitable for small to midsize screens, plasma TVs for large screens and rear-projection TVs for very large screens.
But electronics companies have recently begun mass-producing 40-inch or bigger LCD TVs.
Sony will gradually reduce production of plasma TVs at its Ichinomiya factory in Aichi Prefecture and instead increase production of LCD and rear-projection TVs, the sources said.
In the large flat-panel TV field, Sharp Corp. produces LCD TVs, while Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Pioneer Corp. mainly make plasma TVs.
Toshiba Corp. and Canon Inc. are jointly developing a new flat-screen panel called a surface-conduction electron-emitter display, or SED, hoping to start marketing it next fall.