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Sony Electronics has revealed that it would be discontinuing the manufacture of rear-projection television sets after decades of making them for global markets.

The firm said it would stop making rear-projection televisions in February 2008 because of falling demand. Instead, it will focus on flat screens built using liquid crystal display (LCD) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology.

The dropping of rear-projection products was expected from the Japanese electronics manufacturer as the division has consistently been losing money in recent times.

In October, Sony lowered its global sales forecast for rear-projection TVs, which uses 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.

Decisions like this highlight Sony's continuing effort to rid itself of money-losing ventures in an effort to bring itself back in to steady financial ground. Led by its efforts to continue selling rear-projection TVs, the television division lost nearly a half-billion dollars over the six months ending in September.

Other firms have already pulled out of the rear-projection TV market. Earlier this year, Hitachi withdrew its rear-projection TVs from the North American market, while Seiko Epson has also halted production.

LCD TVs have taken off as both competition and the diving cost of parts have allowed companies to lower prices to a point that is affordable by the average consumer. The world's electronics makers are all working on LCD technology for TVs, as well as another technology called plasma display panels, or PDP.

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

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.