Seiko Epson said it has halted production and sales of its rear-projection TVs, becoming the latest company to distance itself from a technology once seen as a promising rival of LCD and plasma televisions.
Seiko Epson will focus resources on front projectors, but it is not withdrawing from the rear-projection TV business and will continue its research and development activities for rear-projection models, a company spokesman said Thursday.
Demand for rear-projection TVs, which were once dominant in the large-size flat-TV market,
Hitachi withdrew from the North American rear-projection TV market earlier this year, and Sony in October cut its rear-projection TV sales target for the year to March by 43 percent to 400,000 units.
Seiko Epson said it had aimed to sell about 11,000 units of rear-projection TVs in its first year of operations, though it did not give actual sales figures. The company started selling rear-projection TVs in 2004.
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