Sony Electronics (NYSE: SNE) said today that it would be discontinuing the manufacture of rear-projection television sets after decades of making them for global markets. In the end of a television era, Sony will concentrate its efforts on flat-panel LCD and OLED television sets from now on.

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 fact, it's widely expected that tube-style TVs and larger, rear-projection TVs will be gone from global store shelves within a few years. LCD, Plasma and OLED television display technology will completely take over.

With projected sales of rear-projection televisions in Sony's current fiscal year having been guided down from 700,000 to 400,000 recently, that number pales in comparison to the expected 10 million LCD televisions the company is expected to sell in its current fiscal year, up from the previous year's mark of 6.3 million sets.

Hastening the discontinuing of Sony's rear-projection business is the fact that 85% of those sets were sold in the U.S., which is rapidly adopting flat-panel technologies for almost every new television sold. Then again, Sony is going to run up into fierce competition in the flat-panel television space and has already accused competitor Vizio of hurting industry profits this year.