They are discontinuing their LCD monitor line:Sony to cease hawking monitors

Posted Oct 9th 2006 1:22PM by Cyrus Farivar
Engadget.com

Farewell Sony, we will miss your curvaceous and courageous sense of monitor style. Yes, it appears for the moment that Sony's monitors will soon simply be a footnote in history, as the company has stopped marketing its flat-screen displays in North America, Japan, and by the end of the year, Europe. According to Heise Online, Sony made little profit on the monitors even though it was the 10th largest manufacturer of monitors worldwide, and sold 3.07 million units in 2005. Oddly however, the site also reported that Sony would be launching some new models from its G-series by year's end. Still, it seems well within the realm of possibility that you'll be able to snag that soon-to-be discounted remainder Sony monitor that you've been eyeing sometime early next year.http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/09/sony-to-cease-hawking-monitors

As soon as a market segment gets commoditized, Sony leaves it.
With the latest 24" and 30" from Dell and Gateway there is hardly
anything left to differentiate itself, hence no chance for premium pricing.

Diogen.

Since a lot of electronic stuff that Sony use to be a pioneer in has been commoditized (CD/DVD players, LCD Monitors, LCD projection TVs) it leaves less and less room for Sony to make profits going forward. Perhaps this is why they appear to be going all out with their Blu-Ray campaign... if Blu-Ray becomes the standard, not just for watching HD movies but also for backing up hard drive files on the computer, they stand to make money off royalties.