Under new CEO Kaz Hirai, Sony’s been hard at cleaning up their operations. In under a year at the job, Sony has sold off their chemical plant business, spun off their S-LCD  production and has entered talks about selling off their lithium-ion battery business. While larger assets have plagued Sony and stretched the companies focus, multiple product lines and outdated products have also been a concern. To help bring back focus to products that matter, Sony has announced that they are discontinuing their handheld tape recorders in 2013. Yes, you read that correctly, Sony still makes tape based recorders. Sony will be giving the TCM-400, TCM-410 and TCM-450 cassette recorders one last shipment in early 2013 after which will then offline. With a simplified product line which can be seen in their Windows 8 powered VAIO fleet, Sony can better use its capital and engineering prowess on products of tomorrow and not last decade. Now lets hope the company also kills off any product of theirs that are able to play a cassette.

Discuss:

What other product lines should Sony kill off?

[Via My Navi]