Hitachi will stop manufacturing personal computers for individual users as it has become increasingly unprofitable in light of a fall in prices due to excessive competition, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday. Hitachi has not developed new Prius-brand PCs for the year-end shopping season and will stop making them, Hitachi spokesman Keisaku Shibatani said.

"We want to develop new computers for use in the broadcasting industry, which is becoming more digitized," he said, without giving further details.

Hitachi ranked eighth in Japan's PC market with only 4.5 percent share, shipping 580,000 units in the year ended March, and trailing the likes of NEC , Fujitsu , Dell and Toshiba, according to MM Research Institute.

Hitachi will scale back PC production at its factory in Toyokawa, central Japan, to server-based computers for businesses. Hitachi contracted out production of its other PCs to Hewlett-Packard Co earlier this year.