Hitachi is set to halt development and production of personal computers for home use, in the latest move by a Japanese electronics conglomerate to get out of unprofitable business lines.

Japanese PC makers are increasingly losing out to global giants such as Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Dell, which have the economies of scale to be able to cut their competitors on price. Hitachi, which 30 years ago helped pioneer PC technology in Japan, only had about a 4.5 per cent share of the Japanese market last year, according to MM Research Institute.