Sony this week sent Aibo, its robotic dog, off to the great kennel in the sky.

The announcement was slipped in to the company's financial presentation on its results for the three months to the end of December, and came as a shock to some fans of the popular canine automata.

Aibo was not the only product to get the short end of Sony's stick. The company has canned its entire robotics division, also putting an end to the humanoid QRIO robot and its range of high-end Qualia devices.

The company has stated that it intends to refocus on core business such as music, film and entertainment.

Sony said that product development for Aibo and QRIO has already ceased and that production will stop by the end of March.

After-sales support will continue, while research and development in the artificial intelligence developed for Aibo will be redeployed across other consumer products.

The cull is understood to have come as Sony tightens its belt, while some believe that the high-end Aibo, which retailed for around $2,000, has been swamped by competition from cheaper but less complex products such as Robosapien and Roboraptor.