Even as the electronics industry pushes televisions for watching three-dimensional videos as a future growth area, Panasonic Corp. (PC) acknowledged that it will be challenging to get consumers to upgrade to 3-D sets so soon after many purchased new flat-screen TVs.

The electronics company also said it is sourcing more components from places where the currency is tied to the U.S. dollar to offset the strength of the Japanese yen, which it said was putting the company at a disadvantage to rivals, particularly from South Korea.

Japanese electronics makers, along with South Korean rivals Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics Inc., see 3-D as the next major technological breakthrough to spur sales of televisions and Blu-ray players, similar to how high-definition video helped to drum up demand for LCD and plasma TVs.

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Break out that mixtape. You know, the one with “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Thriller.” It’s the Sony Walkman’s 30th birthday.

And it got a present. Kind of. The modern Sony (SNE) Walkman digital music player beat out Apple’s (AAPL) iPod share of the portable music player market in Japan in the last week of August, according to a study by BCN, a Japanese electronics research firm. The Walkman took 43 percent of sales, compared with the iPod’s 42.1 percent, capping 241 weeks where the iPod reigned in Japan.

The study didn’t take into account sales of the iPhone, which researchers viewed primarily as a cellphone. But nostalgic Walkman aficionados might recognize the frenzy over the role of the iPod in popular culture.

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With 3-D movies popping up more frequently at the cinema, several companies are working through significant challenges to make 3-D viewing available in the home too.

Satellite-TV operator British Sky Broadcasting PLC is preparing to debut a 3-D television channel in the U.K. next year that will require specially-equipped TV sets. The venture may be the most ambitious yet toward a large-scale 3-D television rollout, which remains absent from most big markets outside of Japan.

In the U.S., satellite-TV provider DirecTV Group Inc. and cable network owner Discovery Communications Inc., among others, are working on or exploring 3-D offerings, spokesmen said.

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Satoru Iwata is not your typical Japanese company president. When he talks about the games his company produces, the 49-year-old Nintendo CEO’s eyes positively twinkle with mischief and excitement.

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Shares of both Seagate (STX) and Western Digital (WDC) are getting battered on fears that the hard-drive sector could once again soon find itself with a glut of supply.

At least in part, the Street is reacting to this morning’s downgrade of Marvell (MRVL) by Barclays Capital, which–as I noted earlier–was in response to indications from Taiwanese component makers of a slowdown PC demand. Barclays chip analyst Romit Shah wrote that “every company that we met with [in Taiwan] indicated that PC order rates are slowing into the back-to-school season.”

Meanwhile, Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar today notes new data on drive production that he thinks raises ominous clouds for Seagate in particular. Kumar says data from Techno Systems Research, a Japan-based market research firm, find that hard-drive unit production was down 18 percent sequentially in the March quarter, comparable to a 15 percent decline in PC shipments.

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In the past week, eBay Inc. (EBAY) chief executive John Donahoe has taken steps to divest two businesses, acquire another, and revamp his company’s core e-commerce website.

During a call with investors Thursday morning, Donahoe said he thinks an initial public offering for eBay’s Internet-phone unit Skype will best “maximize value,” but he would be open to an unsolicited offer from another company to buy it outright. And he said that an agreement to purchase leading South Korean e-commerce company Gmarket Inc. will help the company grow not only in that market, but also serve as a platform to expand in Asian markets such as Japan, which eBay exited in 2002.

In a subsequent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Donahoe discussed the reasons for the hectic activity–-even during a week while he’s been on vacation–-and the forces behind a transformation plan he expects to take three to four years.

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Dell (DELL) CEO Michael Dell has done little to dispel rumors that his company is working on a mobile computing device. In fact, he all but confirmed them while traveling in Japan on March 24 when he said: “It is true that we are exploring smaller-screen devices.” What form those devices will take remains a matter of heated debate. Talk is that Dell plans a smartphone that would compete with Research In Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry, Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, and the various devices running software from Microsoft (MSFT), Nokia (NOK), or the Google-backed (GOOG) Open Handset Alliance. Prototypes of a Dell-made smartphone are being circulated in the wild and, according to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu, got a cool reception from mobile-phone carriers including AT&T (T) and Sprint Nextel (S).

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Cowen analyst Robert Stone this morning cut estimates for the solar sector across the board, asserting that Street estimates for at least the first half of 2009 are too high, and there could be further downside if project credit conditions do not improve.

“Street estimates generally have Q1 revenue flat-to-up sequentially, but we see a downtick as more likely,” he writes. “The main sticking point appears to be project financing rather than the price of modules. Smaller systems are more likely to find cash buyers or owner equity financing along with renewable-specific loans in markets such as Germany and Japan. However, larger projects are likely to be hampered by tight credit and lack of third-party tax equity.”

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Toshiba has suspended NAND flash memory production at two plants for nine days due to weak demand, according to Reuters, which picked up the story from broadcaster NHK. The wire service said the company denied plans to shut down all operations at the two factories in Yokkaichi, in western Japan, and Oita, in southern Japan. The Yokkaichi factory is a joint venture with SanDisk (SNDK).

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Nintendo Co.’s sales are speeding along faster than a getaway car, shrugging off economic woes as if they were bugs on the windshield.

Its Wii videogame console continues to be sold out in many stores. Sales of its DS handheld console remain hot despite its being a four-year-old product, ancient by game technology standards.

Sales of the Wii Fit exercise game, launched in May, are on track to surpass those of one of 2008’s bestselling titles, Grand Theft Auto IV, by the end of the year, according to projections by Wedbush Morgan Securities.

All that has driven up the Kyoto, Japan, company’s market value to nearly $45 billion, on par with Walt Disney Co.

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Sunshine is free. Solar modules are not. But they are getting cheaper: UBS analyst Stephen Chin today revised his forecast for solar module pricing to down 20 percent from a previous estimate of down 14 percent. Chin says the recent move by the government in Spain to cap its solar subsidy program will move solar module volumes to other markets, including Germany and Japan, where lower pricing is required to generate favorable returns for solar system buyers. The revised Spanish solar subsidy program will cut installations in Spain to 300MW next year, from an estimated 1.2GW this year.

Chin today cut EPS estimates by about 10 percent for 13 global solar companies, including SunPower (SPWR), Evergreen Solar (ESLR), LDK (LDK), Suntech (STP), Yingli (YGE), Q-Cells, Solarworld, REC, Conergy, Solon, Motech, E-Ton and Sino-American Silicon. He also cut his rating on SunPower to Neutral from Buy, while increasing his rating on Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) to Buy from Neutral.

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For the solar industry, some promising news from the land of the rising sun.

According to Reuters, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is discussing bring back subsidies for the country’s solar sector. The story, citing unidentified ministry officials, says that the country is considering subsidies and tax breaks that could halve the cost of putting up solar panels in households. “It’s clear that lack of vision dented Japan’s lead in market share,” said the official.

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The stereotype of Japanese office culture–rigid, formal and hierarchical–is still the norm in most of the country. Hiroyuki Nishimura observes none of those rules. In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, the lackadaisical 31-year-old with a soul patch and wispy goatee has become the most influential figure on the Japanese Web.

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Japan’s four big ISP organizations have taken a logical step toward controlling file sharing: Flagrant violators will be warned via email and then disconnected, the Yomiuri Shimbun says. Although this practice will horrify the content-should-be-free community, it’s actually a far more sensible approach than, say, the RIAA’s suing sharers. It is also, presumably, a smart step for ISPs struggling to control the exploding use of bandwidth.

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