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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With the economy affecting all manner of consumer spending, it’s a little surprising to hear upbeat commentary from the flat-panel sector.

But according to Scott Birnbaum, vice president of Samsung’s LCD unit, its sales are benefiting from “vidification,” a term he uses to describe consumers trying to create a big-screen experience at home.

“When you went to the movie theater, you had this incredible picture and sound,” he says, and makers of televisions, PCs and even cellphones are all looking for ways to offer a similar viewing environment.

For PCs, manufacturers are quickly adopting a 16:9 aspect ratio, the length-to-height ratio that has been a standard for HD television screens, Mr. Birnbaum says. That means that laptops are becoming less boxy and more like wide-format TV screens, a trend that computer makers have capitalized on to goose sales. When one of these laptops is side-by-side with an older model, he says, “people are gravitating to the new format very quickly.”

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The makers of LCD panels for laptops and TVs are pressing on with churning out the glass, no matter how badly the industry is doing, reports trade pub DigiTimes. In an article on its Web site, the paper says that despite an expected 10 to 20 percent drop in the first quarter of 2009 in already low utilization of factories at AU Optronics, Chi Mei Optoelectronics, and Chungwa Picture Tubes, the companies are not going to cease production entirely. Instead, they are asking employees to take unpaid holidays, for example, among drastic measures to keep lines running despite the fact that it is must be quite uneconomical to do so at this point.

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Things keep getting worse for Corning (GLW), as demand for large-screen LCD televisions sags in the face of a global consumer recession.

The LCD glass maker this morning said it is now withdrawing the financial guidance it provided just a few weeks ago for the fourth quarter and for 2009.

In a statement, CFO James Flaws said that “Panel makers, particularly those in Taiwan, have continued to reduce the utilization of their factories heading into the second half of this quarter in response to weakened retail demand for LCD televisions and desktop monitors.” He added that demand in the company’s wholly owned display glass business “has dropped more precipitously than we expected just a few weeks ago,” with “additional, but less severe, reductions in demand at Samsung Corning Precision Glass,” its joint venture in South Korea.

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Corning (GLW) plans to cut the production capacity of its wholly owned glass business by 30-40 percent in response to a slowdown in the LCD television market, CFO Jim Flaws said this morning in an interview with Tech Trader Daily on the company’s disappointing fourth-quarter outlook.

Flaws noted that the company has been operating with a “conundrum in the LCD business” for most of the year: While there have been constant fears about the economy, LCD demand through most of the summer remained strong. But he notes that after Labor Day, weekly data have shown a decline in LCD TV sales at retail. Flaws says the combination of rising unemployment, low consumer confidence and weak financial markets has lead people to “retreat” on LCD television spending. He says unit growth is still positive, but nowhere near the 37 percent level seen in the first eight months of the year.

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There’s still something not yet clear about the weird selloff yesterday in shares of Photon Dynamics (PHTN).

To review: PHTN holders on Friday approved a pending $15.60 a share cash takeover of the company by Orbotech (ORBK), an Israeli-based rival in the LCD display equipment business. But the stock yesterday hit an air pocket, dropping $2.19, or 14.5 percent, to $12.89, and trading as low as $10.74. I theorized that the drop might have had something to do with the role in the deal played by Lehman Bros., which has been an adviser to Orbotech. Late in the day, the company issued a release which said that the only hurdle left to completion of the deal is approval of the transaction by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Photon said CFIUS is supposed to respond by Sept. 29, and possibly sooner.

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Shares of glassmaker Corning (GLW) and LCD panel producers AU Optronics (AUO) and LG Display (LPL) are all down sharply today amid a new wave of market jitters on the prospects for the flat-panel display market.

Several recent Street research reports note that conditions in the LCD panel sector have been difficult for much of the third quarter, raising questions about the companies’ ability to hit current Street estimates.

Brian White, an analyst with Collins Stewart, noted in a roundup piece on the electronics supply chain today that he visited last week with three leading Taiwan-based LCD panel makers, and came away with a “reinforced” cautious stance on AU Optronics, which he rates Hold.

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For those of us who follow such things, there’s always a bit of a disconnect when watching news reports that show domestic life in developing countries. Most of the time, the family in the living room or the men in the coffee house are huddled around picture-tube TVs.

But if you think that flat-panel LCD and plasma sets are just expensive toys for those who live in industrialized countries, it’s time to free yourself of that notion.

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Sony (SNE) this afternoon confirmed that it has temporarily reduced production at its Mount Pleasant, Pa., LCD television plant in response to slowing demand for 52-inch sets. Sony also makes 46-inch TVs at the plant.

A Sony spokesman told Tech Trader Daily that the plant, which is about 35 miles east of Pittsburgh, typically operates three production lines over the course of four 10-hour days a week. He said the plant recently reduced its night shift to two lines, and for the next few weeks will reduce operations from four days to three. “We have seen a slight downturn in 52-inch sets,” said spokesman Michael Koff, who added that Sony decided to work down accumulated inventory.

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Kids–they hate brushing their teeth. Sure, we try and show them pictures of zombie faces and toothless seniors, but it just doesn’t work. Finally, someone has come up with a solution to the problem: Make it fun. Researchers at the National Taiwan University have devised a scheme that turns brushing your teeth into a Webcam-tracked video game. Using an LED-studded toothbrush, a camera mounted above a mirror and an LCD display, kids can watch plaque and debris get annihilated from a cartoon mouth while they scrub their choppers.

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Will collaboration among the manufacturers of flat-panel displays lead to slower price declines for high-definition LCD televisions?

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