Reuters reports Panasonic is reducing plasma TV panel production and laying off around 1000 employees at its "loss-making television unit," making one wonder if the plasma TV business is in trouble.

According to the Reuters sources Panasonic will stop producing panels at its Amagasaki No. 3 factory in Western Japan by March 2012, and might also sell a LCD-making plant in Mobara, Chiba prefecture.

The Amagasaki No. 3 plant has a monthly capacity of 330000 42"-equivalent panels.

Plasma has a much smaller WW TV market share than LCD-- with 17M plasma TVs (from 248M TVs) shipping in 2011, according to DisplaySearch, with Panasonic holding 40% of the 2010 plasma panel market.

No official announcement is yet available from Panasonic at the time of writing, but the company should reveal more during its July-September earnings report later this month.

Go Panasonic to Slash Plasma TV Panel Output

Go TV Shipments See Decline in Europe

TV demand in European markets is falling short of expectations according to the latest DisplaySearch market forecast, with WW TV shipments not set to show grow from 2010 to 2011.

Global TV shipments will total 248M units-- with LCD TVs accounting for 206M and plasma TVs for 17M.

"Persistent economic problems have made consumers cautious in their spending and highly value-seeking,” DisplaySearch says.

The flat forecast is the result of lower 2011 business targets from TV makers, as well as lower than expected key TV component demand during the period leading to the holiday season.

Flat panel TV shipments (excluding CRT and rear projection units) will still see growth in 2011-- by around 6% Y-o-Y, before increasing to around 9% in 2012, thanks to low-cost sales in emerging markets spurring CRT TV replacement.

LCD TVs will account for more than 80% of global TV shipments, even if the latest 2011 shipment forecast (206M units) are lower than previous estimates despite dropping LCD panel prices.

Meanwhile the plasma category is slowing down, with a forecast -6% Y-o-Y decline for 2011-- and double-digit unit shipment declines each quarter until H2 2012.

OLED TV will debut "around late 2012" within the 40" category, but will only manage to hold around 2.5% of the 40"+ category by 2015 due to high prices and limited availability.

Finally, 3DTVs account for 14% of shipments in W. Europe, and DisplaySearch expects WW 2011 3DTV shipments to total 22M, before growing to over 100M by 2015.

Go DisplaySearch Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report

Sony will soon start shipping the first Playstation-branded 3D Display, a 3DTV aiming for gaming use with SimulView, a different display take on 2 player gaming.

The 24" active 3D display comes packaged with 1 pair of 3D glasses, an HDMI cable and a copy of the MotorStorm Apocalypse game, and offers Edge LED backlighting, 240Hz refresh rate and an integrated subwoofer.

Inputs includes x2 HDMI 1.4 and component, plus stereo headphone output.

The big feature Sony is pushing is SimulView-- a 2 player function giving each player a full 2D screen while wearing 3D glasses. The feature is excusive for the 3D display, and is currently compatible with the games MotorStorm Apocalypse, Gran Turismo 5, Killzone 3, and Super Stardust HD.

Go Playstation 3D Display

Sony starts recalling 1.6M LCD TVs WW due to a defect reported in Japan causing overheating, smoke and melting parts.

The defective part (an inverter transformer used for LCD backlights) is found in models sold in international markets, even if Sony says it has not received reports of similar problems outside of Japan, where it received 11 such reports.

Sony is recalling the following Bravia models in Japan-- KDL-40X5000, KDL-40X5050, KDL-40W5000, KDL-40V5000 and KDL-40V3000-- and will release similar recall information in each affected market.

Go Sony Bravia LCD TV Notice

Samsung announces a "breakthrough" in LED technology-- one allowing the development and eventual production of ultra-large display panels on ordinary sheets of glass in the future, the Korea Times reports.

Researchers say “in ten years, window panes will double as lighting and display screens, giving personality to buildings.”

The breakthrough itself involves the production of “nearly single crystalline Gallium Nitride (GaN) on amorphous glass substrates”-- a milestone leading towards the creation of larger products (400x larger than the current GaN LED size of 2-inches) while lowering production costs.

The technology will surely first go into large commercial screens (sports displays, advertising boards) but Samsung may also leverage it into consumer devices and residential installations.

The only drawback? Samsung says it still needs up to 10 years to develop the technology into commercial production.

Go Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology

Go Samsung Reports LED Breakthrough (Korea Times)

Global Q2 2011 flat panel TV shipments fall "slightly" due to soft consumer demand and a still-uncertain global economy according to IHS iSuppli-- with shipments falling by 1.3% Q-o-Q and reaching 48.04M units.

In comparison, Q1 2011 shipments total 48.68M.

From the global Q2 2011 total, LCD TVs make 43.39M units-- with a Q-o-Q decrease of -2.7%. Plasma TV shipments reach 4.65M, growing by 13.9% over Q1.

A economic concerns in Europe (alongside N. America and Japan) dampen demand in Q2 2011-- a quarter "usually stronger than the first," the analyst says.

However, flat panel revenues are still up, reaching $31.5 billion (up by 3.6% Q-o-Q) thanks to larger TV sizes and features (3D, IPTV, LED backlighting and higher frequencies) demanding premium prices.

The 32" category still dominates the LCD TV space, even if iSuppli expects 32" market share to fall from 41% in 2010 to 36% in 2011. From a global LCD TV market, W. Europe currently has 18% market share.

Meanwhile the plasma category still depends on "the availability of larger sizes and aggressive prices," even if iSuppli expects the category to start losing the pricing advantage from 2012 onwards. The analyst concludes W. Europe also has 18% share of the global plasma TV market.

Go IHS iSuppli: Global Flat Panel TV Shipments Slighly Down in Q2