Sharp has announced that its 10th-generation LCD plant is currently under construction in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture and will be operational in October 2009.

DisplaySearch and iSuppli both see the netbook market almost doubling in size, thus increasing the demand for LCDs.

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has said it is to cut a further 3,900 temporary jobs by March 2010 to cope with the global economic downturn. The news came as it said it expected to report a net loss of 350bn yen (US$3.5bn) for the year to March 2009.