Along with the memory chip sector, the global flat-screen panel industry is facing a major consolidation, with Taiwan's leading LCD panel makers engaging in detailed M&A talks to increase profitability. Analysts and industry watchers say such moves, if realized, will help Korean LCD panel duo Samsung Electronics and LG Display raise their global market share.

LG Display said it had signed a deal to supply LCD panels to Apple for five years. The world's second-biggest maker of LCD screens did not disclose the total size of the deal but said in a filing to the Korea Exchange that it would receive a US$500 million advance from Apple this month.

...And then came July. First, AUO reported lower-than-expected revenues for June. Then LG Display warned that LCD "demand will be soft in July and August and panel prices will continue to fall." Third in line came Sony, which announced that demand for large-screen LCD TVs is so much less than expected that it's been forced to cut production at one of its US plants. Contradicting Weeks' assertion of "reasonable" inventory levels among Corning customers, Sony warned that it has to work down some of its "accumulated inventory."..