Japan's Hitachi announced on September 18 that the company will buy fabricated glass panels for use in plasma display TVs from Matsushita Electric Industrial. Hitachi-branded plasma display TVs using Matsushita-made panels will hit the market in fiscal 2009 which starts in April next year, Jiji Press reported.

Hitachi and Matsushita has had collaboration in LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel production through IPS Alpha Technology. With the new-founded partnership on plasma display panels, the two companies expect to extend their collaboration to the development of super-thin and energy-efficient plasma display panels for TVs. Further collaboration at overseas production bases will be included in the long-term scenario as well, also according to Jiji Press.