LED shipments to climb on notebook usage
By Suzanne Deffree, News Editor, Electronic News -- EDN, May 29, 2008
LEDs will light the notebook-PC-display-backlighting market ablaze during the next few years, with iSuppli Corp predicting that nine out of 10 large mobile-PC LCD panels will use the technology by 2012. The market-research company estimates that 90% of large LCD-notebook-PC panels manufacturers ship in 2012 will employ LEDs to backlight their displays, rocketing up from just 4.7% in the fourth quarter of 2007. LED-backlit large LCD-notebook-PC-panel shipments will surge to 17.4 million units by the end of 2008, up by more than a factor of six from 2007, the company forecasts. ISuppli defines large LCD panels as those having a diagonal dimension of 10 in. or more.
“Currently, LCDs in notebook PCs employ CCFLs [cold-cathode-fluorescent lamps] for backlighting,” says Sweta Dash, director of LCD and projection research at iSuppli. “While this is a proven technology and has lower cost [than] LEDs, it faces shortcomings in power consumption and thickness compared to LEDs.”
Accordingly, iSuppli reports that, as the cost differential between LED and CCFL backlights narrows, LED-based notebook-PC panels will gain market share.
