LED NB is ready to go(1): Why LED Backlight?

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Though in 2008 the penetration rate of LED NB is lower than expected, but in order to make their notebooks lighter, thinner and more energy-saving, many big branded manufacturers speed up to bring LED backlight into their NB. LEDinside projects the penetration rate of LED NB will be as high as 60.3% in 2010.

The progress of LED backlight ‘s application on NB is slower than expected

The LED industry has been paying close attention to LED backlight’s application to NB this year. With great expectation on LED backlight’s application to NB, many big manufacturers already stepped into the LED industry. For example, Chi Mei Lighting Technology Corp., which is a reinvestment of Chi Mei Corp., is regarded as one of the earliest to step into LED industry. AU Optronics Corp. has established Lexstar and plans to spend about 10 billions NTD to buy the MOCVD equipment so it can step into the production of Epi, which belongs to the up stream of LED industry. However, as the penetration rate of LED backlight into NB is lower than expected, many manufacturers have turned conservative in captal spending.

Many research institutes have projected the penetration rate of LED NB will be as high as 12~20% in 2008. However, we found that by the end of the third quarter, the shipments of LED backlight modules applied on NB fail to fulfill this expectation. This year, the price of LED has a big cut, which should be beneficial of lowering the price of LED backlight module, but as flat panels oversupply after the second quarter, the price of panels with CCFL backlight has largely decreased, forcing the branded NB manufacturer to postpone the launch of LED NB. Therefore LEDinside projects the penetration rate of LED NB will be around 10 % only in 2008.

Why LED Backlight?

But recently we can find many branded producers start to promote LED NB, and they plan to largely adopt LED backlight in 2009 and 2010. The main reason of this is the rising of low-priced NB, which has lowered down the average shipping price of NB, so every producer is trying hard to increase the distinguishabilities of their products, or to shape themselves an image as a leading company in NB technology. Since there are already few of NB parts being able to come out with new changes, the LED backlight technology which can make NB lighter, thinner and more energy-saving becomes the top choice of every big branded NB manufacturer.

The faster pace of big branded NB producers to adopt LED backlight

Take Apple for example, Macbook Air weights only 1.36Kg after adopting LED backlight, the thinness of its panel is 4mm only, and indeed this has caused discussions in the market. Apple plans to adopt LED backlight in all of its NB products by 2008.

Besides, Acer also claimed that it would make all NBs whose panels is below 14.1 inches adopt LED backlight by 2009. Dell announced in September as well that it will let all its main-stream NBs adopt LED backlight within 1 year. It’s expected that by the end of 2009, 80% of Dell’s NBs will be backed with LED backlight, and the rate will reach 100% in 2010.

Figure-1 Macbook Air Spec.

13.3-inch widescreen LED display.
At 4.0 mm at its thinnest point.
Weight: 1.36 Kg.
Source: Apple

In 2010 the penetration rate of LED NB will be 60%

NB should be portable, and the LED backlight technology can make them lighter, thinner and more energy-saving, therefore big branded NB producers are fastening their pace of adopting LED backlight modules. LEDinside projects the penetration rate of LED NB will rise to 29.8% in 2009 from 10 % in 2008, and even improve to 60.3% in 2010.

Figure-2 LED NB penetration rate

Source:LEDinside