In this quarter, 42K LCD-TVs with LED backlights will be sold, up from 7K in Q4′06 and on the way to 64K in Q4′08. (Data and projections from iSuppli.) That’s a pittance, since iSuppli projects total annual sales for all LCD-TVs will be 75.7M in 2007 and 98.5M in 2008. But, thanks largely to Samsung Electronics, it’s a start.

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

Where LED backlighting is really taking off is in notebook PCs, where savings in weight, module thickness, and power consumption have a higher value, and where differences in size and backlight-unit (BLU) architecture make the cost penalty more tolerable than it is in TV sets today.

We (along with many other analysts) have been predicting this 2008 notebook ramp-up for some time. But now, Rebecca Kuo and Rodney Chan of Digitimes have compiled information on specific activities at a variety of Taiwanese BLU makers that adds depth and detail to our picture of the ramp-up.

Kenmos Technology and Taiwan Nano Electro-Optical Technology (Nano-Op) have become suppliers of notebook LED BLUs for Dell and Apple, according to industry sources. Nano-Op has started shipping 12.1-inch LED BLUs to Dell via AUO - that is, the BLUs are being incorporated into the LCD modules AUO ships to Dell’s OEM - and Apple has qualified Nano-Op’s 13.3-inch LED BLUs. Nano-Op’s notebook LED BLU shipments in November were only about 10K units, the sources said, but Apple’s orders are expected to drive shipments to over 90K units in December.

Kenmos is shipping notebook LED BLUs to Dell and Apple through CMO for high-end models. Kenmos’s shipments for this segment could reach 200K units in Q4′07 and 300K units in Q1′08, the industry sources said.

Nano-Op and Kenmos are not alone. Coretronic’s monthly shipments for the segment will reach 60K-70K units in Q4. Radiant Opto-Electronics’ current shipments of notebook LED BLUs are less than 20K units, but it has developed at least 10 different applications for the segment, and all of them are currently being qualified by clients. Sources said Radiant’s shipments to the segment could soar in 2008.

For notebook PC module and system makers, the greater cost of LED BLUs is something that must be thought about very carefully for each market sub-segment. But the shoe is on the other foot for BLU makers, who are delighted with the much higher margins they can realize with LED BLUs compared with cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) BLUs.

The notebook LED BLU ramp is significant in other ways, as well. With these units, the industry begins its ride down the cost-quantity curve, which will make the LED technology more viable for monitors and TV sets in the future. It will also give TV makers more confidence that appropriately engineered LED edge-lighting is a viable approach for backlighting TVs as well as notebook PCs.

Insight Media analyst Robert Smith-Gillespie has spent the last 4 months looking into the LCD BLU technology trends and we are about to publish a report on this effort. Stay tuned for details.

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