We commented a few weeks ago that, of the three major applications for LCDs with diagonals 10 inches and larger - notebook PCs, monitors and TVs - general-purpose desktop monitors presented the least compelling case for LED backlighting. The fact that LED-lit monitors were coming anyway, we said, was evidence for the strength and increasing momentum of the LED backlighting revolution.

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

Now, we’re getting announcements of specific models, prices, individual company LED market share, and introduction dates. At Pepcom, held in New York on September 17, Samsung showed its first general purpose LED-lit monitor, a 23-inch unit scheduled for U.S. introduction in October. The resolution is FHD (1920×1080), the response time is 2 ms, and the contrast ratio is 1000:1. This SyncMaster XL2370 is expected to sell for $299. A similar (but thicker) monitor with a CCFL backlight, the P2370, sells for roughly $35 less. The company says it intends to introduce monitors ranging from 19 to 27 inches in 2010. Samsung’s Korean competitor LG Electronics has introduced a 24-inch model with 2-ms response time.

Asustek plans to introduce a 23-inch LED-lit model in Q4′09, and Chimei is expected to introduce its LED-lit offering in January 2010, industry sources told Siu Han and Yvonne Yu of Digitimes in late September. The sources said the price gap between 22/23-inch LED models and CCFL models of the same sizes will drop below NT$2,000 (US$62) from the current delta of approximately NT$3,000 for 22-inch monitors and NT$5,000 for 23- and 24-inch monitors.

BenQ has started shipping five different LED-lit LCD monitors in sizes from 15.6 to 24 inches, but only to the Taiwan market for now. Japan, Australia and China will be added later, BenQ Taiwan general manager Danny Yao told Han and Yu. Yao said 30% of the of the company’s LCD monitor shipments in Taiwan will be LED-lit in Q3, rising to 50% in December. BenQ believes that LED-lit models’ will take a 54% share of the global LCD monitor market in 2015, Yao said.

BenQ’s 21.5-inch LED-lit monitor is priced at NT$10,900 (US$336), about NT$2,000 higher than a CCFL model of the same size. The price of the 24-inch model is NT$129,000, NT$3,000 higher than a CCFL model of the same size. The price delta price between 19-inch widescreen LED and CCFL models is about NT$1,000, BenQ said.

Many new LED-lit monitor models are expected in Q2′10 to stimulate H2 sales.

In general, industry players think LED-lit LCD panels will account for 37.3% of panels with diagonals of 10 inches and greater in 2012, and 54.3% in 2013. But Yao believes 50% penetration may arrive 6 to 12 months earlier than this industry consensus.

HannStar Display will launch a different kind of LED-backlit LCD in Q1′10, reported Digitimes in late September. The company will release an OCB-mode LCD panel with field-sequential color (FSC) utilizing an RGB LED backlight.

FSC has been under development for years, and the technology is tempting. The red, green, and blue components of the image are presented sequentially so FSC panels do not need matrix color filters, which are expensive and absorb about two thirds of the light generated by the backlight. But color break-up with eye movement has been a stubborn problem. To preserve the 60 frame-per-second performance of most LCDs, an FSC display must switch at 3 times 60 or 180 fps. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to prevent color break-up. Current thinking is that something like three times that frame rate - 540 fps - is needed to reliably avoid color break-up. Unfortunately, that speed is too much for standard LCD modes and LC mixtures. Combining FSC with the naturally fast OCB mode is therefore an inviting combination. Toshiba Mobile Display (TMD) has been demonstrating the combination in various prototypes for years, so it’s interesting that HannStar is likely to be first to market. HannStar says they have been developing the technology for the last two to three years.

HannStar’s first products will be smartphone and netbook panels, with panels for notebook PCs to become available in H2′10.