Taipei, July 1, 2009 (CENS)--With growing popularity of LED (light emitting diode)-backlit notebook PCs and LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs, the number of LED chips used globally in backlights for electronic products is expected to shoot up 300% to 34 billion units in 2012 from 8 billion units in 2008, according to DisplaySearch.

In 2008, global shipment of LED chips reached 70.8 billion units, with about 11 billion, or 15%, applied in outdoor LED signages, and 8 billion, or 11%, in display panels for LED-backlit LCD TVs.

However, with the aforementioned applications getting popular in the consumer market, LED chips used in outdoor LED signages are estimated at about 24 billion units, and those for LED-backlit LCD panels at 3.4 billion in 2012, together accounting for 34.7% of the total of 167 billion units for the year, according to DisplaySearch.

The market survey institute indicated that side-view LED, featuring ultra-thin shape, will be mainly used as the backlight source in small and medium-sized display panels, while top-view models will be widely adopted in 10-inch and above display panels.

LED-backlit notebook PCs are expected to command 52% of the global market for notebook PCs in 2009 and 81% in 2010. In the meantime, global shipment of LED-backlit LCD panels will approximately hit 3.6 million units in 2009, accounting for 3% of the total and the figures will respectively surge to 15 million units and 10% in 2010. Globally leading brands, such as Samsung, Philips, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, Vizio and LG, are going to concentrate on promotion of LED-backlit LCD TVs in the second half of this year, helping to fuel the market for LED chips.


(by Steve Chuang)