Still a Price Gap of 50 Percent Between LED and CCFL Notebooks, Says LEDinside

Research firm LEDinside recently has gathered further information about NB with LED (light-emitting-diode) backlight on the market. Until February 2008, prices of LED notebooks (NBs) range from $2,100 to $3,100, while CCFL (cold-cathode-fluorescent lighting) NBs equipped with similar hardware cost $1,280 to $2,000. CCFL and LED NBs have a price gap of at least 50 percent, says LEDinside. Although having advantages in weight, size and energy consumption, it is still quite costly to have an environmental, energy-saving and light LED NB, the research firm said.

Except acer, LED NBs have become one of the major developments for almost all NB producers, including HP, Dell, Toshiba, Apple, Asus, Sony and Fujitsu. According to LEDinside, Sony has the most LED NB models (nine), followed by Apple (six), Toshiba (four) and Fujitsu (four).

As the market becomes more concerned about the environment, energy consumption and weight, the percentage of LED NBs will be on the rise, according to the research firm. AUO recently declared that LED backlight will be adopted in all NB products in 2012, which clearly signals the coming of a LED NB era. The company also said that technical obstacles on the light guiding plate (LGP) will be eventually overcome.

When designing LED backlight panels, lower cost has become a common concern, which influences the thickness of LGP. Yield rate improvement will cut down LED backlight costs and reduce LED NB prices further. LEDinside predicts LED NBs will grow prominently in models and penetration rates in 2008.

www.ledinside.com