Cost and Power Consumption Hurdles Remain

Strategy: Televisions will succeed mobile phone handsets in the next five years as the key driver for growth in the LED industry, as consumers switch over to flat-panel televisions, principally liquid-crystal display (LCD) TVs. LEDs are the Ones to Watch, predicts that LED-based backlighting will account for almost 25 percent of the total LCD TV market in 2010.

The global television market is currently undergoing a major transition as traditional cathode-ray tube (CRT) technologies are replaced by flat-panel technologies. The new technologies are principally liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), and plasma displays, as well as microdisplay-based rear-projection TVs (RPTV).

Advances in display technology, lower pricing, and the availability of high-definition content are leading to greater consumer awareness of image quality and display performance, noted Peter King, Director of the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service. LCD and other flat-panel display technologies will rapidly replace CRT-based sets over the next five years. The flat-panel TV market will be worth over $72 billion by 2010.

LEDs are able to replace traditional cold-cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) in the backlighting units of LCD televisions, offering advantages in terms of lifetime, environmental friendliness and most significantly enhanced color gamut. However there are a number of hurdles to overcome including cost and power consumption penalties. LED Drivers--Phones and TVs.

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