Although the LED market is still growing steadily in terms of demand, corresponding market growth slows down amid excess capacity build, believes market research company LEDinside. The analysts expects the LED package industry growth to decline to just 9.6% YoY at US$11.27 billion in 2013.
According to LEDinside, the LED market value for backlight application is expected to be flat YoY at US$2.69 billion in 2013 with tablet PC continues being the spotlight LED backlight market application among all. The market will stay static amid a saturating demand for LED-backlit monitor and TV, which in turns discourages demand, thus lesser LED are required.
The market researchers anticipate more consolidation to take place in the LED backlight market in 2013 as the leeway for LED outsourcing shrinks. Given that most TV vendors and panel makers have already secured their LED demand for 2013 via advance capacity plan and partnership with OEMs, they will have about 60-70% of the required LEDs to be produced in house, implying that less than 15% of the demand will be left for LED contract manufacturers. It is expected that those LED makers with an enriched IP library will continue growing their dominancy. LEDinside estimates that the LED backlit LCD TV penetration rate to hit 90% in 2013, up further from the expected 75% in 2012.
Among all applications, tablet PC is expected to serve as the most powerful demand driver. Shipments of tablet PC are expected to hit 130 million in 2013up from 56 million in 2011. The growth is expected to conjunct with a LED backlit tablet PC production value growth of 20% YoY. This market segment requires considerable LED because: First, vendors adopt LED as the backlit source from the very beginning, implying that there is no replacement issue as the CCFL does in the notebook segment; second, tablet PC has drawn high popularity and grabbed some market share from the netbook market; and; third, iPad from Apple, which accounts for over 60% of the total market share, requires more than double of the LED amount than other similar devices due to its high panel resolution requirement.
Flashlight in handset is expected to be a demand driver to compensate the slowing demand upon smartphone penetration. LEDinside expects demand of LED from flashlight-handset to hit 1.2 billion units in 2012, up from a billion units in 2011. Corresponding production value is expected to top US$680 million in 2012. According to LEDinside estimates, over 80% handsets are equipped with camera modules, though not every one goes with a LED supplement lamp. As the average resolution for handset camera advances from 0.3- to 5-megapixel and now having 8-megapixel as the mainstream, the consistent advancement promises good margins from LED supplement lamp as compare to traditional LED backlit applications. For handset itself, it is expected to be the segment among all to post saturated LED demand as vendors have long been introduced LED as the backlit source amid dimension and power-saving concerns. However, as smartphone continues to penetrate, rising adoption of touch panel discourages LED demand for use in keypad. Such demand drop is expected to be compensated by rising demand from supplement lamp and flashlight though.
