Point 1: LED backlight units (BLUs), even the less expensive edge-lit variety, are more expensive than conventional BLUs based on cold-cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs).
Point 2: Most desktop monitors are highly cost-constrained, low-margin products.
Point 3: The value add of LED BLUs for all but top-of-the-line models is arguably less compelling for monitors than for notebook PCs or LCD-TVs.
Conclusion: Of the three major application categories for medium-to-large LCDs, it is monitors that will adopt LED backlighting most slowly.

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

And yet, the LED monitor revolution has begun. Both Asustek Computer and Chimei will soon launch their own-brand monitors with LED BLUs, Siu Han and Yvonne Yu reported yesterday in Digitimes.

Asustek plans to launch such monitors with screen sizes larger than 20 inches worldwide by the end of this year, while Chimei will launch in 1Q’10, initially for the Taiwan market.

Samsung Electronics has launched a 23-inch HD LED monitor for US$399.

One source of fuel for this fledgling revolution is that panel makers estimate LED BLU prices will drop to CCFL levels in just three years. Another is the discovery that "green" products are marketable, and LED-lit LCDs tend to consume less power and use less material than their CCFL cousins. LED BLUs are also more dimmable than CCFLs, which can be important in some applications.

AUO now projects that 10% of its monitor panel shipments for 2009 will be LED-lit, while Innolux Display anticipates a 50% penetration for its 2010 monitor shipments.

This growth of LED-lit monitors is, of course, just beginning. DisplaySearch expects shipments to be 1.3 million units in 2009, but leap to 31 million units in 2012. Notebook PCs are well ahead of this curve, with LED penetration likely to exceed 50% in 2009 and 80% in 2010, with some companies (such as CPT) expecting to be in the 90% range as early as the second half of this year.

Still, LED-lit monitors promise to come on more quickly than many industry-watchers anticipated even a couple of years ago. When the revolution is about to take root in even its least hospitable application, you know the backlight world is changing irrevocably.