Apple is set to launch a new range of notebooks with backlight screens. The LED Blu technology will deliver a significant screen improvement but it could well lift the price of the notebooks.
With Apple recently confirming plans to launch Macs featuring LED backlight technology in 2007, sources in the industry said the notebooks will use components from AU Optronics (AUO), Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), Coretronic and Kenmos Technology.
AUO and CMO are both having their samples of 13.3- and 15.4-inch panels certified by Apple, with shipments to officially commence in the second or third quarter of 2007, the sources noted.
In the meantime, backlight unit (BLU) makers Coretronic and Kenmos are also sending samples to be incorporated in the panels, with official shipments to also kick off around a similar period, the sources added.
The Taiwan-based makers all declined to comment, citing customer confidentiality.
Sources recently said AUO and CMO will enter volume production for LED-based LCD modules (LCMs) in the second and third quarter, respectively, of 2007, with CMO being more aggressive in the segment since it will launch more models than AUO.
Coretronic’s LED BLUs will be applied in the panels from AUO and CMO for use in Apple’s LED-based notebooks, the sources said. The BLU maker started developing LED BLU technologies in 2003 and is likely to see notebook-use BLU shipments form nearly 5% of its LED BLU business in 2007, sources said.
Component makers indicated Apple plans to use the LED V-cut light-guide panel technology from Japan’s Stanley Electric, which is a technology authorizer and major shareholder (11%) of Taiwan’s Kenmos. Therefore, CMO has decided to adopt Kenmos’ LED BLUs for the panels it will ship to Apple, the sources noted.
Of all LED backlighting applications, notebook will rise to account for 39.5% of the market in 2010, up from only 4.9% in 2007, according to Displaybank.
