LEDs in mobile handsets face competition and shift in emphasis

Mobile phone handsets still represent the largest segment of the high-brightness LED market, and camera flash represents an exciting emerging application. However, as LEDs Magazine reports, competition is stepping up from EL, xenon and OLED technologies.

The mobile phone handset market has been the driving force behind the incredible growth in demand for high-brightness LEDs in the past 7-8 years. This growth has already started to decelerate, due to slower growth in handset sales coupled with rapid declines in the price of certain types of LED devices. However, other applications such as camera flash are just emerging and will have a strong positive effect.

A market study recently released by Strategy Analytics estimated that revenues in 2009 from the LCD and keypad backlighting segments of the LED handset market will be 41% lower than their peak in 2004. However, this decline will be offset by the emerging market for LED flash, expected to grow at a compound average annual growth rate of 87% during the same period. (To view the full article, go to www.ledsmagazine.com.)