International. Despite the strong growth shown in previous years by the global LED light market, revenue growth of just 1% is forecast for 2011, a marked decline from 60% achieved in 2010, IMS Research reported in its quarterly study on this market.
The decrease in demand can be attributed to the decline suffered in the field of backlighting, an item that represents 60% of revenue for the LED market and that in 2011 is expected to fall by 3% after having grown 80% in 2010.
This is in addition to the massive increase since 2009 in the number of devices manufactured, which has resulted in an oversupply for this year and has generated a reduction in prices, thus nullifying the possibility of an increase in profits, explained IMS Research analyst Ross Young.
"A drop in revenue is expected in all LED backlight segments except for the TV sector, which could increase by as much as 13%. However, growth in this area is not enough to compensate for the weakness in the other segments."
The story is different in lighting applications, where the high quality of LED lights is increasingly necessary and the decline in prices has not been so pronounced.
The lighting market is the fastest growing, with an increase projected to reach 24% to a value of US$1.7 billion, equivalent to 20% of total LED light revenue.
"We expect rapid growth in LED revenue through 2015, and their use for both backlighting in TVs and other devices and their use in lighting should show growth in 2012 and 2013," Young said.
