The LED Market Witnesses High Growth and Major Power Shifts
The total LED marketplace, including monochrome/tri-colour LED and LED video displays, is set to reach $19.5 billion by 2026. A compound annual growth rate of 21% is expected, with some significant market evolutions and power shifts in the pipeline.
This intel comes from Futuresource Consulting’s latest update of the Global LED Display Market Report 2022. This is a category in its ascendancy, with new projections indicating a market of increasing strength and maturity.
Unprecedented Bounce-Back Post-Pandemic
This period of extraordinary growth is welcome after a shaky few years. 2020 brought major disruptions, with shipment and transport issues rife, as well as the practical difficulties of installation. With engineers unable to enter indoor spaces, the installation of units came to a standstill. Unlike the smooth and swift fitting of LCD, LED can take days, even weeks, to install.
Considering these hurdles, what’s truly remarkable is the speed of recovery witnessed across the market. By 2021, it was hoped the market would recoup to pre-pandemic levels. The global Direct View LED industry entered recovery in 2021, with many anticipating it to take two to three years before the 2019 value was beaten. Instead, growth has exceeded this level by as much as 10%.
Will LED Dominate in the Next 10 Years?
Multiple technology and manufacturing transitions are creating seismic shifts within the market. Although sub 1mm and below pixel pitches haven’t grown as fast as other segments, this will soon change.
‘We can expect LED to surpass LCD and RPC within the decade,’ says Ted Romanowitz, Principal Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. ‘MicroLED will be an important part of that transition. Leaders in MicroLED technology have the capability of mass transferring sub-100-micron chiplets onto a TFT backplane with an active driver technology. Transitions such as these will drive the price down within ten years, to the point where a consumer TV with true MicroLED technology will be available for under three thousand dollars. It will cannibalise the LCD market.’
Technology Transitions Create Windows of Opportunity
With certain technologies edging into the spotlight, unique opportunities to shift industry power structures present themselves. While SMD and IMD are expected to maintain a foothold through 2024, in the long term, MicroLED and MiniLED will prevail.
Another key outcome of these technology transitions will be LED’s emergence as the dominant video wall technology. Samsung’s The Wall is a prime example of an advanced MiniLED technology implementation.
With RPC continuing to decline, and LCD demonstrating sluggish growth, the market is facing an overhaul. These dramatic market shifts will see LED sales at nearly three times that of LCD within five years. Just like LCD and OLED today, LED production will increasingly fall into the hands of a few key players. With such changes underway, one thing is clear: brands will need to adapt in order to survive.
For more information or to purchase the Global LED Display Market Report, please get in touch with ben.thrussell@futuresource-hq.com.
About the author
Ted Romanowitz is a visionary product leader spearheading industry transitions in the Semiconductor, Consumer Electronics, Networking and Professional Audio Visual industries. He held increasingly responsible marketing roles at Intel Corporation over his twelve year tenure, helping drive the highly successful Centrino Mobile Technology launch and Gigabit Ethernet market transition as well as owning the global consumer processor and chipset roadmap.
Romanowitz begin in the Pro AV industry in the 1990s expanding the Vivatek brand for Delta Products and has spent the past decade focused on LED product management with Industry leaders Leyard/Planar and Christie Digital Systems. Currently an independent Consultant and Contributing Assistant Professor at Willamette University's Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Ted lectures, writes and consults in the areas of new product planning, go-to-market strategy, product and sales management.
In August 2021, he co-authored a comprehensive industry report on MicroLED display technology focused on the Pro AV and Consumer Electronics industries.
About the author
Olivia Lowden is responsible for the long-form content, press, and partnerships at Futuresource. Prior to her career at Futuresource, she completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, demonstrative of her lifelong love of words.