Steve Jobs confirms first Macs with LED backlighting due this year
In revealing a timeline to abolish the use of toxic chemicals in Apple products, company chief executive Steve Jobs on Wednesday confirmed that the first Macs to sport LED-backlit displays will begin turning up later this year.
In an open letter to customers and shareholders on plans for a greener Apple, Jobs revealed the Cupertino-based company plans to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of mercury by transitioning to LED backlighting for all displays when technically and economically feasible.
"We plan to introduce our first Macs with LED backlight technology in 2007," he wrote. "Our ability to completely eliminate fluorescent lamps in all of our displays depends on how fast the LCD industry can transition to LED backlighting for larger displays."
The Apple co-founder's comments offer the hardest form of confirmation to an exclusive AppleInsider report on the company's plans for its next-generation MacBook Pro notebooks.
In January, AppleInsider reported that a revision to Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro due this year would mark the start of a gradual transition away from cold cathode fluorescent backlights (CCFLs) and towards LED backlights for the Mac maker.
At the time, people familiar with the matter said Apple had agreed to implement the LED technology only within a revision to its 15-inch MacBook Pro but was mulling a broader expansion to the 17-inch model and across its 13-inch consumer MacBook line. Jobs' comments on Wednesday suggest the company is accelerating plans for adopting the technology across all of its products.
In addition to being more environmentally friendly than CCFLs, LED technology is more efficient at distributing lighting evenly across the entire display surface and offers an increase in color saturation. It also consumes less power, runs cooler, and lasts longer than CCFLs.
For end users, the new technology translates into improved notebook battery life and displays that will maintain their initial levels of brightness longer into their respective life-cycles. Come this fall, LED-lit displays will also deliver a more vivid canvas for the various software user interface enhancements and animation techniques that will be included with Apple's Mac OS X Leopard operating system overhaul.
In an open letter to customers and shareholders on plans for a greener Apple, Jobs revealed the Cupertino-based company plans to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of mercury by transitioning to LED backlighting for all displays when technically and economically feasible.
"We plan to introduce our first Macs with LED backlight technology in 2007," he wrote. "Our ability to completely eliminate fluorescent lamps in all of our displays depends on how fast the LCD industry can transition to LED backlighting for larger displays."
The Apple co-founder's comments offer the hardest form of confirmation to an exclusive AppleInsider report on the company's plans for its next-generation MacBook Pro notebooks.
In January, AppleInsider reported that a revision to Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro due this year would mark the start of a gradual transition away from cold cathode fluorescent backlights (CCFLs) and towards LED backlights for the Mac maker.
At the time, people familiar with the matter said Apple had agreed to implement the LED technology only within a revision to its 15-inch MacBook Pro but was mulling a broader expansion to the 17-inch model and across its 13-inch consumer MacBook line. Jobs' comments on Wednesday suggest the company is accelerating plans for adopting the technology across all of its products.
In addition to being more environmentally friendly than CCFLs, LED technology is more efficient at distributing lighting evenly across the entire display surface and offers an increase in color saturation. It also consumes less power, runs cooler, and lasts longer than CCFLs.
For end users, the new technology translates into improved notebook battery life and displays that will maintain their initial levels of brightness longer into their respective life-cycles. Come this fall, LED-lit displays will also deliver a more vivid canvas for the various software user interface enhancements and animation techniques that will be included with Apple's Mac OS X Leopard operating system overhaul.
Comments
Hooray! Hoping this will come to the iMacs as well.
It's supposed to replace all displays. The iMac does come with a display.
It's supposed to replace all displays. The iMac does come with a display.
It'll start with the portables, for which LEDs are more affordable, and then work its way into the iMacs and Cinema displays "when technically and economically feasible."
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/periphera...lit-244450.php
Apple must respond with their flagship Cinema Displays, even if they cost more.
Honestly. Which would you rather buy? The CCFL backlit display that you know will be at 50% brightness in six months, or an LED backlit display which will probably have years more of useful life?
(PS: Yes, I'm in the market for a 30" display. I'm holding on to my wallet for fear of the XL30 pricing.)
I read somewhere that the first flat panels with led backlighting had poor color range, only 47% of NTSC.
I don't know the NTSC color range, but I currently have a Lenovo 15 inch LED backlight display (for work
And for me, the most important thing about going to LED backlight displays is that it is easier on the eyes. My older laptop gave me migraines. The new LED backlight displays don't. That's pretty important if you spend your day on a computer!
The CCFL backlit display that you know will be at 50% brightness in six months
Shit the bed - is that right?
Shit the bed - is that right?
Hyperbole.
I read somewhere that the first flat panels with led backlighting had poor color range, only 47% of NTSC.
Maybe. But the backlight shouldn't have too much to do with color range in an LCD monitor. You might be thinking about actual LED displays, which do not have LCDs at all.
Given this:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/periphera...lit-244450.php
Apple must respond with their flagship Cinema Displays..
Yeah, Apple could even respond with a 16:9 (or 16:10) aspect ratio display.
Hooray! Hoping this will come to the iMacs as well.
Well, check out what we already know:
1. Apple plans to introduce the first LED flat-panels in 2007, but is dependent on the panel manufacturers.
2. 10.5 is coming in October and will feature resolution-independence.
3. from 2 we can hypothesize that Apple is going to release a high-resolution display AFTER 10.5. Using a high-resolution display with Tiger will lead to small unreadable letters.
4. Since it doesn't make sense to change the display line-up twice in a short time, we're talking about a single revision.
5. That revision will have to happen AFTER 10.5, meaning after October.
6. Conclusion: no new displays (and only minor revisions for the iMac) until after 10.5.
Huh? The current Cinema Dislays are already 16x10. 16x9 is actually not that great for a workstation display, because you don't have room for the menubar and Dock (or whatever other tools your application uses)
Did you click on the link to the display he posted? It's to the new LCD, LED backlit display from Samsung which has a 4:3 aspect ratio.
My point was all Apple has to do is release a display with their usual aspect ratio to outdo Sammy. (I didn't say 16:10, because it would probably just confuse some people, that's way I put it in brackets).
new displays and finally the huge beast 40"+ ACD.
Conclusion: no new displays (and only minor revisions for the iMac) until after 10.5.
Probably accurate. Res Independence aside, the OLPC has a 200ppi display.