It’s reported that LG Display, the world's No. 2 supplier of LCD panels, will build a joint venture with Nasdaq-listed Cree in LED packaging in Nanjing, China.

LG Display is able to cut costs in LED lighting business amid growing demand for the component in notebooks and television sets, adding the company could avoid possible patent infringement troubles if the plan is realized. It's a win-win strategy.

Cree is a leader in China's LED sector. In 2007, it bought a Chinese lightning company for business expansion. But Cree now faces a challenge to transform the exposure into new business, as contracts with companies installing lights on new buildings are rising in China. On a question over the reason of not working with its sister company LG Innotek, the alliance with the local maker won’t create a synergetic effect in LG Display's LED business. But the scenario was finally scrapped due to the pressure of investment and profitability. Also, the module supply by LG Innotek is not steady enough for the time being.

Not only do LED backlights provide increased battery life for notebooks, LG could enable much thinner displays and innovative new thinking about product design. By riding on such merits, product planners are weighing on possibilities of LED backlight business. Analysts say LED technologies may indeed be the way companies can differentiate their products and offer users additional benefits.

Market research firm Insight Media forecasts large area LED backlights to reach 150 million units in 2012 as the technology shift toward backlights is under way, capitalizing on small- and medium-sized electronics gadgets from the traditional cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL).