Boston, MA - December 11, 2007 - The latest Strategy Analytics study on LED markets,, from its Automotive Electronics and Gallium Arsenide practices, focuses on LED demand from the automotive sector. "Automotive LED Market Demand: Exterior Lighting Driving Major Growth Opportunity" forecasts the expanding use of LEDs into automotive LCD backlighting and exteriors lighting--most recently, fully LED-based front headlights. Major LED vendors, including Nichia, OSRAM and Lumileds are currently working with automotive partners to gain a major share of a market that will be worth $1 billion by 2014.

Vehicle lighting and driver information applications will drive the highest growth rates due to their use of higher priced High Brightness, LEDs in exterior lighting assemblies and LCD display backlighting.

"Interior LED applications will continue to account for the majority of automotive LED volume demand," observed Chris Webber, VP Global Automotive Practice. "Regulatory barriers for the use of LEDs in front headlamps are in the process of being removed, which will lead to more LEDs for high and low beam headlight applications. At Strategy Analytics we believe however, that early implementation will be cost-limited and that it will be another two years before demand from exterior applications overtakes traditional lighting markets."

"Questions still remain regarding costs associated directly with LED device manufacturing, as well as the additional application costs of complex heat dissipating assemblies and electronic control," added Asif Anwar, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs service. "This will hinder high brightness LED deployment in low-margin volume vehicle segments."