Dell to Put LEDs in All of Its Laptops

They’re going bonkers for LEDs and energy efficiency at Dell.

The Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker plans to aggressively promote laptops with screens lit with light emitting diodes (LEDs). Right now, most laptops come with screens lit by cold cathode florescent bulbs: Most manufacturers actually offer LEDs in only a few select models.

A year from now, LEDs will be available across all laptops from Dell in every region in the world, said Michael Murphy, who runs worldwide environmental affairs for Dell. By the end of 2009, 80 percent of the laptops Dell ships will have LED screens. By the end of 2010, Dell will only sell LED-based laptops.

Getting consumers to pick up LED laptops shouldn’t be too tough. Although more costly now, the price delta on these machines is dropping. Five months from now, the price tag on LED and standard laptops will be about the same, Murphy said. Dell’s costs for putting in LEDs will be a little higher, but the delta will begin to become negligible.

At the same time, LED laptops will sport a number of benefits. The screens consume 43 percent less power than conventional screens. While that  helps the environment, it also means battery life will increase. Combining LED screens along with solid state flash drives and energy efficient software can boost battery life on a laptop to six hours or so, said Murphy.

LED notebooks can also be thinner than their cold cathode counterparts. This results in lighter, more stylish laptops. In mass production, it also leads to less shipping and manufacturing. It’s a classic Angelina Jolie play: You get to be fashionable and claim you’re doing something good for the world.

Once the largest PC maker in the world, Dell is now trying to catch back up to the new number one, Hewlett-Packard. As part of that effort, it has latched onto the environmental message fairly strongly, which makes sense. Dell is located just outside of Austin, one of centers for greentech in the U.S. (The only sign that you are actually in Texas when you’re at the Dell campus, is one on the door telling you that weapons aren’t permitted in the workplace.)

More importantly, energy efficient technologies have become appealing to IT managers because of high electricity costs. Until 2006, IT managers did not ask server vendors about energy efficiency. Since then, it has been one of the first questions to come up in sales pitches, say people who sell equipment. Green components like LEDs have also become less expensive. Historically, Dell adopts new components when the price delta is almost gone.