Economic Daily News reports (via Engadget) that Apple will start using LED backlit screens in all of their MacBooks in 2009.

Steve Jobs had previously announced the intended transition to the environmentally friendly LED screens, but left no exact time-table for the switch. LED displays were first introduced into the Mac line with the 15" MacBook Pro in June 2007. Advantages of the first Macbook Pro LED screens included:

- extended battery life

- instantly at full brightness, no warm up necessary

- same brightness and color range as previous screens.

The LED screen has since made its way into the 17" MacBook Pro as a $100 upgrade and the MacBook Air as a standard part. In fact, the MacBook Air's LED display has been noted to be particularly bright compared to the rest of Apple's laptops. Meanwhile, even though the next MacBook revision is expected in the 3rd quarter of this year, MacBook customers may have to wait until 2009 for LED screens.