The lamp goes digital

Companies have been flirting for years with light emitting diodes (LEDs, its acronym in English) that use the same technology as computer chips. LEDs are now taking their place in the sun. The global lighting industry, which handles $ 100 billion, is undergoing a radical change: the new office buildings and retail stores are abandoning the incandescent light bulbs in favor of LEDs, or LEDs. The LEDs are those little points of light dim and energy-efficient long-term. Giants such as GE and Philips are moving their production of incandescent lamps to LEDs. By the end of the decade, analysts predict that the LEDs will be the dominant source of commercial and residential lighting.

LEDs based on a technology similar to that of computer chips, have more in common in their design and manufacturing with a laptop than with incandescent bulbs that Thomas Edison patented nearly 130 days. As the lighting is becoming digital, it is likely that the industry suffers the same turnaround that happened when the television, music, and other businesses have left the analog technologies. Lighting is dominated by three companies large global: General Electric, Osram and Philips. But with the coming to power LEDs, the industry is now opening up for companies like Samsung, LG and Panasonic, specializing in semiconductors.

Rudy Provoost, CEO of Philips Lighting, estimates that LEDs represent less than 5% of the nearly 10 billion dollars in bulbs and plants his company sells today. "Where the market [LED] will be in 10 years? Can be 70%, 80% or 90% of our business. I think it will grow very, very fast. " Until recently, however, the use of LED technology in lighting installations has been very slow, partly because the bulbs were more expensive compared to products already on the market. The first LEDs visas were submitted by GE in 1962, but was Monsanto and Hewlett-Packard posted first LEDs to produce commercially.

Source: CNN Money