5 LED Lighting Market
Trends You Should Pay Attention to in 2017
By: Michael Munoz - DUMALUX LED Lighting
A decade ago, the work of most LED lighting companies was
centered on educating the public about the benefits of LEDs and how they
surpassed other lighting options when compared.
The years have since rolled by and major in-roads or
milestones have been made and celebrated by the LED industry and today, its
importance has been recognized, as the approximately 30 billion dollars global
market built around LED shows.
In this decade, the challenges to be faced are quite
different and in this article, the 5 most important challenges and the LED
lighting market trends they have created will be covered in the succeeding
paragraphs:
1. The Rise of Bespoke
Products will Yield more Profits
The market for generic LED fixtures and lights like bulbs,
panels and tubes has definitely become oversaturated as more manufacturers join
the “LED revolution” and price wars take place.
Therefore for manufacturers to stand-out in the LED
community, a shift in design perspective is been considered by most
manufacturers.
2017, is expected to see LED manufacturers provide customized
products for niche industries—interior décor, hotels, bars, outdoors etc.—in
order to bring in more profits.
A customization option that we believe will feature
prominently in 2017 is the use of innovative designs, which allows manufacturers in the LED lighting
industry to differentiate themselves from each other.
These customizable LED fixtures will provide manufacturers
with enough flexibility when setting prices for their LED lights.
2. The Smart Lighting
Sector will Spearhead Innovation in the LED Industry
The euphoria that greeted the introduction of Smart LED
fixtures to consumers is slowly waning due to a lack of innovation in the
sector.
But there are still great strides to be made and successful
innovations in this sector could be the difference between achieving
profitability or going bust for LED manufacturers and vendors.
It is also important to note that the ability to dim lights
and tune lighting colours are played out which means fresh innovation is needed
to breathe light into the smart LED lighting sectors.
Recognizing these challenges, a couple of LED manufacturers
have taken the bull by the horns. And the example of TVilight, a smart lighting startup that
produces LED systems is a testament to this.
In the Dutch city of Eindhoven, this startup installed smart
LED systems with the ability to determine how busy a street is in order to
produce adequate lighting for commuters.
This system illuminated busy pathways and switched off when
these pathways were empty. TVilight’s successes have led to the further
integration of its smart LED systems in countries across Europe.
TVilight’s successes are just a sneak peek into what smart
LED systems can do—in terms of saving energy, beautifying cities etc.—for today’s
society. 2017 will see more start-ups commercializing smart LED systems for
both domestic and commercial consumption.
3. LED to Make In-roads
in the IoT Community
The Internet of Things (IoT) concept which is based on
seamless interconnectivity across all facets of human life has a new target… And
this target is the LED lighting community.
The global pursuit of interconnected smart devices and
systems has created an enabling environment that LED manufacturers—interested
in developing smart systems—can ‘leverage’ on.
Here, the term ‘leverage’ means manufacturers can develop
IoT-enabled LED systems as a means to achieving profitability.
Through to form, the LED community has accepted this
challenge and manufacturers are beginning to integrate LED systems into IoT in
unique ways.
A great example is the case of Tridonic’s—a supplier of
lighting solutions—collaboration with EON Reality Inc.—an augmented reality
firm—to create LED lights
controlled and supported by augmented reality applications.
Its aim is to create lighting systems that can be controlled
and maintained with AR applications. Such systems can then be deployed in
greenhouses, airports or other places where the need to maintain adequate
lighting to increase productivity or growth is important.
Lastly, the ability to integrate these applications into home
automation systems will create an avenue for IoT-powered LED lights to break
into the domestic consumer space.
Getting this right will definitely increase the market share
of LED manufacturers in the domestic or homeowners’ market.
4. Non-visible LED
Lights Will Receive Mainstream Acceptance
The fierce competition among manufacturers in the LED
community has created an environment where each vendor introduces new concepts
to out-do the competition.
This competitiveness has led manufacturers to focus on LED
applications in the non-visible light spectrum such as the use of UVs or IR
LEDs.
In 2016, non-visible LEDs were predominantly used in the
security and remote control design industries but 2017 is set to see it
penetrate other industries such as; the biometrics, biomedical and agricultural
industries.
Although access to the technological components that support
non-visible LED lights is still not readily available to most manufacturers,
2017 may signal a changing landscape in the production of non-visible LED.
5. China’s Dominance is
a LED Lighting Market Trend that is set to Continue
It is no longer news that Chinese LED lighting manufacturers
backed by government financial aid, have carved out a huge chunk of the global
LED market for itself and 2017 is expected to witness a continuation of this
trend.
In the 4th quarter of 2016, a Chinese consortium
led by MLS attempted to purchase the German lighting giants, Osram’s
LEDADVANCE, in a megadeal which was stopped by the German
government.
Although the German economic ministry refused to comment on
the reason why it interfered, experts interpreted its interference as the
countries way of halting China’s big push into the LED lighting market.
A larger offer in 2017, pushed the scale in China’s favour
and Osram’s LEDAVANCE was finally purchased by the Chinese. This trend is set to continue as
government-backed Chinese firms look to control the global LED market in order
to push prices in its favour.
Final Thoughts
Now you have our predictions for 2017
and the question it raises to manufacturers, vendors and third-party
distributors is simple:
How will your organization tackle
these changes? We are interested in hearing about your strategies and ideas to
beat the odds in 2017 which means that the comment box below is open to your
contributions.
Special LED journalist Michael Munoz.
LED Fever.
