It's lights out for the common household incandescent bulb come Jan. 1, 2014, as the final step of the Energy Independence and Security Act takes effect phasing out 40- and 60-watt bulbs.

Radlicht has designed a unique way to keep bikers visible at night with an eye-catching LED light design. Based in Boston and Germany, the company had already exceeded their intended goal with 17 days left to go in their Kickstarter campaign.

When the glittering Times Square New Year's Eve Ball descends to mark the beginning of 2014, the "1" and "4" will be illuminated for the first time in ever- changing colors using 207 of the revolutionary and programmable hue bulbs from Philips. A global TV audience of over one billion viewers will see the LED bulbs, with more than 16 million color options each, colorfully ring in the new year as people tune in for the iconic celebration.

BigBright Malaysia, the sole distributor for Rishang LED lighting products in Malaysia, will be moving into a major expansion for 2014. BigBright is among the leading companies in Malaysia with a strong focus in LED lighting modules and components which are known to be very energy efficient and cost-effective.

Belvedere Vodka announces the launch of its first ever laser cut bottle with LED technology, the Belvedere Silver Saber. Just in time for New Year’s Eve festivities, the Silver Saber will feature a special lighting element that will completely illuminate the Belvedere bottle. It will be showcased during a New Years Eve party with musician Robin Thicke at the SLS Hotel South Beach and at selected top nightlife venues in NYC and LA with a nationwide rollout planned for key nightlife venues in 2014.

Evluma is taking orders for the latest release in its expanding line of utility-grade LED area and security lights, the 70W AreaMax. With twice the LEDs and a higher lumen output than the existing 40W models, the 70W AreaMax is designed to replace up to 200W HID lights. The AreaMax delivers more than light; it maximizes energy savings with controls and minimizes maintenance costs with built-in Photocontrol Failsafe Mode (PCFM) and new FaultCast BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) broadcasting.

Good government policies can help propel an industry forward but bad ones can hinder development. Although China’s policies are aimed at developing the LED industry, the subsidies have gotten out of control recently, said LEDinside Director Roger Chu. These policies can pose long term issues for the LED industry, as the government continues to issue subsidies despite  oversupply situations.

Global 40W equiv. LED bulb ASP decreased 2.7 percent to US $15.4 (NT $462), with price decline most evident in the China region, according to market intelligence organization Trendforce’s LEDinside division’s latest LED bulb retail price findings for Nov. 2013. Global 60W equiv. LED bulb ASP slightly dipped 0.7 percent to US $21.5. Short term year-end sale promotions will be a driving role towards increasing consumer acceptability and market share, said LEDinside. LED bulbs will become the representatives of the global LED replaceme...

Tsinghua Unigroup and Lipu County government signed an agreement on December 25th for an investment of RMB 1.2 billion in construction of Tsinghua’s Lipu technology park.

LED lighting market gross margin index for LED manufacturer Honglitronic is more stable, but will experience slight decline year-on-year, as reported in the company’s Shenzhen Stock Market investor relations activities record.

Philips is said to be in talks with Foxconn in regards to OEM light bulb production with orders estimated to reach 10 million a year, according to a report by Apple Daily on the 26th. Foxconn declined to comment to the market rumor.

As well as thrusting the “100 Thousand Solar Lanterns Project” to donate a total of 100 thousand solar lanterns to the regions without electricity by 2018, the company’s centennial, Panasonic Corporation has launched “Cut Out the Darkness,” a project to deliver solar lanterns and shades based on designs contributed by participants to homes and schools in the non-electrified regions. The company seeks to involve people around the world in the project and to make those participants aware of issues in the regions without electricity.

In this white paper, Robert Davis, Director, Product Innovation & Marketing at LiteControl provides some insights on how lighting designs are perceived by the brain. Davis, who holds a PhD, is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society.

New Year’s Eve in Times Square has become a worldwide phenomenon with hundreds of thousands of people gathering in Times Square and happily waiting in the cold for hours for the famed street party and legendary Ball-lowering ceremony.

Haven’t decided where to welcome a shining new year? Come to Taitung seashore park in the evening of Dec. 31st, 2013, where a colorful LED lights-centered New Year party promises to give you an unforgettable experience.

Larson Electronics has released a new equipment light designed to withstand extreme operating conditions while providing powerful and reliable high output illumination. The 1830L LED light features a robust design and high output Seoul Z Power LEDs to provide a lighting solution ideal for military, law enforcement and marine applications.

The LEDinside editorial team would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday. Before the official countdown to 2014, our team has compiled a review of 10 important topics in the LED industry in 2013. This is a sneak peak we promise there is more to come next week so please stay tuned. Coming back to our usual course, despite the Christmas holiday season this week, Apple has kept up its pace of issuing patents. The company first issued a new quantum dot patent to enhance display colors, then with a flexible sapphire substrate display cover patent. 

San’an Opto has announced on Dec. 25th that the company has signed the “Cooperation Framework Agreement” on Dec. 24th with Zijin Mining Group and Fujian Anxin Contract Energy Management Co. The company will gain an LED lighting product purchase project of at least RMB 300 million (US $49.5 million) within two years. 

As 2013 comes to a close, LED lighting demands have sky rocketed. The industry has finally gotten past two years of harsh winters  to welcome a warm spring. While LED upstream manufactures have been busy with flip-chip technology, LED package manufacturers have not been idle either. Introducing EMC lead frames into package manufacturing process has become the main target for many manufacturers.

Panasonic and Sony end their one year OLED TV partnership due to technical difficulties, according to a report by Nikkei Asian Review. 

In order to avoid saturation of the high-end smartphone market and increase market penetration in India and China, Samsung Display will reduce AMOLED panels and increase LCD panel production in 2014. Samsung Electronics wants to turn their focus to mid-market LED handsets in 2014, but this change in business strategy will have an impact on Samsung Display’s business performance.

There are many topologies that can be used to power LEDs.  But as you probably already know, it all starts with having the design requirements in place before you start.  Without this, you may end up with a design that is less than optimal, or worse, one that may not always operate properly. 

DESIGN LIGHTING TOKYO 2014 is finally taking place in one week. (January 15-17, 2014 at Tokyo Big Sight) In this issue of press release, we introduce the special project inside DESIGN LIGHTING TOKYO 2014, “PROTO LIGHTING”. Showcasing innovative and creative prototypes mainly by Japanese designers, it offers you the best opportunity to seek for collaboration with designers toward commercialization and outsource of the design.

The market has been focused on whether Taiwan LED chipmaker Epistar’s private placement will draw large international investors. Epistar issued US $250 million (NT $7.5 billion) euro convertible bonds (ECB) to Philips in August 2013. However, the company has denied the transaction.

In recent years, LED technology has been the fastest growing in solid-state lighting, with a market penetration rate estimated to exceed 60 percent in 2014, according to LEDinside. Rapid improvement and the ever-increasing interest of large electronic manufacturers in OLED technology could lead OLEDs into the spotlight in 2017, analyzed LEDinside.

Seoul Semiconductor has announced on 23rd of December that the company has been recognized for its intellectual clout in semiconductor manufacturing. According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), among the companies which manufacture LED components only, Seoul Semiconductor was the only one to be selected in the 2013 Semiconductor Manufacturing Patent Power Ranking. Seoul Semiconductor was also selected in the same category in 2012.

GlacialTech Inc., which was established in 2001 by a team with many years of experience in thermal module design and manufacturing for internationally renowned brands including Apple, Canon, Dell, Foxconn, HP and Intel, is a diversified provider of thermal, power, optics and systems solutions.

The team at Technical Direction Company (TDC) delivered spectacular projections at multiple iconic locations during December 2013 including; St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Melbourne Town Hall and the Old Post Office, Newcastle. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to transform and bring these beautiful buildings to life to celebrate the festive season”, says Kain Jones, TDC’s Special Projects Manager. “TDC are the video projection experts who work behind the VIVID festival so are familiar with lighting up and transforming...

Not content with boring black boxes that light up, tech-savvy airfy announces a new way to access WiFi easily, securely and stylishly with the airfy router, the world's first smart WiFi hotspot. The trendsetting company has just launched an Indiegogo campaign with a goal of 20,000 dollars to bring the device to market by September 2014. While other routers sit in the corner to do their jobs, the airfy takes center stage with its modern and fresh design complete with LED lights that can be configured for a variety of notifications.

Tempo Industries announced the release of a new addition to the CLiP C71 high performance linear LED product family, the C7100/HU 'High Uniformity Series'. The new offering joins the original C7100, incorporating the 'form follows function' aesthetics and robust architecture that have propelled Tempo's Configurable Lighting Platform (CLiP) to a position of prominence in the architectural linear LED lighting space.