The LED package market value reached US$ 12.5 billion in 2013, and projected to grow at a Year-over-Year growth rate of 7% to US$ 13.39 billion in 2014, according to the latest LEDinside research report. Tablets and smartphone backlight applications will still be the main highlights in 2014. The lighting application market will see most growth in industrial, commercial and outdoor lighting markets.

LEDforum, a forum that will explore market trends and innovative applications, is organized by LEDinside. The forum is a major annual industry event in Taiwan. This year’s forum will be focused on fields that the industry is focused on including commercial, industrial, and outdoor lighting application market.

LED penetration rate in the lighting market has been growing over the years, but applications and regional market performances has been very different.

LED lumen maintenance has continued an upward trend that has led to pretty good performances for LED lighting manufacturers, said Roger Chu, Research Director, Green Energy Business, LEDinside. “The LED lighting market still has room to grow in terms of performance, but the TV backlight market might be experiencing its first decline next year,” said Chu. “The main factor being LED backlight TV penetration rate has reached 95%. With such high penetration rates and estimated low growth momentum for TV shipments, the TV backlight market will be facing the possibility of a drop.”

Due to the weakening LED backlight market, LED manufacturers are increasing lighting ratio, and prices for LED products is expected to slide further. Since 2013, conventional 40W equiv. LED bulb ASP have fallen about 20%, while 60W equiv. LED bulbs have dropped more than 25%, according to LEDinside market research report statistics. Compared to 2012, LED bulb prices in 2013 have fallen much more rapidly, and various brands price differences are gradually diminishing. First tier lighting brand product prices is falling rapidly, and urging quicker regional market integrations. It is estimated, global LED bulb ASP will be further lowered in 4Q13.

Currently, LED penetration rate is also soaring in the outdoor lighting, public space lighting, and commercial lighting fields, said Belight.com Art Director CC Huang. Many large wholesalers, outdoor architecture, hotel clinics, sidewalks, tunnels, and shops, have already increased the usage of LED light sources, Huang added. At the moment, lighting products consume 19% of electricity globally. Out of these 75% are still conventional, low-efficiency light sources. Therefore, LED light source and Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) will be the next main drive for promoting energy efficiency. CFL has many limitations, leading international lighting designers to lean towards using conventional light sources with good Color Rendering Index (CRI) or metallic lamps. As light efficacy enters the era of reaching 200 lm/W, CRI is also gradually increasing. Future lighting designs will be used with more mature solutions, and estimated to further raise LED lighting penetration rate.

By 2025, the global population will increase to 10 billion people. By then the lighting demand will far surpass the current market scale, and new opportunities are expected to emerge in new light sources, and improved conventional light source markets.