OLED lighting means business

Dan Rogers - 08 Sep 2011

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The OLED lighting market is largely unproven. While there are products on the market, they are almost exclusively the work of innovative designers selling individual products at significantly higher costs than other lighting technologies.

However, developers talk about completely changing our concept of lighting - replacing incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes with OLED fixtures, and providing new formats for interior lighting.

Delivering products that occupy a price range completely separated from even the top price band of lighting products is unlikely to be enough for developers like Philips, GE and Osram to maintain interest in manufacturing OLED lighting at commercial scales.

Product plans

The delivery of Philips' Lumiblade Plus products later this year is another early step in the gradual process of creating viable alternatives to conventional lighting at a reasonable price. As initial products gain market share and the supply chain grows, prices should begin to fall to make OLED lighting truly competitive.

One company venturing into the commercial OLED lighting market early is Acuity Brands. In Q1 2012 the US firm will begin shipping its first OLED lighting products, the Kindred and the Revel.

The products, while designed with aesthetics in mind, also conform more to the notion of lighting being something that exists in the background of our everyday lives and complements an interior, rather than imposing on it.

This article appears in full in Volume 4, issue 1 of +Plastic Electronics magazine, a displays special. We speak to Peter Ngai from Acuity Brands about the company's OLED lighting products, and how it sees the market progressing in the future.
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