Who doesn’t wish they had invested in Apple when it was $16 a share? Quite often, timing the market is more intuition than science. Those who know analog to digital inflection points are watching LEDs. Get it right, and enormous wealth can be created. Time it wrong and you’re left in the dust, like Polaroid.

It’s easy to look back on digital film, the Internet or mobile phones to see when the perfect conditions of cost, demand and technology converged to make the switch from analog to digital obvious. Looking at the landscape today, energy-efficient lighting, namely LEDs, is the next major market to reap the benefits of going digital.

Historically, such inflection points have proved to open a wide array of new markets, business models and product capabilities. Just consider what digital music did for the entertainment industry. The first manufacturer of an MP3 player Eiger Labs has been forgotten to history, because Apple was the one that got it right.

Even Steve Job’s former counsel Randall Sosnick is betting on LEDs. Now CEO of NEXT Lighting, he’s producing highly-innovative, reliable and affordable LED replacements for commercial florescent lighting, which are commonly T8 tubes. Just as the iPhone did for mobile computing, NEXT Lighting’s innovative design can serve as a platform for a new wave of lighting applications without the need to completely replace fixtures. At the same time, Cree has managed to get its consumer LED bulbs down below $10 a piece and Phillips isn’t far behid. These are just a few of the many market convergences that indicate the tipping point for LEDs is here and about to gain mass market appeal rapidly.

The writing on the wall

Over the past 10 years, LED lighting as grown at a tremendous pace. The LED manufacturer Cree witnessed over 150% growth rate since 2007, according to Forbes. Even small start ups like Albeo Technologies have seen revenue climb 620 percent since 2009, to over $10.5 million in 2011. Their recent acquisition by GE Lighting is just another indicator that the tipping point is near. When the big bulb manufacturers get in the game, you know something’s about to go up.

Since 2011 alone, the LED industry has seen a nearly 30% drop in prices. Couple that with increasing market demand, higher energy costs, and improved technologies and you have a perfect storm, symbolic of classic inflection points.

Niche LED markets like automotive, exit signs, flashlights and stage lighting have already hit the S-curve and hold majority market share. This benefits other markets such as architectural lighting and street lighting. Both are just now trending upward, with around 45 percent and 25 percent market share respectively, according to Vrinda Bhandarker’s report LED: Lighting the Clean Revolution.

Street lighting is considered a gateway application. Its deployment is critical to unlocking the energy saving benefits of LEDs and driving overall market adoption. The potential energy savings of LED is upwards of 40 percent for most municipalities, according to Bhandarker. Plus, the cost of installing an LED street light is very similar to sending a bucket truck to change a bulb. It’s numbers like these that Pike Research says will cause unit shipments of LED street lights to rise to more than 17 million by 2020.

After street lights, commercial/industrial applications will follow. Here light bulb maintenance and down time is a major pain point. Rising energy costs also eat into profits. LED can save this market 80% or more on energy.

Once commercial markets make the switch the residential market will blow the space wide open. The less than $10 bulbs from Cree, and soon from Phillips, coupled with the availability of the Next Lighting T8 commercial replacements are early signs savvy investors are acting on today to get in on this pending technology revolution.

Lighting represents 19 percent of global electricity. According to McKinsey & Company nearly $25 billion (conservatively) is expected to go LED by 2020. Palatable consumer bulb prices might just be the juice the industry needs to rocket up the S-curve. Unlike the sheer luck of investing in Apple when it was $16 a share, the writing is on the wall for LED market expansion. That is, if you are willing to look. (By CleanTechnica)


Tungsten for Sapphire Growth Furnace Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.chinatungsten.com
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email: sales@chinatungsten.com
Tungsten Picture Center: http://picture.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten Video Center: http://v.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten News & Tungsten Prices, 3G Version: http://3g.chinatungsten.com

Stop us if you've heard this before: a major mobile phone maker is set to show off an unbreakable 'flexible' screen for mobile phones.

LG said in a press release that it would unveil the ground-breaking 5-inch, OLED panel at a tech show later this month.

The screen is made of plastic, and is apparently far more durable than current screens which are generally made of toughened glass.

The demonstration, reported by Engadget, will be made at the SID display exhibition in Vancouver.

"[We will show our] unbreakable and flexible 5- inch plastic OLED panel for mobile devices. The development comes at a crucial time when smart devices are being used more than ever and at increased risk for damage from drops, hits, and other accident," LG said.

LG will debut the panel alongside new curved TVs and a new series of lightweight, borderless HD Oxide TFT panels designed for five and seven inch devices.

As ever, however, it's not worth geingt too excited about the prospect of a phone you can fold up into your pocket.

Not only are flexible panels still too expensive to produce for commercial products, they are hindered by the fact that everything else in a current generation phone is inflexible, including the battery and most of the other components.

Those issues are being ironed out elsewhere too - but putting the whole thing together in a flexible package is unfortunately still a few years off. (By Huffington Post)


Tungsten for Sapphire Growth Furnace Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.chinatungsten.com
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email: sales@chinatungsten.com
Tungsten Picture Center: http://picture.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten Video Center: http://v.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten News & Tungsten Prices, 3G Version: http://3g.chinatungsten.com

Apple is looking to use 1.5-inch OLED panels for its iWatch, as trials and testing ramps up, according to Taiwanese newspaper Economic Times. The new report gels well with what we've heard before in terms of the screen, more than likely also boasting a touchscreen front, much like the sixth-generation iPod nano.

Furthermore, Economic Times is reporting that Apple is furthering its testing by shipping 1,000 trial units to manufacturer Foxconn. The trial is most likely so Foxconn can get its bearings in terms of actually manufacturing the device, if it does in fact come to market.

The Apple iWatch has been rumoured for quite sometime, with reports pointing to a launch by the end of the year. Late last year, Chinese website TGBus, reported sources within the supply chain saying the device was already in an advanced stage and that its launch was expected in the first half of 2013 (that's now not looking likely). Furthermore, Intel has reportedly been working with Apple on the Bluetooth aspect of the watch to hook up to an iPhone or iPad and feature a 1.5-inch OLED RiTdisplay screen. Bloomberg said in March it would have the ability to receive incoming calls, view maps and record health data - launching sometime this autumn.

If Apple did actually bring the watch to market, it would be opening up a category relatively untapped by companies. However, Apple wouldn't be alone with a smart watch launch, as Google, Samsung, LG, Sony and others are said to be entering the market in the near future.

Apple competitor Samsung has already confirmed its smart watch plans in depth in March. "We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long,” said Lee Young Hee, executive vice-president of Samsung’s mobile business. "We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them." Presumably, Apple would want to beat Samsung to market.

OLED displays are relatively untouched by Apple, as it likes LCD IPS displays instead. The OLED display may make sense on a watch, considering it doesn't require a backlight. Furthermore, Apple recently hired an OLED expert from LG.

Is 2013 the year of the smart watch? (Excerpt from Pocket-lint)


Tungsten for Sapphire Growth Furnace Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.chinatungsten.com
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email: sales@chinatungsten.com
Tungsten Picture Center: http://picture.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten Video Center: http://v.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten News & Tungsten Prices, 3G Version: http://3g.chinatungsten.com

The rumor was reported on Friday by hit-or-miss DigiTimes, which claimed that Apple's next-generation iPad mini will launch in either the late third quarter or fourth quarter of calendar 2013. That's on target with earlier rumors, as well as comments from Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook that new products won't debut until this fall.

Friday's report was mostly about AU Optronics, or AUO. The company has reportedly "faced issues" in producing iPad mini display panels, which have left it unknown as to whether AUO will continue being a major supplier to Apple.

The report, which cited the publication's typical — and frequently unreliable — supply chain sources in Taiwan, said it's "not expected" that AUO will remain a major iPad mini panel supplier. However, the company is said to have submitted panels for use in the next iPad mini for certification by Apple.

AUO must await Apple's approval, the report indicated, but LG Display and Sharp have already been selected as panel suppliers. The report did not give any indication as to whether the next iPad mini will have a high-resolution Retina display.

In preparation for the second-generation iPad mini, Apple is expected to draw down production of the current model. Accordingly, the report claimed that AUO panel shipments are to be drawn down over the coming quarters, and will decrease sequentially. (By AppleInsider)


Tungsten for Sapphire Growth Furnace Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.chinatungsten.com
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email: sales@chinatungsten.com
Tungsten Picture Center: http://picture.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten Video Center: http://v.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten News & Tungsten Prices, 3G Version: http://3g.chinatungsten.com