For a long time, the Japanese lighting market was monopolized by the top five giants, but recently it has undergone drastic changes. In July 2009, Sharp launched OLED lamps that are less than half the market price, and began to participate in the lighting market competition. The lighting industry has made great changes with the key to energy conservation.
Frankly speaking, from the perspective of OLED lamps alone, it may be a loss. Although it cannot predict the time of profit, it cannot but introduce its own products. An executive from a large lighting company expressed sighs at the sharp drop in prices and rapid growth of OLED lamps.
Before July 2009, the market price of OLED lamps was less than 10,000 yen each (about 748 yuan). However, Sharp introduced an OLED lamp with a price of 4,000 yen (about 300 yuan). After Toshiba lighting technology improved the OLED lamp that was first introduced in March 2009, it also dropped to the same price level. As a result, Mitsubishi Motors Osram, NEC-LIGHTING, Panasonic, Hitachi LIGHTING and all other major lighting manufacturers have accordingly introduced 4,000 yen (about 300 yuan) price of OLED lamps. In the lighting industry in Japan, this phenomenon is called Sharp Shock.
OLED Lighting Market Expands Rapidly
As people's awareness of global warming continues to rise and the price of OLED lamps has fallen sharply, OLED electric lamps have become a new favorite of lighting and have attracted much attention. If the incandescent lamp is replaced with an OLED lamp, CO2 emission reduction can be achieved by 90%. Mao Yangyi, director of the Japan Earth Environmental Industry Technology Research Institute, said: This is the simplest and most effective energy-saving and emission-reduction technology.
According to Toshiba's calculations, if all of Japan's domestic lighting is replaced with OLED lighting, then CO2 will reduce emissions by about 52%. In the wake of Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s announcement of Japan’s 2020 target of 25% reduction in CO2 emissions in 1990, public awareness of OLED lighting will increase.
Many kinds of OLED lamps can be seen in many electronics stores in Japan. In the store, people are constantly asking about the energy saving effect of OLED lamps. According to Deputy Director Hosei Hosoda of Sharp's OLED lighting business promotion center, the demand for energy-saving lamps in electronics stores has far exceeded expectations from the beginning of its listing. Today, there are at least 200,000 factories shipped every month.
According to the prediction of the Nomura Research Institute (NRI), the global white OLED lighting market grew by an average of 37.3% per year on a basis of 134.7 billion yen (about 10 billion yuan) in 2008 and is expected to reach 478.2 billion yen in 2012. (about 35.7 billion yuan). Moreover, this value is a fairly conservative estimate. With the further decline in the prices of OLED products and the participation of new manufacturers, the market should be even larger.
OLED lighting under the trend of semiconductor industry
Taking OLED lamps as a stepping stone, OLED will soon have a huge impact on the industrial structure of the lighting industry. In the past, Japan's lighting market was less than 1 trillion yen (approximately 74.8 billion yuan) and has been monopolized by the top five lighting giants.
The production of fluorescent lamps requires sophisticated glass processing and requires the investment of huge production equipment. Each production line exceeds 10 billion yen (approximately 748 million yuan). Under such circumstances, new players are almost impossible to compete. After the distributors have purchased the goods, they are also periodically sold. This is a traditional business model with long history.
OLED, as a semiconductor product, is completely different from the existing lighting market environment. Like DRAM (memory) and liquid crystal, which are also semiconductor products, they may face fierce competition in the rapidly falling prices and market share. Toshiba Kenji, director of the OLED product planning department of lighting technology OLED, said: In 2010, competition will further intensify, and there will be a 10% to 20% price reduction. There may be manufacturers who withdraw from the price war early.
Although, OLED product prices continue to decline at a rate of 20% per year. However, the industry generally believes that the price of OLED products will further decline. The reason for this is that in addition to lighting, the use of OLEDs is constantly expanding. Now, 80% to 90% of OLED products are used in mobile phone backlight products. In particular, with the upgrading of computers and cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs), the output of OLED products will further increase. In addition, Sharp's LCD TV Aquos, which was launched in November 2009, has also adopted OLED backlight products.
In addition, after purchasing the OLED module, the lighting product can be produced by extremely simple installation of power supply and circuit. Therefore, investment in equipment production is several decades lower than that of fluorescent lamps. In addition, overseas companies such as South Korea and Taiwan are also constantly participating in market competition. Closed competition in the Japanese domestic market may suddenly evolve into international competition.
At present, under the ferocity of new manufacturers, large-scale lighting manufacturers have not yet formulated a strategy for the era of OLED lighting. NRI's former former director said: It is widely believed that OLED lighting will become mainstream in the future, but it is very confused about the pace of development. We actually want to do some adequate preparation.
The person in charge of the development of a large-scale manufacturer said that the lighting company's sales executives have shown a sense of respect for OLED lighting when discussing OLED lighting. At the same time, they still hope to continue selling fluorescent lamps. From the time the existing production plans for incandescent lamps and low-efficiency fluorescent lamps to the production of high-efficiency fluorescent lamps have just been implemented, most manufacturers naturally want to continue to produce fluorescent lamps before recovering huge investment in production equipment.
In 2012, there will be dominance of OLED lighting market
In fact, fluorescent lamps have been excellent in energy efficiency and price. Although in some fields, such as existing signal lamps, guide lamps, etc., have begun to be fully replaced by OLED lighting, high-efficiency fluorescent lamps still occupy the mainstream position in the main lighting such as offices.
Therefore, Matsushita Electric Works, the largest manufacturer of lighting equipment, has indicated that it will expand the two camps of high-efficiency fluorescent lamps and OLED lighting for customers to choose. Toshiba Lighting Technology also stated that it is still mainly producing fluorescent lamps and the next step is to invest in OLED lighting.
Judging from the reasons for the transformation of lighting manufacturers, it may be unavoidable that OLED lighting is indeed more competitive in performance with respect to high-efficiency fluorescent lamps.
It is expected that the major turning point for major lighting manufacturers to turn to OLED lighting production will be in 2012.
In the cost of electricity, the advantages of OLED lighting are obvious. After further improving the performance of OLED lighting around 2012, the product price will be further reduced. Therefore, from the perspective of the overall cost of installation and use, OLED lighting is cheaper. In addition, around 2015, I am afraid that the price of OLED lighting will also be cheaper than fluorescent lamps.
Change the business thinking of traditional lighting industry
However, when OLED lighting develops into a low-price, high-performance day, not only will all existing lighting be replaced, it will inevitably lead to a shrinking lighting market. OLED lighting has a service life of 40,000 hours. That is, there will be no higher replacement frequency than before. So, how to find new business growth points? The answer is: Perhaps moving from a closed market in Japan to an overseas market is a way out.
However, there have been no successful Japanese lighting manufacturers that have gone overseas. Three major lighting manufacturers in Europe and America - Philips (Netherlands), Osram (Germany), and General Motors (USA) not only supply electric lights for small and medium-sized lighting equipment factories, but also establish supply relationships with electronic equipment manufacturers and construction companies. Therefore, Japanese lighting manufacturers I am afraid it is difficult to participate in these markets.
However, if OLED lighting becomes the mainstream, the integration of lighting equipment will have greater development. In order to promote the integration of lighting equipment, Philips acquired the American lighting equipment company Genlyte. This allows Japanese companies with the advantages of equipment and product integration technology to see the dawn of this market. From the perspective of OLED lighting's exothermic technology, phosphor control technology, etc., if you want to enter a market with a stable mode of operation, Japanese companies are still very likely (Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). It can be said that the new competition triggered by OLED lamps will be the next step for the hegemony of the lighting market.
OLED lighting starts to be listed
OLED lighting is called new LED lighting. Lumiotec Co., Ltd., jointly funded by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Roma, (Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan) developed and produced OLED lighting samples. In August 2009, small batch production began, with monthly production of 4,000 to 5,000 panels of 15×15 cm. After the performance was verified in April 2010, it will be mass-produced.
For OLEDs with too high directivity, OLEDs can achieve overall panel-to-surface illumination that can achieve a wide range of lighting effects like fluorescent lamps. In addition, the thickness of only a few millimeters, if the base plate is plastic, it can also be bent, almost no heat dissipation features, showing its advantages as a new generation of lighting.
OLED can theoretically achieve a lifetime of 200 lm/W and 50,000 hours. However, the luminous efficiency and the service life are the relations between fish and bear's paw, and there are many difficulties in the development of organic compounds. At this point, Minolta did not use the usual deposition method. They are studying a Roll-To-Roll process that can be continuously produced like a printed newspaper. After the success, it will significantly reduce the cost and the selling price.
Current OLED lighting is not suitable for the general lighting field. Relatively speaking, it is more suitable for architectural and special fields with unique design styles. The high color rendering, anti-ultraviolet radiation and non-dissipating characteristics make it highly appreciated in the lighting of arts and crafts.
On the other hand, the rapid development of OLED lighting has severely affected cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs). In the past, cold-cathode fluorescent lamps could be used as backlighting products for LCD monitors or LCD TVs. However, under the trend of backlight OLEDs, cold-cathode fluorescent lamps have had to be developed for new applications.
The lifetime of cold-cathode fluorescent lamps can also reach 40,000 hours, which is comparable to OLED lighting. But the brightness is not as high efficiency Hf (high-frequency high-efficiency fluorescent lamps). However, in order to save power, the fluorescent tubes of cold-cathode fluorescent lamps are usually very thin, so they are more suitable for compact applications.
To this end, NEC-LIGHTING has changed the application design of cold cathode fluorescent lighting, designed a number of compact lighting products used in office buildings, wall indirect lighting and other aspects. In addition, Optrom of Japan also developed straight-through office lighting using cold-cathode fluorescent lamps that can be installed directly into existing fluorescent lighting equipment.
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