After three months of inventory digestion, major epi-wafer manufacturer Epistar is yet expected to prolong its low utilization rate as LED market enters slack season in November and December. The company’s blue LED utilization rate is around 50% in November, according to Epistar's vice general manager Rider Chang.

A common scenario since the emergence of e-commerce has been consumers jotting down product serial numbers and brands they like, only to purchase them online at a cheaper price. Online the same merchandise sold in a physical retail shop is often marked at a lower price. Thus, price has remained the main factor taken into consideration.

ON Semiconductor, driving energy efficient innovations, today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a capital allocation policy under which the company intends to return approximately 80 percent of free cash flow less repayments of long-term debt to shareholders, subject to a variety of factors, including the company’s strategic plans, market and economic conditions, and Board of Directors’ discretion. 

A mutual fund established under San’an Opto Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP) has acquired 50.30 million company shares.

Apple’s Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partner Foxconn’s production capacity has tightened amid high global iPhone 6 sales. The company, however, intends to turn around its outsourcer image in the LED business, according to China-led.org report.

LED is a fast changing industry. Asian manufacturers have taken their own paths to confront the tide of change. Japanese manufacturers are actively seeking collaboration opportunities with Taiwanese manufacturers, while Korean LED manufacturer Samsung has gradually exited the global LED market. Chinese manufacturers on the other hand are expanding production capacity on the back of government support.

Rohinni, an Idaho-based company is introducing the world’s thinnest LED lighting, the Lighpaper. Lightpaper is billed as an innovative way to print lighting and apply it to any surface, in any shape and for any situation.

Royal Philips today announced the launch of the Ambient Experience patient in-bore solution designed to reduce patient anxiety and movement during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations. The patient in-bore solution is the latest innovation in Philips' successful Ambient Experience portfolio, which integrates dynamic lighting, projection, sound, spatial design and workflow improvements to enable hospitals to create engaging, comfortable patient environments. To date, Philips has installed 750 Ambient Experience solutions globally.

This week Zigbee announced a new wireless standard for smart devices, while Hubbell Building Automation becomes the latest member to join TALQ Conortium. In the field of new applications, University of Washington has also come up with the first LED embedded contact lens. LEDinside team also wraps up our latest findings in Thailand. For more please see below:

Residents in Dorset County, UK complained new LED streetlights being installed in certain areas in the county have been too bright, while others were concerned with the lack of overnight lighting, according to a BBC report.

GE sheds light on the company’s PFS phosphor red technology and developments in this latest blog entry.

Ohneka Farms, a New York-based design studio focus on organic foods, launched a fund-raising campaign on Indiegogo to raise US $75,000 on an experimental hydroponics vitrine, the ROOT.

Google flagship smartphone Nexus 6 has hidden a RGB LED light on top of the speaker grill, according to a Xda Developers Report.

Worldwide Grow Lights for Agriculture markets are poised to achieve significant growth as the food supply for the world starts to adopt automated process. Grow lights have become more sophisticated and less expensive to run as solar and wind energy are adopted by greenhouses and plant factories. LED grow lights offer quality for growing, homogenous light distribution at precisely the right wavelengths.

Hubbell Lighting, announced today that Hubbell Building Automation (HBA) has become an associate member of the TALQ Consortium.

The Building Technologies Office (BTO) of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has announced a request for information (RFI) of interest to the solid-state lighting community. Issued through BTO's Commercial Buildings Integration (CBI) Program, the RFI (DE-FOA-0001226) is entitled “High Impact Commercial Building Technology” and can be viewed online.

LED light bulbs energy-saving capacity is being dimmed by an EU proposal to prolong the shelf life of halogen lamps from 2016 to 2018, according to a Guardian report.

Hands-free information could stream across your contact lens, in a device that came one step closer to reality this week.

Access Fixtures has announced that revenue from sales of LED products has exceeded a growth of 100 percent in a year-over-year analysis. Continuous advancements in LED technology enable the use of LED lighting in an increasing number of applications. Categories that have seen the largest growth include LED bollard lights, LED wall packs, and LED flood lights. LED product sales now exceed 50 percent of Access Fixtures' total revenue.

Panasonic Corporation is promoting its “100 Thousand Solar Lanterns Project,” in which a total of 100,000 solar lanterns will be donated to regions around the world without access to electricity by the year 2018, which marks the 100th anniversary since Panasonic's establishment. In hopes of getting more people to know about the challenges faced by people in regions without access to electricity, Panasonic will open up the "Cut Out the Darkness" project for participation to people all around the world, delivering solar lanterns and manufactured shades based on designs recruited from all over the world to schools and households located in regions without access to electricity.

The ZigBee® Alliance, a non-profit association of organizations creating open, global standards that define the Internet of Things for use in consumer, commercial and industrial applications, today announced the unification of its market-leading wireless standards to a single standard named ZigBee 3.0. This standard will provide interoperability among the widest range of smart devices and give consumers and businesses access to innovative products and services that will work together seamlessly to enhance everyday life.

Setting up your Christmas light can be ever so convenient with wireless lighting!

Start-up skincare company La Lumiere, LLC, creator of the innovative illuMask®, the world's first wearable light therapy mask, announced today that it has secured a $20 million Series B financing.  The investment included Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), the venture capital subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, joining SWaN & Legend Venture Partners as institutional investors in the company.  The Series B investment is a culmination of efforts over the last 12 months to drive commercialization in the U.S and continued growth.

Around 25,000 Tridonic ballasts and LED drivers are helping the National Development Bank enjoy the benefits of versatile, high performance, low energy lighting at its headquarters in Chang'an Avenue, Beijing.

NORESCO, a national leader in energy efficiency and energy infrastructure solutions, has won a $43 million energy savings performance contract for work at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, the U.S. Army's largest and most active basic combat training center. NORESCO specializes in the development, design, construction, financing and operation of energy- and environmental-efficiency projects and is a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).

The week kicks off with DEKRA's releases of new international LED luminaries and lighting standards scheduled to be implied next year. Latest market intelligence report released by LEDinside reveals lighting application market shrinked up to 16% and backlighting LED products market up to 13% in 4Q14. Merck CEO Michael Grund says QD-LED is unlikely to replace OLED in displays, after Samsung slammed the door on OLED TVs last month. UK Leicestershire County plans to convert sodium light to LED streetlights with a budget of GRB 25 million (US $39.2 million), while Taiwan leads the world phasing out outdated streetlights with LEDs spending NTD 5.79 billion (US $177.7 million) in the next two years. For more insights into the emerging SEA lighting market, do not miss our news coverage on EcoLightTech Asia 2014 from Bangkok, Thailand.

John Woodward , Technical Marketing Engineer at Texas Instruments shares in this blog entry how better LED flash lights can help consumers improve picture quality of photos taken with smartphones.

Taurus®, a U.S. gun manufacturer has launched a controversial smartphone sized gun that is equipped with LEDs.

Veeco Instruments introduced the Propel™ Power Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) system, which incorporates single-wafer reactor technology for outstanding film uniformity, yield and device performance. This new 200mm MOCVD system and technology enables the development of highly-efficient GaN-based power electronic devices that will accelerate the industry’s transition from R&D to high volume production.

Leicestershire County Council in UK has proposed to invest more than GRB 25 million (US $39.2 million) to convert the city’s outdated sodium lights to LED streetlights to cut energy bills, according to a BBC report.