Apple is rumored to be actively pursuing the launch of its new sapphire plant in Mesa, Arizona for a “critical new sub-component,” according to a report by MacRumor based on documents from 9to5Mac.The company is rumored to open the plant by February.

NEMA’s Electroindustry Business Conditions Index (EBCI) for current conditions in North America slipped below the 50-point level typically associated with expansion in January for the first time since October 2012. The index declined for the third straight month, falling to 40.6 from 52.8 in December. The share of respondents that reported conditions improved in January declined to 12.5 percent from 16.7 percent in December, while the share reporting conditions deteriorated increased to 31.3 percent from 11.1 percent. Just over 56 percent of respondents indicated that conditions were unchanged from December to January. 

San Diego announced today that it will illuminate its downtown district with GE Lighting’s intelligent lighting system, including LED street lighting, making it the first city in the United States to adopt GE’s LightGrid™ technology. The new system, set to be in place by spring of this year, will offer improved and energy-efficient lighting that will save the city more than a quarter-million dollars in energy costs each year.

Osram Opto Semiconductors is keeping pace with the constant growth of the market and switching its fabrication of red, orange and yellow light emitting diodes to 6-inch wafers. The German high-tech company is therefore extending the fabrication of all large-wafer LEDs to the indium-gallium-aluminum-phosphide (InGaAlP) material system and therefore expanding its production capacity. The company began switching fabrication of blue LED chips back in 2011.

TOGGLED, developer and producer of next-generation solid-state lighting technology, reported today that in 2013 it was awarded 16 new LED lighting patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and 5 new LED lighting patents by international patent offices. With a total of 47 patents issued and more than 40 patents pending, the company continues to invest heavily in research and development, design, engineering, and manufacturing automation.  These investments have globally positioned TOGGLED as an intellectual property leader and competitive producer of commercial-grade LED lighting solutions.

Grid is a monumental kinetic light installation that illuminated the Hotel de Region of Rhone-Alpes for the 2013 edition of the Festival des Lumieres.

Another year has come to a close. As 2014 kicks off, the LEDinside editorial team  has compiled the market expectations for this year.

The LED industry main logic is driven by general lighting. Compared to previous waves driven by LED backlight and commercial lighting, general lighting is a market with a real value of more than RMB 100 billion (US$ 16.81 billion). It is estimated by 2014 the global civilian lighting market will reach more than RMB 100 billion for the first time, and reach RMB 160 billion in 2015. Within the next two years, CAGR will reach 60 percent taking the LED industry to its new hot spot.

LED lighting over the next 3-5 years will experience rapid development. Whoever gains access to distribution channels will ultimately win the market as they are the key recourse for LED lighting application. Channels and brand name still remains as the main barrier for lighting applications. Brands with control over export markets will be in an active position. Lighting manufacturers employ different channel strategies depending on the market segments and client demands. High quality distribution channels are conducive towards manufactures that have a controlled accounts receivable turnover ratio and can avoid producing bad debts, as this can increase company revenue and profits.

In response to Nichia Corporation’s (Nichia) press release regarding the order entered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Everlight notes that the order referenced in Nichia’s press release relates to discovery disputes and is not a substantive ruling on the merits of any of Everlight’s claims or defenses.  The orders are not related to the merits of patent infringement or validity and therefore have no effect on Everlight’s products.  Also, Everlight have produced relevant LED list and samples in compliance with the Court’s Order.

Retail price for LED bulbs is substantially higher than that of incandescent. LED bulbs can last anywhere from 15,000 hours up to 25,000 hours. EU standards have relaxed recently, dropping the minimum hours to 6,000. In a recent test by a UK consumer group Which?, they discovered that most LED bulbs on the market do not live up to the promised lifespan by manufacturers.

“The fourth quarter of 2013 was another good quarter for Philips, despite the challenging economic environment and ongoing currency headwinds. In the quarter, Lighting and Consumer Lifestyle both delivered strong comparable sales growth of 8%. At Healthcare, comparable sales increased by 4%, while order intake declined 1% as a result of weak markets in US and Europe. The operational profitability of all sectors improved substantially, driven by good sales growth, gross margin expansion of 2 percentage points and the productivity gains, all coming from the Accelerate! program.

LED driver IC is unsurprisingly the upcoming star of 2014, spurred by the increasing demand for LED general lighting. However, the driver IC market appears to commoditize rapidly with competition from China vendors. According to a recent report by Morgan Stanley, LED general lighting penetration rate is estimated to reach 17% in 2014, up from 8% in 2013. LED lighting penetration rate is anticipated continue rising to 44 percent by 2016. Each light needs an LED driver IC to control the electric current and, in some cases, offer dimming function. The volume for LED driver ICs will thus grow proportionally with LED lighting.

Fairchild Semiconductor a global supplier of power semiconductors, today announced results for the fourth quarter and full year 2013 ended December 29, 2013.  Fairchild reported fourth quarter sales of $341.1 million, down 6 percent from the prior quarter and up 2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012.

Japanese technology has always been under the global spotlight and recognized as a worldwide trend indicator. LEDinside observed flip chip LED and EMC will become the major development trend this year among manufacturers display and release of related equipment and material at Lighting Japan 2014, which took place at Tokyo Big Sight earlier this month. Below is LEDinside observations and trend analysis while interviewing equipment, material, and package manufacturers at the trade show:

RGB package technology continues to advance. As LED package components shrink, display dimensions follow suit, gradually reducing in size. This as well as improvements to driver IC and backend system technology is driving up display resolution and color performance. Technological improvements and increased demand for displays used in outdoor commercial, public buildings, and indoor commercial spaces is anticipated to drive up the display replacement trend in 2014. Industry insiders are optimistic about the development of the display market for 2014.

December total revenue for Taiwanese market listed LED manufacturers dipped 0.1% to NT $10.6 billion (US $350.7 million). Revenue for Taiwanese LED chip manufacturers reached NT $3.98 billion (+0.8% MoM) and NT %6.67 billion for Taiwanese package manufacturers, a slight decline of 0.9% MoM.

On December 20, 2013, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan granted four separate Motions that Nichia brought against Everlight for deficiencies in the discovery provided by Everlight in the ongoing patent infringement litigation involving YAG phosphors to create white LEDs.*1

LEDinside Editorial team wraps up on Lighting Japan 2014. Our team spoke to Philips during the show about the OLED market situation in Japan and Hue bulbs sales and positioning in the industry. Other notable events this week, has been Cree’s new financial report for 2Q14. In other fields, rumors of Foxconn’s sample production of sapphire substrate cover iPhones have begun. For further details please see below:

Cree’s has won over investor’s support as its recently published 2Q14 financial report reflected good financial performance. Cree’s stock prices were up 7.7 percent to US$ 67.33, and accumulated growth from the last 12 months was 65 percent. Due to the company’s soaring growth in the LED lighting field, the company’s income and profits have been maintained at higher levels, which in turn alleviated investors concerns of profit pressure.

Maturing technology and energy efficiency demands are driving growth of automotive LED lighting penetration rate. Automotive manufacturers are increasingly more willing to use LED automotive lighting, and demand has been especially strong for LED use in daytime running lights (DRL). Chinese automotive manufacturer Great Wall Motors plans to incorporate LED DRL into all passenger vehicles in 2014, which could drive revenue performance for LED automotive lighting module distributor Laster Tech.

It has come to our attention that RUIMINGSI operates a web site of www.mk350n.com, where the product MK350 is being displayed and marketed. No permission, or license to conduct such business has been issued to RUIMINGSI from UPRtek. Furthermore, we believe RUIMINGSI maybe committing an act of fraud in that they are providing instructions to potential customers for processing payments without actually providing the product. 

Apple OEM partner Foxconn’s Lunhua factory in Shenzhen has begun test assembly of sapphire substrate display cover iPhones, according to Chinese-language Apple Daily report. Foxconn has packaged 100 sapphire substrate display cover phones. Despite the small number assembled it is a huge development for Foxconn. Foxconn has declined to comment on individual client conditions.

Honglitronics is making adjustments to their general lighting products this year, said Deng Shoutie, Secretary to the Board of Directors. Speaking to investors on January 21st, Deng said that the company plans to focus on construction companies in their China channels, especially for engineering projects. The company will begin market segmentation in their international channels, increasing market development efforts.

GT Advanced Technologies Inc., announced a chief financial officer transition. CFO Richard Gaynor resigned, effective March 6, 2014, to accept a new position with a portfolio company of New Mountain Capital LLC, a private equity firm. The company also announced the appointment of Raja Bal as vice president, corporate controller and chief accounting officer. Bal will succeed Gaynor as CFO of GT on March 7.

Lighting orders for LED chip manufacturers are pouring in due to capacity competitions in the LED lighting and optic application markets. Sapphire substrate application has expanded from smartphones to iWatch. International sapphire manufacturers anticipate ingot prices to increase in February, which will allow performance in 1Q14 to be better than last quarter for sapphire material manufacturers.

The energy efficiency of LED lighting sources and design flexibility has won over the hearts of automotive manufacturers who have been increasingly introducing LEDs into automotive lighting over the past few years. Automotive lighting penetration rate has also continued to rise. Korean automotive manufacturer Hyundai analyzed the cost structure of LED automotive lighting during an automotive lighting conference at Lighting Japan 2014. The company is optimistic about the potential of LEDs in automotive lighting, but also believes that the supply chain still needs to overcome problems of high cost.

With the LED lighting era on its way, Epistar has seized LED lighting market shares through virtual vertical integration with downstream manufacturers, according to Economic Daily News. The company has currently invested over 9 percent in Edison shares totaling NT $300 million (US $9.9 million), and is considering increasing shares in the future.

The Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), which is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and Philips, the global leader in lighting, will renew their joint research program into efficient LED light sources with a new continuous Industrial Partnership Program (IPP). Both parties signed the new agreement on Tuesday January 21, 2014 and are looking forward to the continued collaboration. More details about the research program will follow in due course.

Taiwanese LED package manufacturer Unity Opto began construction plans for a new factory in 2013 in order to strengthen their LED lighting strategy. The increase production lines for LED lighting modules are estimated to begin production before the end of 1Q14. The injections from the new production line are anticipated to increase the company’s revenue proportions from 23 percent in 2013 to 30-40 percent in 2014.