Poll suggests upbeat outlook for LED lighting
LED manufacturer Cree says that its survey of the lighting industry has revealed "extraordinary optimism" regarding the growth of LED-based applications.
At the recent Light+Building show in Frankfurt, Germany, Mindwave Research conducted a poll of 123 attendees, including industry executives, architects, designers and engineers, on Cree s behalf.
Half of the poll respondents said that they had seen at least a 20% growth rate for LED lighting applications in their businesses over the past six months and, presumably, the other half said that they had seen growth of less than 20%.
Slightly more than half (61%) of those polled added that they believed LED lighting would replace fluorescent fixtures in offices and commercial premises within five years.
Although this particular poll only represented a tiny proportion of the 100,000 or so attendees at the biennial event, and the survey data can be interpreted in many ways, Cree believes that the results reflect its own optimistic view of an impending industry transition to LED-based lighting.
"We believe [survey] results showing the expected transition to LED lighting over the next few years validate the benefits offered by LEDs and confirm Cree's belief that the lighting market is on the verge of a major shift," said Mark McClear, Cree's director of marketing for lighting applications.
At the Strategies in Light event back in February, LED industry analyst Bob Steele suggested that lighting would be the fastest-growing application sector in terms of revenue growth for LED vendors over the next few years.
More recently, lighting suppliers have begun introducing products for residential applications, with LEDs from Cree and its Japanese rival Nichia both featuring heavily (see related story).