Global LED market expected to reach $42.7bn by 2020

After the grand success of the CFL lights, LED is the next buzzing technology in the general lighting industry. Absence of hazardous liquid mercury and power efficiency has allowed LED to successfully penetrate the market and has outdone CFL lighting in the commercial market. It is anticipated that LED lights would command about 20% share of the global lighting market by 2020. This will be equivalent to 2/3rd of the revenue for LED. However, the demand for basic LED in backlighting applications would decline as OLED broadens its horizon of applications and would eventually supersede basic LED based mobile displays.

UV LED primarily finds its application in medical treatments and forensic tests. UV LED technology anticipates further development as companies are rigorously working out acquisitions to expand their product portfolio and applications. In January 2013, Noblelight acquired Fusion UV, manufacturer of UV LED technology, to enhance their UV LED product features. Developed regions, though, are early adopters of the UV LED technology; the healthcare sector in developing regions such as Asia Pacific is also contributing to the growth of the technology. The growing medical tourism and lower cost of treatments will strengthen the adoption of UV LED technology in developing regions.

Foreseeing great environmental benefits and energy saving capabilities government across the globe are implementing LED lighting in most of the public settings. The U.S. government has already started replacing the conventional street lights with LED's, which is anticipated to complete by the end of 2014. Such developments are and will be instrument in the growth of the LED technology market.

"The growth in revenue will be slower than the rise in unit sales of LEDs due to the constantly declining price of LEDs; however, the overall market would grow at a constant pace due to growing demand for LEDs and expanding applications" comments Ranjan Singh, Analyst, AMR. "Continuous development in the technology suggests huge underlying potential for OLEDs during the forecast period."

High Brightness (HB) LEDs hold nearly 60% of the market share as it can provide much brighter light with lower voltages as compared to other market alternatives. The rapid growth in 4K TV segment suggests that HB LED will continue to hold the key to the growth of LED technology market. Major companies such as Samsung SDI and RIT Display are investing substantially on the development of advanced OLED display technologies.

Rising application of LED in general lighting has compelled the manufactures to concentrate on the launch of new LED lighting products and expand their production. OSRAM opened its LED assembly plant in Wuxi, China, to expand its fully loaded LED capacities and also to strengthen its market position in the global LED market. The company has chosen the plant location in China to capture the highly potential Asian market. The notable players in this space include American Bright Optoelectronics, Cree, International Light Technologies, Ledtronics, Philips Lumileds Lighting Company, Samsung Electronics, Seoul Semiconductor, OSRAM Licht, Nichia, LG Innotek, GE Lighting Solutions and Toyoda Gosei. Nichia, Samsung, and OSRAM held nearly 35% share in the global LED market revenue in 2013.