Philips: Traditional lighting dominates the layout of the LED industry chain
Philips Lighting is part of the Royal Philips Electronics Group, one of the world's largest electronics companies. Philips Lighting was founded in 1891. It can be said that lighting is the founding business of Philips. For more than 100 years, Philips has developed into the world's largest supplier of lighting products. Since the first incandescent bulb was produced in 1891, Philips Lighting has maintained its position as a technology inventor and world leader. When LED lighting surged, Philips was on the one hand tightening the industrial chain of LED lighting, on the other hand, it was also waiting to see. Because traditional lighting is too powerful, Philips seems to be in conflict with the development of LED lighting. But in any case, Philips' LED lighting business is still moving forward in contradiction. From another perspective, LED lighting needs to be driven by established lighting companies like Philips in order to develop in the global market.
In fact, the lighting industry has just begun to enter the "aggregation" direction, and the new LED light source once again brought the industry into the temporary "distribution" direction, over 10,000 companies, tens of thousands of products. The current market share of the top ten companies is only 12% of the total market, indicating that everyone has an opportunity. “Strong†also refers to the current trend of brands, investment capabilities, investment space and structure, and existing international channels. Traditional lighting is originally a sub-light source system that divides the LED light source into it. LEDs have special characteristics and need to be slowly recognized and experienced. For the Philips-style company, the multi-program is actually no main solution. The strong brand that has always been expert-oriented, suddenly let the customers themselves become experts and make choices. It seems that their "internal and external troubles" have just begun.
Traditional lighting dominates LED lighting is shrouded in powerful shadows
With a century of history, Philips Lighting has maintained its position as a global leader in lighting products for centuries. In the field of traditional lighting, Philips is undoubtedly very powerful. But it is precisely because of this kind of power that has restricted the development of its LED lighting to a certain extent.
Tang Guoqing, executive vice president of the Shanghai Optoelectronics Industry Association, said in an interview that because Philips' traditional lighting is too strong, it is not necessarily a good thing to develop LED lighting for Philips. LED lighting is shrouded in the shadow of its powerful traditional lighting. “Traditional lighting is too strong, and the emphasis on new technologies and new products will be affected to a certain extent. Strong traditional lighting in the face of the less powerful new LED light source, the company will have decision-making Considering that in the face of mature products and markets, there will be pressure to promote a new technology or product. Philips is also quite contradictory in the development of LED lighting, which is understandable." Tang Guoqing said.
However, if LEDs really want to go to the public, go to the general lighting market, or rely on companies like Philips to take the lead in promotion. Tang Guoqing believes that LED lighting needs to be driven by established lighting companies if it wants to develop in the global market.
In traditional lighting, Philips has a strong sales channel, which is beyond doubt. The problem Philips has to solve is that it is both a supplier of lighting fixtures and a supplier of components. In fact, Philips is still very clever at this point, Philips has incorporated the LED concept in its traditional products, Philips did not deliberately separate the traditional products and LED products, but Philips has set up a separate semiconductor device division, specializing in sales LED devices and modules, Philips' sales strategy for its lighting products, including traditional lighting and LED lighting products, is still very successful and mature. Its mature channels are well utilized, so unlike some people's wars about LED and traditional lighting, for Philips, this kind of war does not exist.
At present, Philips traditional lighting products began to cut prices, in the last bucket of gold to earn traditional lighting products? Is the hegemony of the new LED light source? There are different opinions. But in the current sensitive period of traditional lighting and LED lighting, Philips' sales strategy is undoubtedly impressive.
Complete the industrial chain layout, LED lighting business is advancing in contradiction
The biggest advantage of Philips is that it has a complete industrial chain of LED lighting, especially its terminal advantages, and it is very strong in the field of lighting. At the same time, in the field of traditional lighting, Philips is also very powerful. These two powerful sums can fully summarize Philips' position in the field of lighting.
Philips is now paying more and more attention to the development of LED lighting. The reason for increasing attention is that traditional lighting is indeed affected by environmental protection, and its development prospects are increasingly constrained. Second, LED technology is becoming more and more mature, and LED lighting cannot be ignored.
Hong Zhen, dean of TCL Semiconductor Light Source Research Institute, said in an interview that Philips is a big company with brand advantage. It is well-funded. With the rapid advancement of LED lighting, CK (Color Kinetics) and RL (Renaissance) Lighting company) and other companies in the LED lighting industry chain to integrate. From the upstream Lumileds to CK, RL, etc., Philips quickly completed the layout of the LED lighting industry chain.
Tang Guoqing believes that Philips has accelerated the layout of the LED lighting industry in the past two years. The most typical actions are two acquisitions, one is the wholly-owned acquisition of Lumileds (Lumen) and the other is the acquisition of CK, although the acquisition of CK does not The expected result is good, but after all, its industrial chain has been perfected.
Philips has a very complete industrial chain in the field of LED lighting, which is not comparable to any company. But relatively speaking, its back-end is stronger than the front-end, because after all, extensions, chips, etc. are acquired. If you want to take advantage of it, you need a process. The back-end is mature in terms of market, sales, and channels. .
The contradiction of Philips is due to various reasons. Some people think that Philips is right-handed and right-handed when developing traditional lighting and LED lighting. In fact, Philips may wish to combine the two hands, the market for both hands to embrace will be even bigger.
Of course, Philips's contradiction in the development of LED lighting is also normal, because after all, the market share of LED lighting is still relatively small, but we can not ignore the layout of Philips in LED lighting, regardless of epitaxy, chip, package or terminal products, Philips They are all ready. In fact, what Philips is waiting for now is the moment when the general attack is launched.
The advantages of core patents are obvious. The investment in new technologies and new products is not reduced.
We know that Philips' biggest advantage is to have the entire LED lighting industry chain, from the extension, chip to the final lighting products, to the customer is a holistic solution, therefore, Philips' advantages are self-evident. To analyze Philips, of course, can not ignore the upstream chip company Lumileds (Lumens). As an LED chip company owned by Philips Holdings, Lumileds is very important to Philips. Lumileds' red light products are well known, and Lumileds has some very special patents that are critical to Philips. Philips is also making its own wholly-owned subsidiary in the near future because of the advantages of Lumileds.
Philips has its own unique advantages in high-power technology, especially the advantages of red light, and the main focus on traffic lights and car lights, in the field of transportation and automotive, Philips is doing a substitute job. However, due to the lack of blue-green light in history, it seems that Philips has somewhat faded people's vision in LED lighting. However, Philips' control in the field of LED lighting, especially upstream patents, cannot be ignored. Objectively speaking, Philips' influence in the field of LED lighting is still not to be underestimated.
Philips is now paying more and more attention to the development of LED lighting, the proportion of LED lighting products is also growing, and the power of investment is also increasing. At present, the number of patents of Philips may not be as many as some companies, but the quality is absolutely first-class. Dr. Zong Mingcheng, director of solid-state lighting standardization for Philips Lighting Asia Pacific, said in an interview that the advantages of Philips patents are reflected in the core patents. Philips has about 15 billion to 20 billion yuan in research and development investment each year.
The number of patents depends on the quantity, but also depends on the quality. This may be Philips' patent opinion. From the perspective of patents, the quality of patents is more important than quantity. Philips' core technology advantages are self-evident. Some people think that Philips has basically completed the intellectual property layout related to LED lighting, and has a large number of core patents in hand. Currently, it is looking for and waiting for legal proceedings. In this regard, Hong Zhen believes that at present, LED lighting products account for a small share of the entire lighting market, Philips is more hoping that more partners will help him push the market together instead of using patents to prevent LED products from entering the market. That is to say, it is still too early to use patent litigation as a weapon. Philips' biggest competition in the Chinese market should come from big international companies such as GE and Osram, not Chinese companies, but the future does not rule out Philips's move in Microsoft's IT industry.
LED technology advances beyond expectations Philips accelerates pace of transformation
In the past, Philips was the natural leader in traditional lighting. How to align the relationship between traditional lighting and LED lighting is indeed a challenge for Philips. In this respect, the internal contradictions are still obvious, which also affects the speed of their product launch. Investment in technology development.
The earliest light source is fixed, and the wattage, color temperature, etc. are fixed. LEDs can be made into light sources of various forms such as dots, lines and surfaces. LED lighting is subverting the traditional concept of light distribution. The designers of traditional lighting products are not adapted to this kind of technological change that seems to happen overnight, especially not suitable. LED is a small batch production, which is the biggest problem of traditional lighting and LED lighting. People rely on inertial thinking to treat new light sources as old light sources, which will definitely cause problems. For Philips, as long as it sees and pays attention to the development trend of LED lighting, its integration is very easy. If Philips and other lighting companies do not make big mistakes in strategy, it is not easy for LED companies such as Cree and Nichia to drop PK in a short period of time. On the contrary, Career, Nichia, etc. will not rule out becoming a supplier of LED light sources for Philips.
At present, we have seen that Philips has begun to exert its strength in the LED lighting market. There is a view that two years ago, Philips and other large lighting companies still took a wait-and-see attitude toward LED lighting products. Just last year, Philips also only introduced LED conceptual lighting products, but recently, Philips seems to be changing this practice. Not only has increased the investment in LED lighting product lines, but also talked about LED lighting in different occasions. Others believe that Philips does not look at LED lighting, and its response speed is not unpleasant, as evidenced by a series of acquisitions in 2007. This view may reflect the differences and swings within Philips. Traditional lighting is too strong, LED technology is developing too fast, and the lighting industry or lighting company is facing an inflection point.
Philips is rapidly developing in the LED field. We found that Philips seems to be shrinking traditional lighting rapidly. According to statistics, LED lighting currently accounts for more than 10% of Philips' entire lighting products.
Objectively speaking, traditional lighting companies such as Philips and GE did not know much about LEDs at first, but when it saw the development prospects of LED lighting, the attitudes of traditional lighting companies such as Philips to LED lighting changed. Especially when LED companies such as Career, Nichia, etc. have grown from "small" companies to "big" companies, the ugly ducklings have become white swan, and Philips, of course, cannot ignore the future of LED light sources. The trend of LEDs becoming the main source of light in the future has become irreversible.
In September last year, Philips published its predictions on light efficiency in the media, saying that LED light efficiency can reach 130lm/W or more after three years. At the beginning of this year, Cree has announced that LED light efficiency has reached 208lm/W, although it is a laboratory. Data, but it is undeniable that the LED chip's luminous efficiency is progressing very fast. Therefore, Philips does not seem to keep up with the rapid development of LED technology, especially not that the development of light efficiency will be so fast. Citing "LED Blue Eagle Early Warning", "predicting the mistakes of the trend will often lose the opportunity! In the IT and semiconductor industries, if you lose your chance, you will face the opportunity of being passive or never turning over." Philips is still fascinated by this. .
The latest data of LED chip light efficiency of 208lm/W is huge for Philips. This is also what we saw. From May to July this year, Philips quickly started LED lighting products in the world and in China. The release of 208lm/W data, all lighting companies have been broken in the promotion of LED lighting products. Philips' prediction of the future market of LED lighting actually has the expectation. It is hoped that the LED lighting market will start after 3 or 5 years. But in fact this time comes early, thanks to Cree's 208lm/W technology breakthrough.
China's LED lighting market is competitive with the rapid adaptation to success
As long as the company that makes lighting products will pay attention to the Chinese market. For the status of the Chinese market, people who do not do the lighting market may not know much. GE is the leader in the US lighting market. It is difficult for Philips to enter the US market. In turn, it is not easy for GE to go to Europe. But for the Chinese market, the advantages of Philips' global leaders are more obvious, and Philips' emphasis on the Chinese market is inevitable.
In the field of traditional lighting, Philips has a joint venture company or a wholly-owned company in China. It has a very well-developed layout, and Philips has been investing in localization. At present, China has become a major manufacturing country of global lighting products. With the rapid development of China's LED lighting market, Philips will not ignore China's huge market, further investment, and accelerate the pace of localization, are expected.
China is an emerging market and there are great opportunities in the future. Bi Baihao, CEO of Philips Lighting (China) Co., Ltd. once gave us such a number: Looking at China's civil lighting alone, there is a market worth about 40 billion yuan. It seems that China's LED lighting market is indeed a piece of land worth fighting for.
At present, LED lighting and traditional lighting are in the process of integration, and LED lighting is developing faster than expected. The rapid growth of LED lighting has been unprepared for Osram, GE and Philips, and their predictions about the development of the LED lighting market and the advancement of LED technology are relatively conservative. Philips rushed to merge and consolidate, both culturally and resourcefully. Although Philips soon merged some companies to make up for technical and patent gaps, it took time to integrate. In any case, if a big company like Philips really starts up in the LED lighting market, or starts to work in the LED lighting market, it is in fact not to be underestimated. At the same time, LED lighting needs to be promoted globally, and it needs the participation and promotion of Philips.
Objectively speaking, like IBM and other companies, Philips is a giant "bureaucratic" company. The company's process is very slow, and it is really slow in semiconductor lighting development. One of the characteristics of the semiconductor field is that fast fish eat slow fish instead of big fish to eat small fish. Therefore, Philips and others can continue to maintain their leading position in a short time. If Philips does not change the current slow response state, it will be in semiconductor lighting. In an infinitely changing market competition, one day in the future, everyone will forget their past glory, just like Apple, IBM and other changes in the IT and semiconductor industries. Quickly adapt to the market to be successful.
I have to earn the money of tomorrow and not give up today.
Philips has always believed that customer needs are the first, who can provide customers with the best lighting solutions, this is the best lighting solution. LEDs have advantages in many fields. For example, in the automotive field, LEDs are now widely used in the automotive field. Therefore, LEDs should have a good development in the application field. It is necessary to make full use of their own advantages and to objectively treat the current LED technology. status quo. "Philips has a variety of lighting solutions, we will definitely give the best one to customers, we will not exaggerate the benefits of LED lighting, and will not amplify the shortcomings of traditional lighting, this is Philips and pure LED lighting products provider The difference." Zong Mingcheng's words are not without reason.
For Philips, it is more important to focus on the final product solution, what kind of product the customer needs, whether it is incandescent or LED. However, in all aspects of the sales channel, the awareness and acceptance of LED lighting and sales models may be fundamentally changed compared with traditional lighting products. The standardization, mass production and sales models of traditional lighting will be replaced by flexible production of LED lighting. This requires special attention from lighting companies such as Philips.
For Philips, the biggest problem in developing LED lighting is the concept. How to adapt to changes in the lighting industry will be the main problem Philips will face. Hong Zhen gave the reporter an image metaphor: Philips used to have only the Army, but now also has the Air Force and the Navy. It is necessary to master the ability of coordinated operations to coordinate the multi-faceted battle of lighting in the future. If Philips only stops in the traditional lighting mode, it is difficult to adapt to the development of the new light source market in the future. Philips is first in thinking, second in action and mode (management mode, production mode, R&D mode, sales model, etc.), and will face the huge challenge after the integration of LED lighting.
Philips is fully covered from traditional lighting to LED lighting. Some people believe that traditional lighting and LED lighting are a war. In fact, it is not a war for Philips. Philips' main business is traditional lighting, but it also has LED lighting, therefore, Philips' slogan is to provide lighting solutions for customers. For customers, what kind of lighting solution is the best, use that lighting solution, customers don't mind LED lighting or non-LED lighting, customers need to know the benefits of a new lighting solution, he Will be interested, if you hard to put LED lighting on him, he will not accept.
For Philips, they don't seem to see LEDs as special items. The replacement of old products by new products is a business law. Nowadays, LED products are new products. With the development of technology, the current products will be replaced by future updated products, including traditional lighting products and LED products.
At present, Philips' main business or mainly profitable business is still traditional lighting. LED lighting is also a supportive product, which is prepared for the future. For the future, Philips also has its own forecast. Philips believes that 70% of the lighting products in the market will be LED products from 2015 to 2020. That is to say, after 5-10 years, LEDs are likely to dominate the market. In a long transition period, Philips will not give up traditional lighting.
In the next 10 years, traditional lighting will not exit the market. Therefore, for Philips, the current competition between traditional lighting and LED lighting is not a war, but more is a fusion, Philips will seize the opportunity to develop itself in this integration. LED is a new development opportunity and a new opportunity for change. Indifference to LED is to ignore the loss of opportunity. To earn money for tomorrow, or to earn today's money? I think Philips will not give up any of them.
