Once appearance, dimensions and quality are standardized, product homogenization emerges. Homogenization leads to slim‑profit margins. To secure profits, enterprises have to pursue scale, which in turn requires capital support. Ultimately, many small‑and‑medium‑sized enterprises will be phased out, giving way to industrial intensification.
Excelling at one single niche is the path to survival. Instead of blind expansion, enterprises should build their unique value within the industrial value chain. Maximizing corporate value is the ultimate principle. Continuous product improvement and innovation remain the indispensable rule for maintaining long‑term leading status.
Advantages: Alliances can cut costs via centralized procurement, secure bulk orders, and help members weather difficult times through joint efforts.
Bottlenecks: Alliances may erode corporate individuality and original R&D capacity, and internal division within the alliance will sooner or later occur. This risk deserves early warning.
Capital helps enterprises ease temporary cash shortages and support growth‑driven capital demands. Nevertheless, problems solved by capital may eventually be triggered by capital itself. Therefore, enterprises must fundamentally achieve self‑sustained profitability. Value chain design and profit‑making models are permanent themes for corporate survival and development.
Low‑price tactics may defeat competitors, yet they can also destroy the enterprise itself and even the whole industry. Vicious price wars are a nightmare for the LED sector and should be avoided.
Dimmable and color‑tunable LED lighting had become conventional products. Back in 2016, lightweight intelligence penetrated all application fields, further pushing forward the development of smart home industry.
Replacement of grille lamps by panel lights is an irreversible trend, subject only to the pace of technical upgrading. In future, panel lights will be widely adopted in residential, commercial and office scenarios.
Driven by panel‑light innovation, LED luminaires keep getting thinner. Paper‑thin lighting fixtures will come true in the near future, and the effect of “seeing light without seeing the lamp” will also be realized.
On the contrary, some manufacturers will keep producing heavy‑looking lamps to cater to consumers with nostalgic or conservative preferences, forming another niche segment.
COB integration technology has grown increasingly mature. Replacing multi‑chip discrete solutions is already a reality rather than merely a trend.
Filament lamps boomed in 2015, mainly satisfying consumers’ nostalgia for tungsten lamps. Essentially, filament lamps cannot sustain long‑term popularity, yet they remained popular throughout 2016.
Special‑purpose lighting will become a huge market opportunity in segmented sectors, covering horticultural lighting, medical lighting, mining‑industrial lighting, aerospace & military lighting, and automotive lighting.
As one of the most attractive LED lighting categories, automotive lighting faces increasingly stringent technical requirements. Future solutions may integrate additional functions such as anti‑collision detection, road monitoring and automatic alarm systems.
