Philips Now Owns Those Lovely Lexels
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03.13.07
We posted earlier about the Lexel; "the first fully integrated and seamless LED-based light source technology. It has been designed for easy integration and is equivalent to lamp+ballast+socket." It has been a hit with the high end European lighting designers for fixtures like this zumtobel, so I suppose it is logical that TIR, the company that makes them should be bought by Philips for $75 million. It makes some sense, Europe is where the well designed, high end stuff is in demand, whereas in North America we just wait until the container from China hits the Home Depot. You can't keep them down on the farm in Vancouver after they have seen Eindhoven.
Philips says “We are pleased to strengthen our position in Solid State Lighting through this acquisition,” Peter van Strijp, Chief Executive of the Solid State Lighting business unit of Philips Lighting, said. “Through the successful integration of Lumileds in 2005, we ensured a leading position in Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) for the general lighting market, and through the acquisition of TIR Systems we now strengthen our position in delivering integrated lighting products to lighting fixtures manufacturers. Our focus will now be on making lighting products that utilize TIR Systems’ Solid State Lighting modules widely available.” ::Clean Break
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Small correction: it's Eindhoven (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=eindhoven&layer=&sll=51.438146,5.465595&sspn=0.007892,0.022466&ie=UTF8&z=15&t=k&om=1)
However Philips has moved its head office to Amsterdam a few years back and a lot of the production takes place in Asia...
Hopefully this will end up being a viable option to those tiny halogen track lights. We use CFs all over, but they are so NOT cool.
"the first fully integrated and seamless LED-based light source technology. It has been designed for easy integration and is equivalent to lamp+ballast+socket."
Far from first, many "Fully Integrated" led products are available like the Lexel with similar or better quality.
Just have to search around a bit, but still a good read.
I am very interested in LED lighting technology specifically in retail especially were LED’s can provide a genuine alternative to ‘normal’ lighting technology. I would be interested in links and contacts that will help me in my quest.