GE Doing Away With CFL Bulbs In Favor Of LED

The shift towards LED lighting has been gradual but one can’t deny that it’s happening and GE wants to nudge it along. The company has announced that it’s going to slowly phase out the sale of CFL light bulbs in the United States over the coming year in favor of LED bulbs. GE is effectively going to replace its entire product lineup of CFL bulbs in the United States to LED bulbs.

GE has only confirmed that it’s going to phase out CFL bulbs but it will continue to sell other kinds like halogen and incandescent bulbs even though they are not energy efficient, however they do represent a significant chunk of the market.

LED lights are a slightly more greener option as opposed to conventional CFL products and this move by GE could very well nudge more average consumers to make the shift to LED lights. GE hopes to improve its fortunes as well by focusing on one energy-efficient lighting technology.

John Strainic, the lighting head at GE, mentions that CFL bulbs reached 30 percent market share in 2007 across the industry but that’s when growth stopped. One of the reasons for that is because many customers don’t like CFL’s slow start-up time.

LEDs solve this issue and that’s why GE is betting big on them, hoping that by nudging people towards LED bulbs the company can come to control a sizeable chunk of the market.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: led