iPad or Light Bulb?

Posted on October 17, 2011 by novahockey

The Post this weekend looked at the light bulb issue and the phase out of incandescent bulbs. What was interesting to me was the marketing campaign that is going to be deployed: convincing Americans that light bulbs are durable goods and not disposable items:

Philips is hoping to persuade consumers to view the LED bulbs as a durable good like an iPad, a TV or a car rather than a disposable good such as Kleenex, pencils or toilet paper. That way, people might be more inclined to pay $300 for 10 to 15 LED bulbs for a house energy and lighting upgrade, instead of just grabbing incandescents at $2 a box as needed.

“We’re used to thinking of light bulbs as a replacement business,” Crawford said. “Transitioning our mind-set is absolutely a business challenge.”

Or, you can do what I’m planning on doing. Stockpiling. And then, when the time is right, profiteering.

KW, the first one will be free of course. I know you’re already hooked.

See more at The Washington Post

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13 Responses

  1. Unknown's avatar
    kevinwillis.net, on October 17, 2011 at 8:09 pm said:

    I have no trouble with the free market transition to light bulbs as a durable good. Especially if they are actually durable. Having the government put lumens requirements on lightbulbs to effectively ban your standard high wattage bulb . . . not as big a fan. I'm transitioning, slowly, to more and more modern light bulbs (I've gotten a lot lemon CFLs, too, which is irritating). But the idea that the government is saying it's against the law to go buy a classic 100 watt incandescent light bulb . . . Just the whole tone deafness to the very idea of the legislation. "And also, we shall burn Thomas Edison in effigy. Additionally, we are outlawing apple pie and Chevrolets."What could we do to make ourselves look like a parody of wrong-headed government micro-management? I know!

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  2. Unknown's avatar
    Brent Nyitray, on October 17, 2011 at 8:13 pm said:

    Just wait until OLEDs become available for residential lighting. We won't be having this CFL / incandescent debate anymore.

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  3. Unknown's avatar
    bsimon, on October 17, 2011 at 8:16 pm said:

    the lemon CFLs are extremely annoying. I've had good luck with LEDs; but haven't yet tried any that work in a standard socket.And, really, how durable is an iPad anyway? I haven't yet seen one that's lasted longer than 2 years…

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  4. Unknown's avatar
    kevinwillis.net, on October 17, 2011 at 8:28 pm said:

    I'm looking forward to OLEDs. I've got a LED in the garage. And a giant CFL in the attic that works great. I've got an LED in a regular socket in the garage. I'd like it to be brighter, but other than that, it's great. Slowing rotating out the 4-watt night light style bulbs with some LED bulbs.

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  5. Unknown's avatar
    jnc4p, on October 17, 2011 at 8:56 pm said:

    CFL's suck. I have never had even one last as long as the packaging claims."But the idea that the government is saying it's against the law to go buy a classic 100 watt incandescent light bulb"That's fine. We'll just have the Mexican cartels run some across the boarder with the drug shipments, or maybe purchase them over the Internet.

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  6. Unknown's avatar
    jnc4p, on October 17, 2011 at 8:57 pm said:

    I do need to get with the stockpiling plan though.

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  7. Unknown's avatar
    Michigoose, on October 17, 2011 at 9:15 pm said:

    I found around 30 – 40 of the 100 watt jobbies when I was packing up to move. Hee, hee, hee.

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  8. Unknown's avatar
    ashotinthedark, on October 17, 2011 at 9:26 pm said:

    What a second, my iPad only has 1 year of life left? I agree with Kevin on the government micromanaging issue. Isn't this basically the equivalent of outlawing books in favor of ebooks? It's better for the environment if I read on my Kindle or iPad so why not outlaw paper books? This would make a great campaign slogan. Vote for ashot, he'll ban books!

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  9. Unknown's avatar
    bsimon, on October 17, 2011 at 9:58 pm said:

    "Isn't this basically the equivalent of outlawing books in favor of ebooks?"No, because the law doesn't ban incandescents specifically, but instead requires an efficiency that is higher than current incandescents can achieve.

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  10. Unknown's avatar
    Michigoose, on October 17, 2011 at 11:25 pm said:

    KW–your Bits & Pieces isn't loading correctly. I can't open the commenting section of it.

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  12. Unknown's avatar
    ashotinthedark, on October 18, 2011 at 1:20 am said:

    Geez I said basically equivalent, bsimon. If a guy can't enjoy a little literary license and hyperbole what is left ofAmerica?

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  13. Unknown's avatar
    Fairlington Blade, on October 18, 2011 at 2:36 am said:

    Heh. I remember the first time I saw an OLED. Disclaimer: I have been researching organic semiconductors for about 20 years. Come to think of it, my first paper came out 20 years ago next month.We had to turn the lab lights off and even mask it a bit so that we could see it. I was blown away in 1997 when the Pioneer car stereo with an OLED display first came out. Nowadays, people are talking about solid state lighting. A light source is more than 10X as bright as any display, so it's quite a testing environment.Incidentally, the first efficient OLED was discovered at Kodak. They own some of the original IP on both organic LEDs and solar cells.BB

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