On 3th Feb. 2012, IMS Research published a new report “Chances for LED drivers”, saying that in 2016 the global LED driver market will reach up to 10 billion USD in 2016.
This report indicated that due to the new legislation and the continuously increased electricity cost, LED lighting market rapidly developed all over the world. In accordance with an initial estimate, the demand LED drivers in 2016 will be around 4 billion, namely 10 billion U.S. dollars. Such amazing performance is far more than the experts expect. Senior market analyst also one of authors of this report Ryan Sanderson said that LED street lights industry is heading in the direction of high power designs. LED manufacturers started to improve their low power residential LED applications, commercialized their high power LED products and continuously sent their “army forces” into industrial lighting area.
This report also indicated that traditional lighting market is deep-rooted. LED manufacturers have to provide power suppliers for their LED products, which is a new challenge for them. Unlike traditional lamps or other electrical devices, LEDs work under DC. In other words, LED driver is a new born technology rather than a new born section. To design a good LED driver needs a lot of professional knowledge. It is indeed a challenge for LED companies but also a chance for LED driver manufacturers. Rated power, the number of LED chips and working environment should be taken into account when design a LED driver. Sanderson said that these restrictions made LED manufacturers have to co-operate with professional LED driver factories or set up their own driver teams.
Power supplier industry has suffered a long term downturn. LED lighting will be and should be their only chance in next 20 years. There is no doubt that global LED driver market will be a “big cake” for lighting merchants. But the competition in lighting market has always been fierce. Some giant LED enterprises implied that they have no willingness to share this big cake with others. Jonathon Eykyn, another author of this report, expressed his opinion: some LED enterprises can develop and produce their own LED drivers though mergers of small and medium sized LED driver manufacturers. Philips Advance is a typical example. These vertically integrated enterprises have divided up nearly 1/3 LED power supplier market. However, their LED drivers are only suitable for low power low cost indoor LED applications. In terms of high power LED products, the LED driver design is far more complicated. Under such circumstances, LED LIGHTS manufacturers have to outsource this part to specialized LED driver makers.