Samsung lights up new line of LED bulbs
LED lights are, after all, electronics. Samsung is among a few consumer electronics companies pushing into LED lighting with a new line of consumer light bulbs.
Will you be buying a handful of LED bulbs with your next TV?
Samsung today announced the availability and pricing of a line of seven consumer LED bulbs, some of which have the conventional screw-in bottom. There are spotlights for recessed lighting cans or track lighting, but there is also a bulb-shaped A19 bulb, a "snowcone" style bulb that gives off light in one direction.
"A light bulb is no longer just a light bulb. It's a digital technology made up of LED chips, drivers, and electronics--familiar turf for Samsung," Kevin Dexter, Samsung's senior vice president of home appliances, said in a statement.
Prices start at just under $20 and go up to almost $60 for a bright halogen replacement spot light. Like all LED lights, they are designed to have a life of 30,000 or 40,000 hours, which can be in the range of 20 years depending on usage. Their power consumption is about one-quarter that of incandescent or halogen lights, according to Samsung.
Samsung isn't the only electronics manufacturer getting into LED lighting. Toshiba and Panasonic already make LED lights and Vizio co-founder Ken Lowe said earlier this year that the company is developing its own line of LED lights at a "Vizio price."
Because they are electronics, LED lighting can be packaged in different ways, such as specialty fixtures that don't have a screw-in connector. But they can also be equipped with networking chips to connect them into a home energy management system.
LED lighting company Lighting Science Group earlier this year demonstrated a networked LED that uses Google's Android at Home software, which lets people manage lighting from an Internet connected device, such as a smartphone.
Updated on November 28 with correction to Ken Lowe's title and spelling of his name.