In a new light

摘要

Making light bulbs has been a good business for Philips. They were the first thing Gerard and Anton Philips produced when they set up shop in 1891 in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Now Philips, Europe's biggest electronics company and the world leader in lighting, is developing a new type of light which could consign the traditional bulb to history. Incandescent light bulbs have not changed much over the years and still go pop and need to be replaced regularly. Consumers have shown only limited interest in more costly longer-life bulbs or fluorescent tubes, which are mostly unloved outside offices. But the new lighting Philips unveiled in Paris last week, as part of its ambitious re-branding, is completely different and "will change the whole character of the industry," claims Gerard Kleis-terlee, Philips's chief executive.