Philips Lighting, a Royal Philips company and the global leader in lighting, announced today a new agreement for Vodafone to become a global Internet of Things (IoT) managed connectivity partner. Under the agreement, the two companies will enable city authorities worldwide to implement connected street lighting systems which will be connected wirelessly, saving energy and making maintenance easier and more efficient.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is undertaking a statewide lighting conversion project and saving some money along the way.

Indian state Jharkhand’s discom utility Jharkhand Bijli Vitaran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) in partnership with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has on average distributed 30,000 LED bulbs daily over the last four months, reported The Times of India.

GCS Holdings, a pure III-V compound semiconductor wafer foundry announced it sealed an acquisition deal with Chinese manufacturer San’an Opto. San’an Opto will purchase 100% of GCS Holdings’ stake for US $226 million.

Honglitronic announced its fiscal performance for the first quarter of 2016 jumped at least 110%.

Philips Lighting will be speeding up R&D in China to compete with established competitors in the next five years, according to a report from China Daily.

Heliospectra, a world leader in intelligent lighting technology for crop cultivation and plant research, announced an order valued at just over US $265,000 for the Heliospectra LX601C cannabis-focused LED light hardware and software system.

Current, GE's innovative energy company, recently announced a strategic partnership with Tianjin government on its intelligent city development during the visit of Bill Ruh, GE Digital CEO, which will enable Intelligent infrastructure by integrating networked lightings with the industrial strength Predix platform.  

More than a year has passed since Kolhapur, a city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, had launched tenders and appointed a firm to install the new LED lights, but the city council has not found a sustainable economic model to finalize the feasibility of the INR 280 million (US $4.12 million), reported The Times of India.

The Gloucester City Council in southwest UK is implementing two major upgrades in local parking lots to make them more energy efficient and environmental friendly, reported Gloucester Citizen.

A Malaysian manufacturer Elsoft Research has started producing 40 LED test equipment that is valued to reach an estimated RM 20 million (US $) by the first half of 2016, reported Malaysian media StarBiz.

Officials from the Maharashtra state located in western-central India has announced plans of replacing CFL streetlights in 43,665 villages with LEDs, reported Moneycontrol.com.

In a vote 7-1, city officials of Seguin in Texas, U.S. approved the purchase of LED lights to be installed in the downtown area, and agreed to year-round illumination before sunset till 10:00 PM, reported Seguin Gazzette.

One of the markedly visible changes to China’s latest lighting standard GB7000.1-2015, which addresses luminaires general test requirements, is the introduction of blue-light hazard regulations, stated the Machinery and Electrical Products Testing Center under Shanghai’s Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted Apple a flexible OLED display patent recently, reported MacRumors.

Europe’s technology leaders in the development of flexible OLEDs for lighting and signage applications have joined together in a consortium to develop an open access pilot line that will accelerate the commercial adoption of this promising new technology.

Universal Display Corporation , enabling energy-efficient displays and lighting with its UniversalPHOLED® technology and materials, announced a collaboration and evaluation agreement with OSRAM, one of the world's leading lighting manufacturers. Under the agreement, OSRAM will begin sampling Universal Display’s proprietary PHOLED™ phosphorescent OLED materials for solid-state lighting applications.

Luxonic has expanded its offering with the opening of its first sales office in Scotland. The business’s new Glasgow base will further Luxonic’s already strong operation across the UK, adding to existing offices in Manchester, Belfast and Luxonic’s HQ and manufacturing facilities in Basingstoke.

The U.S. government’s blockage of Go Scale Capital’s acquisition of former Philips LED component business Lumileds in January 2016, has not deterred the Chinese manufacturer from bidding for Philips Lighting, reported Bloomberg Monday.

Toshiba Lighting and Technology is exiting the consumer market in China, and will be selling all related business operations to local appliance maker Konka Group, according to a recent Nikkei report.

Indian states Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir have become the latest to implement LED lighting replacement projects under the country’s Domestic Efficient Lighting Program (DELP), according to Indian media reports.

LED A-line lamps surged 226.7% during 4Q15 on a year-over-year basis. Meanwhile, halogen A-line lamps posted a year-over-year increase of 8.7%, and incandescent A-line lamps increased by 7.8 % while compact fluorescents lamps (CFL) dropped 56%. Compared to 3Q15, LED shipments rose 18.4 percent, halogen A-lines increased 0.8%, and CFL shipments saw a quarter-to-quarter increase of 6.5%. In contrast, incandescent A-line lamp shipments decreased 16.7% on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

With ties to many major international companies in over 40 markets, Mackwell has appointed a General Manager of Middle East, India and Africa (MEIA) to oversee the business strategy in this region, further develop connections and market share in the UAE region and develop Mackwell’s presence in this fast-expanding market. René Joppi, was chosen for the position because of his vast experience in DALI, Lighting Controls, Emergency Lighting and software development, gained during his time with Zumtobel Group, plus his ability to advise on the legislation and regulations associated with emergency lighting in that region. 

Our friends at OLEDinfo have compiled news from several Korean sources confirming total investments in Samsung’s upcoming OLED TV panel fab might be higher than previous reports, and sheds light on the OLED technology the company will be utilizing.

There has been quite some activity in the Middle East and African lighting markets lately. One of Middle East’s largest LED installation projects has been rolled out by Dubai this week, and under the government project 160,000 LED light bulbs will be installed in 2,000 new houses. In Africa, the Zambian government’s decision to phase out incandescent bulbs has encouraged local LED manufacturer The Zambia Electrometer to scale up annual LED bulb production by four times to 2 million LED bulbs.

Crisp white LED streetlights rolled out by European and American cities have not always been welcomed by local residents, many have complained about its strong glare and unforgivingly powerful light beams streaming through windows that have been compared to transforming living rooms into football fields by upset residents.

Tridonic Jennersdorf GmbH, a subsidiary of Tridonic GmbH & Co KG, Dornbirn and part of the Zumtobel Group, has entered into a settlement agreement with the AOC International (Europe) B.V. and AOC International (Europe) GmbH for the use of silicate-based white LEDs. 

SoraaLaser, a world leader in commercialization of visible laser light sources, will present its innovative light source technology at Strategies in Light conference, March 1-3, in Santa Clara, CA. These advanced light sources feature unique performance properties such as collimated output and waveguide delivery, and provide compelling advantages over LED, OLED, and legacy sources in specialty lighting.

Panasonic Corporation, Japan, Panasonic Lighting Europe , Germany and Tridonic, a leading manufacturer of lighting components and part of the Zumtobel Group of Austria, today announced that they have entered into a patent license agreement. With this agreement the parties grant each other a license to use certain patents in the field of lighting electronics, mainly in the field of control and operation of LED light sources. The specific terms of the settlement will remain confidential.

The Zambia Electrometer has raised its LED bulb production to 2 million per year following the Zambian government’s decision to ban incandescent bulb imports, according to a report from the Times of Zambia.