LED lighting is expected to account for over 5% of the global lighting market in 2010, up from below 2% in 2009, and reach US$4 billion for the year, according to Royal Philips Electronics.

Philips indicated that LED lighting will account for 5-6% of the global lighting market in 2010, up from less than 2% in 2009, and expects the overall LED lighting industry value to reach 50% of the total lighting industry value in 2015.

Lee Soo Ghee, VP and general manager, Asia Pacific of Cree noted that global LED lighting market share is expected to reach 10% in 2011, and the company expects to see explosive growth in overall market size and popularity when market share reaches 10-15%.

According to market estimates, the CAGR of the global lighting market in 2010-2015 is about 6% and will reach over US$100 billion (not including LEDs for automobile applications) by 2015. The global LED lighting market was about US$2.85 billion in 2009, and is expected to reach US$4 billion in 2010, CAGR of the LED lighting market is estimated at about 49% in 2008-2013. North America remains the largest market for LED lighting with 40% market share, Europe accounts for about 33%, China 21% and Japan and other areas 6%.

Architectural lighting is the major application for LED lighting, accounting for about 29% of the total market. However, with government promotions and fast dropping prices, LED light bulbs are rapidly replacing traditional lighting products. LED light bulb sales share in Japan has reached 62% of the total sales of light bulbs. The price of LED light bulbs from Sharp has dropped to 3,000 yen (US$36.94), and prices for second-tier vendors' LED light bulbs have dropped to below 2,000 yen.

Market watchers believe that Europe will be the next market for the emergence of LED light bulbs. The incandescent bulb market in 2010 in Europe is estimated at about 2.8 million unit, with European governments banning the use of incandescent bulbs in 2012, light bulbs will become the largest market for LEDs, and LED light bulbs are expected to account for 10% of the global light bulb market in 2013.

Philips Taiwan president Edward Po said that the lighting fixture market will account for 75% of the total LED lighting market in the future with a major focus on lighting systems and solutions in order to increase added value. Philips' global lighting business' revenues are about eight billion euro (US$11.27 billion), of which 5% of the revenues are for R&D and 90% are for LED lighting solution. Philips invested about NT$250 billion in the pass five years to establish an industry alliance, especially for lighting fixture solutions.