Replies to post #610099 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[tantal]

You didn't hear it from me, but GE was rebuffed by Cree in years past . . .

:)

The company is fiercely independent. I haven't followed management for a while but I don't think they've changed.

OLEDs are not ready for prime time yet. However you can now buy white LED's - and they probably are already the cheapest long term lighting source (50,000 hrs expected lifetime). This is important news. Does everyone realize that incandescent bulbs are outlawed starting in 2012? Phillips (or was it osram?) has ceased all internal research on Fluorescent lighting - LED's are their future. There is a lot of evidence that LEDs are going to take over the white lighting market over the next decade. We'll see about that.

Check out the DOE's solid state lighting initiative for some serious information - on both OLEDs and LEDs.

Back to Cree, they are very well placed technologically. One potential weakness is that they do not afaik own their phosphor supply - they are customers. But the phosphor business, even for high tech phosphors, is close to a commodity business, and the phosphor cost per chip is small. One is far better off owning the GaN/InGaN/SiC technology space. Cree is very well positioned there.