Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

If you want more control over your lights and bulbs, then smart bulbs are the way to go. The <keyword id="9679856" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="best-smart-bulbs" source="Orion">best smart bulbs</keyword> offer the convenience of app-based management, in addition to complete control over your home’s lighting – right from the light warmth to the colour.<br /><br />Some smart bulbs also offer you the option to turn them off after a specified period or at a specific time, which makes them all the more convenient. These smart bulbs connect to your Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and allow you to manage them using a smartphone app.<br /><br />We have curated a list of the best smart bulbs for your home in India.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How we do our research" comment="subhead" text="How we do our research"><span data-til="noop">How we do our research</span></cmsannotation><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Our ranking criteria" comment="subhead" text="Our ranking criteria"><span data-til="noop">Our ranking criteria</span></cmsannotation><br />We consider each smart LED bulb's features such as the wattage, power consumption, light colors, assistant support and more. Besides this, we also consider if the bulb comes with app support.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Things to look for while buying" comment="subhead" text="Things to look for while buying"><span data-til="noop">Things to look for while buying</span></cmsannotation><br />When buying a smart LED bulb look for power output, power consumption, app support, and most important warranty. Other than these you can also consider your usage type, and hours of usage.<br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B07VYQZWPR" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B07VYQZWPR_head">                                  <div type="image" title="Pocket Friendly" msid="77290698" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B07PD4DW17</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B07VYQZWPR_body"><bulletContentRow name="B07VYQZWPR_1260005852103579"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1"><keyword id="9679860" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="wipro-wifi-enabled-smart-led-bulb-e27-9-watt" source="Orion">Wipro WiFi Enabled Smart LED Bulb E27 9-Watt</keyword></bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">The Wipro WiFi Enabled Smart LED Bulb B22 9-Watt can be controlled with voice commands using Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The bulb supports 16 million colors and the color can be changed using the Wipro Next Smart app. The app can also be used to create scenes and routines, scheduled turn on and selecting themes.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow><bulletContentRow name="B07VYQZWPR_6522983318327499"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">&lt;br&gt;</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This smart bulb from Wipro is priced competitively and offers good value for money.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B07XD8G2HR" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B07XD8G2HR_head">                                  <div type="image" title="Also Consider" msid="77290727" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B07XD8G2HR</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B07XD8G2HR_body"><bulletContentRow name="B07XD8G2HR_8478311636704023"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1"><keyword id="9679853" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="philips-smart-wi-fi-led-bulb-b22-9-watt" source="Orion">Philips Smart Wi-Fi LED bulb B22 9-Watt</keyword> WiZ Connected</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">The Philips Smart Wi-Fi LED bulb B22 9-Watt supports voice commands using Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. It supports 16 million colors and the WiZ app allows the user to control the Smart bulb. It also comes with pre-set tones such as warm light and cool light.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow><bulletContentRow name="B07XD8G2HR_4346562581992159"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">&lt;br&gt;</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This smart bulb from Philips is built using good quality plastic material.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B08BKWMBBJ" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B08BKWMBBJ_head">                                  <div type="image" title="Good Design" msid="78695777" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B08BKWMBBJ</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B08BKWMBBJ_body"><bulletContentRow name="B08BKWMBBJ_4270569934183044"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">Syska 12-Watt Smart LED Bulb</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">The Syska 12-Watt Smart LED Bulb is a Wi-Fi enabled bulb that can be controlled using Alexa voice commands and Google Assistant. It supports 16 million colors and can be operated using the Syska app. The app allows users to turn on and off the bulb, set schedules, change the bulb’s color and more.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow><bulletContentRow name="B08BKWMBBJ_7114110678015412"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1"></bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This smart bulb from Syska can be easily set up using the company’s app.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B06W2MMRBP" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B06W2MMRBP_head">                                  <div type="image" title="Premium Pick" msid="78695798" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B06W2MMRBP</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B06W2MMRBP_body"><bulletContentRow name="B06W2MMRBP_9169797443140927"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">Philips Hue 10W B22 Smart Bulb</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">The Philips Hue 10W B22 Smart Bulb offers 800 Lumen of brightness and allows you to replace an 80W incandescent bulb and save up to 80% on energy bills. It allows you to change the colour of the bulb, turn it on and off, sync your lights with the music and more using the app. It can be controlled using the Google Assistant.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow><bulletContentRow name="B06W2MMRBP_4812605372827788"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1"></bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This smart bulb from Philips comes with a location aware function and turns on the light as you approach the house.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B08GDC99PX" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B08GDC99PX_head">  <div type="image" title="TP-LINK Tapo Smart Bulb" msid="97870691" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B08GDC99PX</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B08GDC99PX_body"><bulletContentRow name="B08GDC99PX_8901014259397970"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">TP-LINK Tapo Smart Bulb</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">The TP-LINK 8.7W Tapo Smart Bulb can be controlled using Amazon Alexa, and the Google Assistant. The company’s app allows the user to control the bulb remotely, including dimming the bulb’s flexible white light. It allows you to save presets and even create schedules to turn on and off the bulb.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow><bulletContentRow name="B08GDC99PX_9112085786033233"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1"></bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This smart bulb from TP-Link uses 80% less energy when compared to traditional bulbs.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B08JLLP7BP" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B08JLLP7BP_head">  <div type="image" title="Mi LED Smart Bulb" msid="93335674" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B08JLLP7BP</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B08JLLP7BP_body"><bulletContentRow name="B08JLLP7BP_2367127030176701"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">Mi LED Smart Color Bulb</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This smart bulb from Xiaomiis one of the best picks as it features Wi-Fi connectivity and comes with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa support. It is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones. It offers 16 million colors to choose from.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow><bulletContentRow name="B08JLLP7BP_7978962601758850"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1"></bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">In addition to this, you can use it to create different ambiences according to your mood.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B07NN6SZQM" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B07NN6SZQM_head">  <div type="image" title="Halonix Smart LED Bulb" msid="95729950" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B07NN6SZQM</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B07NN6SZQM_body"><bulletContentRow name="B07NN6SZQM_9049618671613140"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">Halonix Wi-Fi Enabled Smart LED Bulb</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This 12 watt smart LED bulb from Halonix can be controlled with voice via virtual assistants such as Alexa or Google Assistant. You can change the brightness of the LED bulb from one to hundred percent and even change the color to any option based on your preference. Other than this, it comes with a timing function by which you can easily automate the LED to turn on and off at any given time.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B07R2VTFS8" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B07R2VTFS8_head">  <div type="image" title="Amazon Brand - Solimo" msid="95729958" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B07R2VTFS8</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B07R2VTFS8_body"><bulletContentRow name="B07R2VTFS8_8863880227870155"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">Solimo 9W Smart LED Bulb</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">The Solimo Smart LED light can change color at the click of a button, other than this you can choose from 16 million color possibilities of RGB light with varying brightness. Other than this, you can control this LED bulb from anywhere through the Smart Life app, which is available for both Android and iOS smartphones.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br />

Best smart LED bulbs for your home in India for 2023

<p><em>The<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insiderpicks">Insider Picks</a><span> </span>team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.</em></p><h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://amzn.to/2M6tGsG" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></h3><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>For personal luxuries, I'm pretty cheap. </strong><strong>But getting the seemingly ridiculous <a href="https://amzn.to/2M6tGsG" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$150 Philips Hue White Ambiance Starter Kit</a> has actually improved my quality of life.</strong></li><li><strong>You can control all your <a href="https://amzn.to/2kSbKW8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philips Hue bulbs</a> by an app or by voice using Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Assistant. </strong></li><li><strong>The app lets you set schedules so lights automatically come on at any time of the day and for any specific need (reading, focus, relaxation, etc).</strong></li><li><strong>If you love ambiance, you will love these. </strong></li></ul><p>I am probably more surprised to find myself writing a story about how wonderful expensive light bulbs are than you are to find yourself reading it.</p><p>As someone who almost exclusively subsisted off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in college without complaint, I can tell you I'm not exactly a high maintenance person. In fact, where my needs are concerned, I'm pretty cheap. I moved myself into my first post-grad apartment using suitcases and Uber pools.</p><p>But, I recently got the <a href="https://amzn.to/2M6tGsG" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philips White Ambiance Starter Kit (currently $144 on Amazon)</a> in a bid to mitigate the many annoyances I had gotten used to living <em>around </em>rather than solving. When you interact with slightly-too-short phone cords and mismatched Tupperware every day, the little things start to add up.</p><p><strong>The Philips White Ambiance Starter Kit may seem like a ridiculous, unjustifiable cost, but they're the best upgrade I've made to my apartment all year. They just make life easier and better.</strong></p><p>Basically, the kit is made up of four Alexa-compatible, smart light bulbs with many light variations. The kit I got includes four A19 LED bulbs and a Philips bridge (which connects it all). And though the upfront cost is high, it's nice to note that each bridge should be able to control up to 50 lights - so you won't have to buy that most expensive piece of tech again if you want to add more Philips accessories to your home to synchronize. You can just buy the (comparatively) <a href="https://amzn.to/2kSbKW8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">much cheaper bulbs</a>. </p><p>Installation is as easy as screwing in the light bulbs, downloading the Hue app, and pairing the bulbs to your Hue Bridge (which is included). It took me all of five minutes.</p><p>From there, you can control your lights from the app or just by voice control using Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Assistant, and you can set schedules in the app for things like waking up in the morning, going to sleep at night, or making it seem like somebody's home when you're out of town for the weekend.</p><p>You can also adjust them to very specific needs: energize, read, focus, and relax. And, as you might have guessed given the name "<a href="https://amzn.to/2M6tGsG" target="_blank" rel="noopener">White Ambiance</a>," you can play with 50,000 shades of white light. If you love anything even remotely "atmospheric," you will love these, and they are worth it.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://amzn.to/2M6tGsG" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><p class="source"><span>Philips Hue</span></p><p class="caption">You can use the Philips Hue app to control lights, dim them to your liking, and explore 50,000 shades of white light for perfect ambiance.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>There are many practical implications of these features for lots of different people, but for me, it made getting up in the morning easier, made me more relaxed, and made me enjoy and love my living space more.</p><p>It fixes a common small apartment annoyance; My room has one master switch, so either everything is on or everything is off, unless you use their individual switches. But since my room is small, most outlets are covered by furniture. Having to shut the master switch off to control the lights at the expense of my Amazon Echo and fail-safe alarm weren't options, so virtually every night I would have to cram my hand behind my dresser to click the light off. I can't explain how nice it is to be able to control the lights from an app or by voice commands - even dimming.</p><p>It also means that I can be in my space for virtually every mood - I can use bright lights for reading, and varied levels of dimmed for activities like relaxing, watching a movie, or lulling myself to sleep.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://amzn.to/2M6tGsG" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><p class="source"><span>Philips Hue</span></p><p class="caption">You can set schedules for yourself, so you wake up to what feels like sunlight even when it's still dark and gloomy out (ie. the dead of winter before a 7 am yoga class).</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>I don't get a ton of natural light in the heart of NYC, and I was missing the little joy of waking up to sunlight. I set a schedule in the app, though, and now I wake up to my favorite type of warm light every morning at the same time. It actually puts me in a better mood. And it's nice to have that be the first thing I notice rather than just the Alexa alarm.</p><p>And since it makes waking up early feel more natural (and much less gloomy), I've felt better about getting up early for workouts. I still rely on (healthy) pre-workout to actually get me going, but the mimicked sunlight gets me out of bed much more consistently.</p><p>So, all in all, even though these light bulbs are definitely more expensive than anything I would have normally bought for myself, they've absolutely been worth it for me. They've also functioned as a nice lesson that sometimes just judging things by how cheap they are kills the very necessary fun of "joie de vivre." When it almost laughably affects your quality of life, it's really not so hard to justify.</p><p>If you appreciate mood lighting, waking up to sunlight-like light instead of just your alarm, or are similarly cramming your hand behind your bedside table every night just to turn off the lights, I really recommend the <span>Philips Hue White Ambiance starter kit. Even at $144, it's one of the best value buys I made for my apartment in the last year. Sometimes, it's worth it to spend a little more for a lot more comfort.</span></p><div id="title_feature_div" data-feature-name="title"><div id="titleSection"><h3 id="title"><a href="https://amzn.to/2M6tGsG" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buy the Philips Hue White Ambiance Smart Light Bulb Starter Kit on Amazon for $144</a></h3></div></div><p class="tagline"><a href="http://e.businessinsider.com/join/ci/insider-picks">Subscribe to our newsletter.</a><br><br>Find all the best offers at our <a href="https://coupons.businessinsider.com/">Coupons page</a>.<br><br>Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/insiderpicks">Insider Picks</a> team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at insiderpicks@businessinsider.com.</br></br></br></br></p>

I never thought I'd pay $150 for smart light bulbs, but the Philips Hue starter kit is the best upgrade I've made in my small apartment

The best Prime Day deals for your smart home - get light bulbs, robot vacuums, and more for a lot cheaper tonight

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>The results are in for the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics. If the brilliant light show above doesn't give it away, then let me enlighten you.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Oct. 7, <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/redirect/links_out/prizeawarder.php?from=/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2014/press.html&amp;object=kva&amp;to=http://www.kva.se/en/" target="_blank">The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences</a> announced that they awarded the prize to Isamu Akasaki of Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan, Hiroshi Amano of Nagoya University in Japan, and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara for:</p>
<p>"...having invented a new energy-efficient and environment-friendly light source - the blue light-emitting diode (LED). In the spirit of Alfred Nobel the Prize rewards an invention of greatest benefit to mankind; using blue LEDs, white light can be created in a new way. With the advent of LED lamps we now have more long-lasting and more efficient alternatives to older light sources."</p>
<p>That's all well and good, but it seems like a pretty simple invention - a better light bulb - and simple inventions don't win Nobel prizes. So why was their work so special?</p>
<p>Why is a blue lightbulb worthy of the world's most prestigious physics award? Let's start with all of the important applications that the blue LED led to, specifically.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<h2>Important Applications</h2>
<p>The blue LED was so highly coveted because with it, <strong>companies could combine blue with red and green light to produce white light</strong> and compete with the other commercially-available white incandescent lights.</p>
<p>White LED lamps are 50% more efficient at converting electrical energy into light compared to incandescent light bulbs. The result is that LEDs last for about 100,000 hours, which is 100 times longer than your average incandescent lights and 10 times longer than fluorescent lights.</p>
<p>If the U.S. replaced all of its lights with LEDs, it would <a href="http://www.insidescience.org/content/three-physicists-share-physics-nobel-prize-blue-leds/2146">reduce energy consumption by about 20 percent,</a> Christian Wetzel, a professor of physics at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York told <a href="http://www.insidescience.org/">Inside Science</a>. This reduction would mean that utility companies would not need to invest in building new power plants.</p>
<p>That also means a lot less waste: Since the bulbs last longer, we would throw fewer dead light bulbs out. And since LEDs use less energy, it's easier to power them with renewable energy sources like solar power, which has huge applications in areas of the world where power is scarce. </p>
<p>"The LED lamp holds great promise for <strong>increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around the world</strong> who lack access to electricity grids: due to low power requirements it can be powered by cheap local solar power," The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences stated in their <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2014/press.html">press release</a>.</p>
<p>But, today's white LED-emitting technology are more than just better light bulbs.</p>
<p>Multi-color LEDs light up the screens on your smartphone, tablet, and laptop computer. The advent of the blue LED has also led to higher-energy LEDs called ultraviolet LEDs that offer an <strong>inexpensive way to sterilize water, which is especially useful in developing countries with limited access to clean drinking water.</strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<h2><strong>Why blue claims the Nobel Prize</strong></h2>
<p>But why does the blue LED, specifically, get the prize, as opposed to red or green LEDs?</p>
<p>LEDs, unlike incandescent or fluorescent lights, generate light through a phenomenon called electroluminescence: A material emits light in response to an electric current passing through. The wavelength of the light emitted depends on the materials used.</p>
<p>In 1962, Nick Holonyak, Jr., who was then a consulting scientist at General Electric Company, developed the first visible-light LED: Red. Five years later George Craford invented <a href="http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/components/led-lighting/50-year-history-of-the-led-2012-10/">the green LED</a>. But the blue LED would not come easily.</p>
<p><strong>It took another 27 years to create a blue LED.</strong></p>
<p>The reason it took so long to produce this color of LED was because the technology and materials just weren't there until the 90s.</p>
<p>"At the risk of oversimplifying all of solid-state physics, the key to building any LED is to find the right material to serve as the semiconductor 'die' in the diode," <a href="https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/why-blue-leds-are-worth-a-nobel-prize-2b5ff8c22803">Ethen Siegal</a> writes in Medium. "...while many different types of materials emitted red, yellow and green light, a blue LED was elusive."</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>The material used to make these other LEDs was gallium arsenide phosphide, but this material can't produce the higher-energy blue light. It was not until 1994, after years of research, when Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura discovered that gallium nitride held the key. The three scientists succeeded where many had failed.</p>
<p>"A lot of big companies really tried to do this and they failed. But these guys persisted and they tried, and tried again, and eventually they actually succeeded," said Per Delsing, the chairman of the Nobel Committee, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6qnXWbt2PE">in an interview</a>.</p>
<p>These LEDs do have one downside: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/smartphones-effect-on-vision-and-health-2014-9">All of this blue light is messing with our sleep</a>.</p>

Why Did A Lightbulb Win The Nobel Prize?

<p><em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insiderpicks" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.businessinsider.com/insiderpicks&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1551904003606000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGicoaJ_dTNpkDbIWqxa6BV9RjxNw">Insider Picks</a><span> </span>writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.</em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GWKB1ZS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=biip_032719_philips-hue-lightstrip-outdoor-product-review-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=B07GWKB1ZS&amp;linkId=4c122dd13028247f4c8cb013f6a7e0e7" target="_blank" title="The Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus has 16 million color options, so it will match your current space or create the vibe you're looking for." rel="noopener"></a><p class="source"><span>Philips hue</span></p><p class="caption">The Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus has 16 million color options, so it will match your current space or create the vibe you're looking for.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Outdoor light strips can add brightness and personality to any space and setting. The only problem is that there aren't many smart light strips that also look good themselves.</strong></li><li>The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GWKB1ZS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=biip_032719_philips-hue-lightstrip-outdoor-product-review-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=B07GWKB1ZS&amp;linkId=4c122dd13028247f4c8cb013f6a7e0e7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philips Hue Lightstrip Outdoor (currently $90 on Amazon)</a> is a great option despite the price and inevitable thickness of an outdoor light strip; it's not awful on the eyes and can make a dark or lackluster outdoor setting look great instantly.</li><li>The drawbacks are justified by its compatibility with the full suite of Philips Hue products and three major smart home systems for a fully integrated set up.</li></ul><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Philips Hue range of indoor lighting is arguably the best way to get smart lights at a reasonable price; they all work with a range of smart home ecosystems, are easy to install, and easier to use. Now, Philips has expanded its offerings into the outdoor space with its <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GWKB1ZS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=biip_032719_philips-hue-lightstrip-outdoor-product-review-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=B07GWKB1ZS&amp;linkId=4c122dd13028247f4c8cb013f6a7e0e7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philips Hue Lightstrip Outdoor</a>. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They're not cheap but can be worth the long-term investment depending on your smart home set up. Strips start at around $90 for the short 7-foot style and can go up to $159.99 for the longer 16-foot model, which means you'll want to ensure that they're the right light strip for you.  </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p><h2><strong>Design </strong></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GWKB1ZS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=biip_032719_philips-hue-lightstrip-outdoor-product-review-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=B07GWKB1ZS&amp;linkId=4c122dd13028247f4c8cb013f6a7e0e7" target="_blank" title="It's thicker than the indoor version of the light strip to weather elements like rain, but still flexible enough to go around corners or bend however you need." rel="noopener"></a><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p><p class="caption">It's thicker than the indoor version of the light strip to weather elements like rain, but still flexible enough to go around corners or bend however you need.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GWKB1ZS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=biip_032719_philips-hue-lightstrip-outdoor-product-review-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=B07GWKB1ZS&amp;linkId=4c122dd13028247f4c8cb013f6a7e0e7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philips Hue Lightstrip Outdoor</a> is clearly meant for outdoor use. It's a lot thicker and str<span style="color: #000000;">onger than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/philips-hue-light-strip-plus-review">the indoor version</a>, which makes sense because it needs to withstand elements like rain and sun as well a</span>s other hazards like animals and curious tiny humans. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The light strip itself is covered with protective synthetic silicone and even comes with a two-year warranty, so you know Philips is confident in its device.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While the silicone protects the light strip from the elements, it's not the best-looking covering out there so you'll want to carefully consider where you place it. The light strip is thick and chunky so it'll definitely stand out if you put it right on top of grass (unless that's done on purpose), but I've found that it can work very well in spaces like under patio tables or along walkways so it can be easily hidden or integrated. Obviously, it all just comes down to personal preference.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As mentioned before, the light strip comes in two different lengths - 7 feet and 16 feet. Unli<span style="color: #000000;">ke <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/philips-hue-light-strip-plus-review">the indoor Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus</a>, the outdoor light strip can't be cut to fit its environment, so you'll want to</span> make sure that the length will be appropriate wherever you want to put it. That said, the light strip is relatively flexible and can be bent to hug curves and corners, which can be very handy for small spaces.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/philips-hue-white-ambiance-starter-kit-review-2018-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I never thought I'd pay $150 for smart light bulbs, but the Philips Hue starter kit is the best upgrade I've made in my small apartment</a></em></span></p><h2><strong>Specs </strong></h2><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">7 or 16 feet depending on model</span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Works in -4 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit</span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Supports 16 million colors</span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0.43 inches wide and 0.78 inches tall</span></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">IP67 rating</span></li></ul><h2><strong>Set up process </strong></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Hue-Stand-Alone-Bridge/dp/B016H0QZ7I/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=biip_032619_philips-hue-lightstrip-product-review-20&amp;linkId=ea1d3276a366b24bc3098b65e6c374ca&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank" title="The Philips Hue Smart Bridge is essential if you're planning to incorporate more Philips Hue  smart lights into your space." rel="noopener"></a><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p><p class="caption">The Philips Hue Smart Bridge is essential if you're planning to incorporate more Philips Hue  smart lights into your space.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the box, you'll get the light strip, power adapter, </span>U-shaped mounting brackets, and screws. Place the light strip wherever you want, secure with brackets (or not, depending where and how you want to use the light strip), and you're done. What might take you an additional minute is the app set up, which is still easy even if you aren't familiar with Philips Hue products. </p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So instead of connecting directly to Wi-Fi like some smart lights do, Philips Hue lights connect to the <a href="https://amzn.to/2FHluNa">Philips Hue Smart Bridge (currently $39.96 on Amazon)</a>; y</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">our smart home devices like Amazon Alexa then communicate with this central hub instead of directly with the lights. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you're setting up the Bridge for the first time along with the light strip, download the free Philips Hue app on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/philips-hue/id1055281310?mt=8">iOS</a> or <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.philips.lighting.hue2&amp;hl=en_US">Android</a>, create an account, and follow the on-screen instructions. Then you'll be able to easily add the light strip and any other Philips Hue products to your set up.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you've already got a Bridge, well, you can just add the light strip and go on with your well-lit life.</span></p><h2><strong>What makes it stand out</strong></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GWKB1ZS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=biip_032719_philips-hue-lightstrip-outdoor-product-review-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=B07GWKB1ZS&amp;linkId=4c122dd13028247f4c8cb013f6a7e0e7" target="_blank" title="The Philips Hue Lightstrip Outdoor is great underneath patios, stairs, or tables for accent lighting." rel="noopener"></a><p class="source"><span>Philips hue</span></p><p class="caption">The Philips Hue Lightstrip Outdoor is great underneath patios, stairs, or tables for accent lighting.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are a few things that make the range of Philips Hue lights better than other smart lights. For starters, they're generally pretty reliable and responsive, which is likely due to the fact that they communicate with the hub instead of directly through Wi-Fi. Philips Hue lights also work well with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple's HomeKit, so if you have a major smart home ecosystem, then the lights should integrate perfectly.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0167H33DU/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=biip_032719_philips-hue-lightstrip-outdoor-product-review-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=B0167H33DU&amp;linkId=c9dd52ee3bb6ce748a5235ce49e32543" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus</a> is also actually one of the few outdoor smart light strips on the market right now, but even if it weren't, I think it'd still be one of the better options out there because it's from a reputable brand and is compatible with the rest of the </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Philips Hue ecosystem. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When it comes to brightness and color support, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GWKB1ZS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=biip_032719_philips-hue-lightstrip-outdoor-product-review-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=B07GWKB1ZS&amp;linkId=4c122dd13028247f4c8cb013f6a7e0e7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lightstrip Outdoor</a> looks great. It can change to pretty much any color you can imagine and I've found that it could get really bright, which is great for the night time.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-smart-light-strip" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The best smart light strips you can buy</a></em></span></p><h2><strong>Cons to consider</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As mentioned, the unit is a little chunky but can still look good if placed carefully and within certain environments. It might limit your options but it's better than having no light at all. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The other main downside, however, is that even the shorter device is expensive at $90. That wouldn't be as much of an issue if there were many other options, but there aren't. If you want a smart outdoor light strip, this is pretty much your best and only option so you may have to save up a little - especially if you want the longer model. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></p><h2><strong>The bottom line</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Philips Hue Lightstrip Outdoor may be a little chunky and expensive, but it's still one of the best smart light strips for outdoor use and well worth buying - especially if you have other Philips Hue products set up and want the device to integrate with your existing lighting or smart home system. The light strip supports a wide range of colors and can get relatively bright too, so it should help make any outdoor environment look a whole lot easier to walk around.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></p><p><strong>Pros: </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wide range of colors, high level of brightness, works with range of smart home ecosystems, easy to use and install</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span><strong>Cons: </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">Expensive, a little chunky, can't be cut down to preferences</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p><h3><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GWKB1ZS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=biip_032719_philips-hue-lightstrip-outdoor-product-review-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=B07GWKB1ZS&amp;linkId=4c122dd13028247f4c8cb013f6a7e0e7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buy the Philips Hue Lightstrip Outdoor on Amazon for $89.99-$159.99</a></h3><p class="tagline"><a href="http://e.businessinsider.com/join/ci/insider-picks">Subscribe to our newsletter.</a><br><br>Find all the best offers at our <a href="https://coupons.businessinsider.com/">Coupons page</a>.<br><br>Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/insiderpicks">Insider Picks</a> team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at insiderpicks@businessinsider.com.</br></br></br></br></p>

These Philips Hue outdoor light strips can brighten your backyard, patio, or stairs - and they only take 10 minutes to install

<ul><li>In Q3, Signify was 64% carbon neutral and 79% of its revenue came from sustainable products. It will be executing the same programs to reduce its carbon footprint in India to drive sustainable revenues. </li><li>On the other hand, the brand also aims to become an intelligent software company that offers lighting solutions designed for the IoT world. It invests 4.5% of its global budget on R&amp;D and its latest bet is LiFi. </li><li>Signify currently spends only 5% on digital and 55% of its overall marketing spends on TV, here is why...</li></ul>Philips Lighting, for more than a century, has remained synonymous to bulbs across the globe. Being one of the first in its category, Philips started its operations in India back in 1931 and now, after renewing its brand name to Signify Innovations, aims to become an intelligent software company that offers lighting solutions designed for the IoT world. <br /><br />‘Lighting can now make every home smarter, cities safer and offices more energy efficient’ and Signify aims to drive this change across the world. Currently, the Indian lighting industry is worth Rs 15,000 crore with LED lighting constituting almost 80% of this. <br /><br />Last year, Signify invested 4.5% of its global sales on Research and Development (R&amp;D) and its latest innovative bet is on Light Fidelity (LiFi), a technology in which high quality LED lighting provides a stable and fast broadband Internet connection through light waves. The company has installed 7 LiFi pilot stations in India across different segments and on the other hand, it also aiming to gain 80% of its revenues from sustainable products. <br /><br />While the company is focusing more on innovation and technology, it continues to spend 55% of its marketing monnies on television and only 5% goes to digital. <br /><br />Sumit Padmakar Joshi, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, <keyword id="7600657" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Signify-Innovations-India">Signify Innovations India</keyword>, has led the company through this transformation. He talks to us about the vision for Signify, its plan to recover from the ‘slightly muted’ quarter, making the company sustainable, and much more. <br /><br />Excerpts:<br /><br /><strong>Q. What have some of the key highlights of your journey with the brand been?</strong><br />One of the key highlights of my journey here has been the transformation of the company from a bulb manufacturer to a software company, now offering lighting solutions designed for the IoT world. Our new company name – Signify reflects our company’s purpose – the meaning of light. Light is now a language and can be used to transmit data via LiFi or communicate with other devices via the IoT. Moving away from a pure hardware manufacturer, we have transformed into a company that offers not just lighting but also important business insights and data that can help our customers become smarter and more productive. Leading the company through this phase has been an exciting journey so far. <br /><br /><strong>Q. Why did the brand change its name from Philips to Signify, considering Philips is a household name in India? </strong><br />Founded as Philips in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, we’ve led the lighting industry with innovations that serve professional and consumer markets for over 127 years. In 2016, we spun off from Philips, becoming a separate company, listed on Amsterdam’s Euronext Stock Exchange. <br /><br />The renaming of our company was the next logical step in our transformation journey since we became a standalone company in 2016. We changed our company name in line with contractual requirements of the Company Name License agreement with Royal Philips, which requires that we change our company name after Royal Philips, who no longer has a controlling interest. <br /><br />Signify will continue to use the Philips brand for its products, under the existing licensing agreement with Royal Philips. The choice of our new company name originates from the way light has become an intelligent language, which connects and conveys meaning. It’s a clear expression of our strategic vision and purpose to unlock the extraordinary potential of light for brighter lives and a better world. We believe that our new name will further shape our company’s profile as both the world leader in lighting and the lighting company for the Internet of Things.<br /><br /><strong>Q. We have seen advanced technology and innovations at Signify now, where did Signify source that new technology?</strong><br />We invest heavily in R&amp;D to stay at the forefront of technological developments. In 2018, we invested 4.5% of our global sales in R&amp;D. We spot an opportunity which nobody focuses on and grow in that segment by coming up with futuristic solutions.<br /><br />As a leader in lighting, we innovate, design, build, and deliver world-class lighting systems embedded with intelligence and connected through software to deliver capability to manage, monitor and control lighting assets, enable data harvesting and analysis for improvement of lighting operation and business performance. We are positioning ourselves as the lighting company for the Internet of Things. <br /><br />We recently announced the launch of our Interact IoT platform for connected lighting, which will enable our professional customers to unlock the full potential of their connected lighting assets. The platform delivers new insights to help customers drive operational efficiencies and take more effective decisions. It also supports our company’s strategy to deliver new data-enabled services as value expands from lighting products and systems to services.<br /><br /><strong>Q. Talking about innovations, are you seeing LiFi changing the game in India? How has the response been so far? </strong><br />Light Fidelity (LiFi) is a technology in which high quality LED lighting provides a stable and fast broadband Internet connection through light waves. Unlike other forms of wireless communications (WiFi, 4G/5G, Bluetooth, etc.) that use radio waves, LiFi uses the broader spectrum of light waves to transmit and receive data wirelessly. LiFi’s bandwidth is more than 1,000 times the size of the radio spectrum. LiFi works in such a way that each luminaire is equipped with a built-in modem that modulates light at speeds imperceptible to the human eye. The light is detected by a USB access key/dongle plugged into the socket of a laptop or tablet (in the future such technology will be inbuilt into laptops, mobile phones, and devices). The USB access key returns data to the luminaire through an infrared link.<br /><br />While radio frequencies are becoming congested, with more devices trying to connect and overloading networks, the visible light spectrum is an untapped resource with a large bandwidth suitable for stable simultaneous connection for a vast array of Internet of Things devices.<br /><br />With our efforts and constant drive for LiFi in the market, we already have 7 pilot installations in India across different segments, including banks, Information technology, Co-Working spaces, B2G, Infrastructure amongst others. We were also specially invited by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Government of Gujarat to showcase LiFi as a Futuristic Technology at the Vibrant Gujarat summit which received a footfall of 25,000 delegates, including Central and State Ministers, several corporate houses and government officials.<br /><strong><br />Q. Globally, Signify has been talking about becoming Carbon-neutral. How successful have you been so far? What exactly are you doing in India to become Carbon-neutral?</strong><br />We are taking a leading role to bring better light to the world and to help provide a more sustainable future. We do this by delivering light which is energy efficient, saves resources, and improves lives. At Signify, we also ‘walk the talk’ and commit to becoming carbon neutral by 2020. We are already carbon neutral in 9 markets as of 2019. We have made some bold promises that we’ll deliver on by 2020. 80% of our revenues will be sustainable and we’ll also deliver 2 billion LED lamps and luminaires to the world. As of Q3, 2019, we are 64% carbon neutral and already 79% of our revenues come from sustainable products. 89% of our purchased electricity comes from renewable sources and we are recycling 82% of our manufacturing waste. We are executing the same programs to reduce our carbon footprint in India as well, including driving sustainable revenues, zero waste to landfill, striving for a zero-injury workplace, and building a sustainable supply chain. <br /><br /><strong>Q. With your brand repositioning and new brand endorsers, we have seen your focus shifting to smart lighting. What part of revenue do you make from that category now? Which category brings the lion’s share home? </strong><br />In India, smart lighting for homes is a Rs 100 crores+ category and is expected to grow by 45% over the next 3 years as many more houses adopt connected lighting in a major way. We are by far the market leader in this segment as well, as we virtually created this category when we launched our Philips Hue range in India 4 years back. While smart lighting constitutes a very small share of our overall business right now, it has a lot of potential for growth in the future owing to increasing urbanization and internet penetration. Ultimately our focus is on new homes and renovations, where we see a lot of consumers trying out connected lighting for the first time. The biggest categories for our company are LED lighting in both professional and consumer applications. We recently introduced a range of new products for the consumer segment, including our Philips T Beamer, Philips CeilingSecure and Philips EyePro Bulb. For our professional users, we recently introduced lighting solutions such as Interact and LiFi. <br /><br /><strong>Q. How has the year been, in terms of business?</strong><br />We witnessed high single digit growth in the first half of this calendar year, and expect growth to be ‘slightly muted’ during the remaining half of this year due to overall economic slowdown in the country. In Q2 we saw some projects getting delayed due to elections in the country, however, we were expecting a recovery but it looks like it is getting slightly delayed. It will take another three-to-six months for things to start picking up in the Indian lighting sector. The current economic slowdown has impacted industries across sectors in India and we are no different. <br /><br /><strong>Q. People in rural areas are still not ready to accept LEDs in their lives because of high costs. What are you doing to bring down the cost of your products? </strong><br />Government electrification schemes like Suabhagya are helping even remote towns and villages to have access to electricity. Moreover, with rising rural incomes and penetration of media, aspirations and awareness about new products amongst rural households has increased over the past few years. <br /><br />While rural households still use conventional lighting in a big way, we’re witnessing a steady and growing demand for LEDs from these areas as well, owing to its reduced prices and enhanced awareness about its advantages, such as high durability and lower power consumption. <br /><br />We have launched an LED range of products, Philips Ujjwal, to cater to this audience, offering a better price value suited to their budget. The technical specifications of these products have been specially designed keeping in mind rural lighting requirements and preferences. <br /><br /><strong>Q. Can you walk us through your larger marketing strategy for the brand? </strong><br />India is amongst the top 5 markets for Signify globally and we invest a lot in marketing to support our brand and activities. Our spends on TV Advertising in India are by far the highest across all Signify markets, keeping in mind that India has traditionally been a TV-advertising-focused market. 55% of our overall marketing spends in India are towards TV advertising to reach out to our target audience. Our TV advertising in India is biased towards promoting our new product categories like TBulb, Ceiling Secure. In the last two years, we have launched 2 major TV ad campaigns for these two products.<br /><br />5% of our overall marketing spends are on digital marketing in India, whereas the lighting category’s digital spends in India stand at 3-4%. Majority of our digital marketing spends are towards SEM and lead generation, highlighting our IoT products like Interact, LiFi and Philips Hue. 26% of our overall marketing spends in India are directed towards creating brand awareness and preference. <br /><br /><strong>Q. What areas will you focus on going ahead, to amplify growth?</strong><br />The overall market size of the Indian lighting industry is Rs 15,000 crore with LED lighting constituting almost 80% of this. The LED portion of the industry is expected to grow in high single digits. The conventional lighting market is, however, expected to decline in double digits, owing to faster conversion towards LED. It is not possible for companies to deliver on their top-line as well as bottom-line costs without category-first innovations. As a result, we don’t see many companies in India being able to manage that equation successfully. We’ve managed to increase our profitability over the last 3-4 years, thanks to new innovative products like Philips T Beamer, Philips EYE PRO and Philips Smart WiFi LED bulb. We will also focus on expanding our presence in the rural channel with our customized offerings. <br /><br />Our focus is on innovation and expanding the premium segment where nobody focuses on right now. We believe that companies that don’t innovate, that are entering the lighting industry from other backgrounds are going to have a difficult time surviving in this market. However, if the government continues to allow cheap and sub-standard products to be sold in the market, we foresee that it will become a big roadblock for the industry, which can further impact the price point for the whole industry. We are also investing significantly to grow our smart home lighting business in both offline and online channels, through our exclusive Philips Smart Light Hubs and with our presence on all major e-commerce portals. By the end of the year, we expect to double our retail presence for smart lighting in the country with new Philips Smart Light Hubs opening across various cities. In the professional lighting space, we will strive to grow our Interact connected lighting installations in offices, public buildings, retail stores, hotels and landmarks. Signify has already installed 53 million connected light points worldwide and plans for every new LED product it produces to be connectable by 2020. The highly secure, scalable cloud-based Interact platform uses sophisticated and modern data management and data processing capabilities, including machine learning, to bring sense to all manner of data – creating data-enabled services for customers that will deliver benefits beyond illumination. In the coming year, we will focus on new LiFi installations, trying to expand to new user applications. There is a lot of potential for LiFi in India, with millions of internet devices being added into the connected ecosystem every day. <br />

Signify to make 80% of its revenue from sustainable products in 2020; will continue investing 55% of its marketing monnies on TV

The best Prime Day speaker deals from Sonos, Vizio, Onkyo, and more

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>YouTube/f0t0b0y</span></p><p class="caption">Amazon Echo Dot</p></div><p></p></div></div>We're barely halfway through January of 2017, and it's already looking like this is going to be the year of Amazon's Alexa, the virtual assistant at the heart of the Amazon Echo.</p><p>In 2016, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-echo-sales-figures-stats-chart-2016-12">Amazon Echo line of devices appeared to have a great sales year</a>, with the cheap Echo Dot smart speaker <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-best-selling-products-holiday-echo-dot-2016-12">finishing out the holiday shopping season as the best-selling item on all of Amazon.com</a>. Forrester research estimates that 6 million Amazon Echo devices were sold by the end of 2016.</p><p>And at the Consumer Electronics Show in the first week of January, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-echo-success-could-spell-big-trouble-for-google-2017-1">Amazon dominated the conversation</a>. LG, GE, Ford, and lots more companies announced gadgets, home appliances, and even cars that can connect to Alexa. <span>The market for the Echo is </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mary-meeker-apple-iphone-amazon-echo-2016-6">still small compared to smartphones, but it's growing fast</a><span>.</span></p><p>It's all led to the conventional wisdom that Amazon is winning the race to rule the growing market for voice assistants and the apps that run on them, and, by extension, the still-very-young market for smart home gadgetry. And so far, Alexa has run this race largely unchallenged.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>David Becker/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">LG announces its new Amazon Alexa-powered smart fridge at CES 2017</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Unchallenged until now, that is. With the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-home-review-dont-buy-it-2016-12">Google Home device and its Google Assistant</a>, the search giant is looking to eat Amazon's lunch. Microsoft is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-cortana-vs-amazon-echo-2017-1">positioning its Cortana personal assistant</a> as the artificially intelligent way to get work done. Even <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-siri-speaker-amazon-echo-killer-report-2016-9">Apple is said to be working on an Echo-esque device</a>.</p><p>Here's a look at how Amazon propelled itself into this leading position in the first place, where its biggest rivals still have room to overtake it, and why Apple needs to move in on this sooner rather than later.</p><h2>Why Amazon leads</h2><p>"[Amazon Echo] took us all a little by surprise," says Gartner Research Director Werner Goertz. </p><p>A big part of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-echo-speaker-2014-11">Amazon's early success with the Echo, launched in 2014</a>, is due to the fact that the company didn't oversell it. After years of iPhone users getting let down by Siri, the first truly mainstream voice agent, Amazon billed the Echo as a speaker that, by the way, has a few smart voice commands built in.</p><p>Then, just as people got accustomed to the idea of talking to Alexa, and positive word of mouth spread, Amazon added more capabilities. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-alexa-now-has-more-than-3000-skills-2016-9">Alexa now boasts thousands of "skills"</a> that allow it to connect with apps like Uber and Twitter, or Nest thermostats. Suddenly, Echo went from a novelty to a whole ecosystem unto itself.</p><p>Meanwhile, Echo plays right into Amazon's core retail business by making it "frictionless" to buy things, Goertz says. Indeed, Goertz says that he hasn't been to the grocery store in three months because he's made all his food purchases on Amazon via shouts at Alexa. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>BI Intelligence</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The overall play for Amazon, says Forrester Principal Analyst Thomas Husson, is to continue to make Alexa more useful with more smart home integration and more media capabilities. Why? The more people use Alexa devices, the more likely they are to spend money on Amazon. And so, unlike many rivals, it can afford to take a loss on the gadgets.</p><p>"<span>Amazon will increasingly subsidize Echo by bundling content (think music, video) with the device," Husson says. "They can afford this since this is not core to their business model: the end-goal is to facilitate interactions." </span></p><p><span>And not only does Echo encourage you to shop more, Husson notes, but it also feeds more data back into Amazon's all-important recommendation machine, so the website and apps can, again, encourage you to buy more.</span></p><h2><span>Where Google can compete with Alexa</span></h2><p><span>Google has two key advantages over Amazon as it pushes its Google Assistant strategy.</span></p><p><span>First, "G<span>oogle benefits from its huge search inventory, and has invested for longer in machine learning than its rivals," notes Forrester's Husson. The search giant is better than anyone else at, well, search. And it's better at delivering answers to questions, which is basically the major thing a voice assistant needs to do.</span></span></p><p><span><span>Second, there are estimated to be over 1.5 billion Android users out there in the world, all of whom have phones that could theoretically get upgraded with Google Assistant (whether they will or not is a different story). Plus, Assistant is built into Google Allo, the company's latest messaging app, and Google Pixel, the company's flagship phone.</span></span></p><p><span><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Google</span></p><p class="caption">Google Home</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></span></p><p>These are both things Amazon presently struggles with. In Business Insider's own tests, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/siri-vs-google-assistant-cortana-alexa-2016-11/">Google Assistant outmaneuvers Alexa and the other voice assistants when it comes to performing everyday tasks</a>. And while Amazon's Alexa is only now starting to appear on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-alexa-is-coming-to-huawei-smartphones-2017-1">phones</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-launching-fire-tvs-2017-1">TVs</a>, Google's Android is everywhere.</p><p>Though it's not entirely yet clear how the Google Home or the Assistant will play into Google's advertising-driven model, it's important that they keep with this market until it bears fruit. "<span>For them, this is vital since this is simply about the future of search," says Husson.</span></p><h2><span>Where Microsoft can compete with Alexa</span></h2><p><span>The strategy, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-cortana-vs-amazon-echo-2017-1">Microsoft recently explained to Business Insider</a>, is to make its Cortana virtual assistant the voice agent of choice for businesses and busy professionals. </span></p><p><span>Like Google, Microsoft has been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-beats-humans-at-speech-recognition-2016-10">investing heavily in artificial intelligence</a>, and boasts some of the most advanced technologies for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-research-peter-lee-xiaoice-tay-2016-8">having human-like conversations</a> with virtual agents like its own Cortana, which comes with every installation of Windows 10. </span></p><p>But Microsoft has a special ity all its own: It's been the dominant player in business productivity software for the last several decades, with deep hooks into Microsoft Office, Microsoft Dynamics sales software, and soon, the LinkedIn professional social network.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Matt Weinberger/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Microsoft Cortana in Windows 10</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>And because of that dominance, it has relationships with companies like Nissan and Volkswagen, both of whom are embedding Microsoft technologies in their cars. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-nissan-cars-partnership-peggy-johnson-interview-2017-1">Nissan is even going so far to embed Cortana in the dashboards of its next-gen cars</a>. Microsoft sees Cortana as helping you be productive anywhere, even in the car where your hands aren't free.</p><p>Microsoft has its own challenge, though. While Microsoft's Cortana is starting to come to outside devices, including Nissan cars and a <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/14/13951526/microsoft-cortana-harman-kardon-speaker-amazon-echo">Harman Kardon-manufactured Echo-like speaker</a>, it's still primarily on Windows 10 devices. And as of September 2016, there are only 400 million of those, compared to the billion-plus of Apple iOS and Android.</p><h2>Why Apple needs to get started now</h2><p>"[Apple has] <span>all the pieces of the puzzle: an installed base of more than one billion devices, Apple Music, Beats, Siri, et cetera," says Forrester's Husson. "<span>They could very well combine these and deliver a more intuitive user interface."</span></span></p><p><span><span>And yet, the clock is ticking for the most valuable company in the world, as the aggressive moves made by the other major players could squeeze Apple out before it even has a chance to get in the game.</span></span></p><p>"The room for Apple to enter the space gets smaller and smaller every day," says Gartner's Goertz. </p><p>Look at it this way: If you buy a new fridge that has Amazon Alexa built in, you're probably not going to even look at competing virtual assistants until it's time to replace it. Otherwise, you run the risk of your fridge not talking to your smart bulbs, or not talking to your home security system. Or at least, you'd have multiple voice assistants talking at you across your house, which could get annoying.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Apple</span></p><p class="caption">Siri on the Apple TV</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In that situation, "Alexa has you locked in for the next several years," Goertz says. </p><p>Meanwhile, the promise of Apple's own HomeKit connected home solution is still "underdeveloped" and "not that cohesive," Goertz says, encouraging customers and smart home vendors alike to look elsewhere. And while the company has pitched the Apple TV as the hub of the smart home, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-tv-tvos-20-update-2016-6">thanks to its Siri integration</a>, it's less convenient than the always-on Amazon Echo or Google Home experience.</p><p>Still, Husson is optimistic: "<span>Apple is rarely a first entrant into a market, but they could well create a differentiated experience like they did for touchscreens," he says. </span></p>        <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-home-virtual-assistant-hands-on-video-2016-10">We got our hands on the Home - Google's answer to the Amazon Echo</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Fkc2k5NjE6bPcubn92QIU8A8M5DfJSE9" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Why Amazon's Echo is totally dominating - and what Google, Microsoft, and Apple have to do to catch up

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Hollis Johnson/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">The Tesla Model 3.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/tesla">Tesla</a> CEO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> admitted that selling a $35,000 version of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/model-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Model 3</a> would be a disaster for the company.</strong></li><li><strong>The base <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/tsla-stock">Tesla</a> Model 3 is now planned for deliveries in late 2018 or early 2019.</strong></li><li><strong>Musk has to do this to save the company from ruin, even if he ends up jilting prospective owners.</strong></li></ul><p><br />Everybody has been giving Tesla CEO Elon Musk a hard time for his savage Twitter ways of late, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-uses-twitter-to-distract-teslas-growing-problems-2018-5">myself included</a>. But that doesn't mean, amid all the trolling of haters and big media, Musk doesn't sometimes tweet out an insight.</p><p>For example, <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/998400110156550144">Musk offered this tweet</a> in response to a question about when the long-promised $35,000 Model 3 sedan would arrive, after he announced a $78,000 high-performance trim level: "<span>With production, 1st you need achieve target rate &amp; then smooth out flow to achieve target cost. Shipping min cost Model 3 right away wd cause Tesla to lose money &amp; die. Need 3 to 6 months after 5k/wk to ship $35k Tesla &amp; live."</span></p><p><span>That's not exactly what I heard when I was at the Model 3 launch in July of 2017. Then, my understanding was that Tesla would first build the $44,000 Model 3 with a long-range battery pack and a single motor over the rear axle to keep things simple. After all, the company had never mass-produced the car before and had skipped a so-called "soft tooling" phase of the ramp-up, when it could fix problems with the assembly line before settling on costly gear.</span></p><p><span>I did know that Tesla usually sells expensive trim level before cheap ones - and sometimes doesn't see very much demand for less-expensive versions of its vehicles.</span></p><p><span>That's not a bad thing, as pricier Teslas are better for topline revenue and should eventually be a boon for bottom-line profits if the company can stop losing billions of dollars annually. In fact, a little over a year ago <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-model-3-could-be-a-mistake-2017-2">I argued that selling a $35,000 car wasn't such a great move for Musk</a>. </span></p><p><span>"I</span>t bears repeating: the Model 3 represents a move for Tesla in the<span> </span><em>opposite</em><span> </span>direction of where the money is in the car business," I wrote. "A $35,000 compact sedan brings in a lot less than a $100,000-plus mid-size SUV. For Tesla, the Model 3 is a far greater risk than the Model S or X were."</p><p>My headline was "The Model 3 could be the worst thing that ever happened to Tesla," so I take a doleful victory lap on that one. </p><h2>Tesla's $35,000 Model 3 is on the back burner</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/license/855492052">Mark Brake/Getty Images</a></span></p><p class="caption">You can't have the cheap one.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>So if you pre-ordered a Model 3 expecting the $35,000 version to launch in 2018 -sort of like what you might anticipate from any other carmaker on Earth, minus the need to plunk down a $1,000 deposit - I'd say forget about it until 2019 at the earliest. </p><p>Or perhaps forget about it ... forever. </p><p>I've always struggled to figure out why Tesla wanted to sell a $35,000 vehicle anyway. Unless the company can convince the Trump administration to extend a $7,500 federal tax credit that will phase out after a carmaker sells 200,000 electric vehicles in the US, that perk will vanish for the el-cheapo Model 3 crowd.</p><p>Besides, the customers who could use the tax credit would tend to be folks who might owe the IRS money, in other words, wealthier citizens who wouldn't be disinclined to purchase the base version of anything. D0 you really want to be rolling up Sand Hill Road in a no-frills Model 3?</p><p>Building an affordable, long-range EV is also a walk in the park for a major carmaker; General Motors went from unveiling to on-sale with the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/chevy-bolt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chevy Bolt</a> in about a year. The Bolt is currently the only sub-$40,000 EV with over 200 miles of range that you can buy. The vehicle has sold better than GM expected, but it's probably losing the carmaker thousands of dollars for each unit. </p><p>But GM doesn't need to make money on the car - it just needs to force Tesla to also lose money in that segment. GM can afford it because it prints cash with sales of pickups and SUVs. </p><p>Why would Tesla want to compete with that? </p><h2>The $35,000 Model doesn't die, it just ... fades away</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0FCIA5YI1LH&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1395&amp;RH=861#/SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0FCIA5YI1LH&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1395&amp;RH=861&amp;PN=2&amp;POPUPPN=75&amp;POPUPIID=2C0BF1OGF4PY3">Reuters/Mike Blake</a></span></p><p class="caption">You can get your $1,000 back as long as we don't go out of business.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Perhaps Musk has come to that conclusion and will now reliably undersell the bargain trim level of the Model 3. I certainly hope he does because that will broaden Tesla's portfolio of luxury offerings and provide a shot at survival. A lot of Tesla bulls think the Model 3 could post impressive margins, but my take is that it could post decent margins only at a relatively high price point. </p><p>The $78,000 Model 3 is a case in point. I shouldn't need to present any path-to-profit math on a vehicle that has essentially the same battery as the roughly $50,000 version of the car, but adds a second motor to provide all-wheel-drive and snappier acceleration. The $28,000 difference should function as a profit light bulb.</p><p>OK, Musk might go ahead and nominally sell the $35,000 for a short period in 2019 before letting it wither or quietly declining to allow reservation holders to configure their cars. That would be smart, if sort of deceptive, but my guess is that anybody who put down a grand on a Model 3 would forgive Elon because that deposit was more like a vote of confidence than a promise to convert.</p><p>Those jilted customers would probably chalk up their disappointment to the cost of changing the world. They'd also be in a better position to get the money back if Tesla doesn't go bankrupt. And if that's what it takes to save Tesla, you can bet that Musk will do it.</p><figure id="img-564513" contenteditable="false" data-type="img" data-e2e-name="image-figure-image" data-media-container="image"></figure><p class="tagline">Get the latest Tesla stock price<a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/TSLA-Quote"> <strong>here.</strong></a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/teslonda-tesla-motor-honda-accord-hot-rod-restore-2018-5">This Honda Accord has a Tesla motor</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Elon Musk may never deliver a $35,000 Model 3-and that would actually be great news for Tesla

<p><em><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-business-insider-interview"></a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Mike Nudelman / Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><em><br />The most remarkable thing about meeting Bill Gates in person is beholding his mental map of the world - how advances in technology, the well-being of humanity, and the fate of our world are all intertwined.</em></p><p><em>Tech Insider met with Gates on Monday to discuss his <a href=" https://www.gatesnotes.com/2016-Annual-Letter">2016 annual letter</a>, in which he discusses the balance of bringing electricity to the billion people who don't have it and finding power sources that don't kill the earth.</em></p><p><em>The head of the<a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/"> Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation</a> spoke about how to make an energy miracle happen, the stakes of climate change, and what the role of the world's billionaires is in all of this. </em></p><p><em>Interview edited for clarity and length.</em></p><p><strong>Drake Baer: </strong>What are the most exciting things happening right now in clean energy?</p><p><strong>Bill Gates:</strong> A lot of it is pretty early stage. The most straightforward path would be if we could bring the cost of solar electric and wind down by another factor of say, three, and then have some miraculous storage solution, so that not only over the 24-hour day but over long periods of time where the wind doesn't blow, you have reliable energy. That's a path. But energy storage is hard. That's not a guaranteed path.</p><p>In fact, batteries haven't improved over the last 100 years as much as they would need to in order to make that happen. So I'm invested in a lot of battery companies - and there's a lot that exists I'm not in. They're all having a tough time achieving it. We need to look at less obvious paths, things like the wind in the jet stream, which is very high up. The material <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> of what type of kite string you would need to connect up to that. That's still at the basic research level.</p><p>That's the part where the governments have a unique role, and then when it progresses well enough, then existing companies or new startup companies should take it. In the $3 trillion a year energy market, the rewards will be quite fantastic.</p><p>At some point, that risk-taking private capital can take over, and have patents and trade secrets and things that let them lead the way, which happened with the steam engine and some other things, although with energy, the time of adoption is a lot longer than it is with, say, IT products or even medical advances, like drugs and vaccines.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Skye Gould / Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Other paths would include making nuclear fission cheap enough and safe enough that people broadly embrace it, so that could be scaled up. Or, if you really could take the CO2, when you burn hydrocarbons - coal, for example - if you could really capture the carbon and sequester it - they call it CCS - if the extra capital cost, energy cost, and storage costs over time didn't make it super expensive, then that's another path that you could go down.</p><p>I could name about a dozen paths, and you'd like to have a whole bunch of research on all those paths, and then, eventually, at least four to five companies with really significant financing try and get to big scale, going down and really trying to prove it out.</p><p>Then, in the same way that when the car got going, people thought it would be an electric car, people thought it would be a steam car. Actually, the dark horse in that race was internal combustion, but because of the energy density of gasoline and discovery of oil in large amounts at that point in first Pennsylvania and then Texas, it won out over those other two, to the point that those other two are actually viewed as obscure footnotes in history.</p><p><strong>Baer: </strong>Was there a moment for you when the light bulb went off, and you realized how important energy was to the world?</p><p><strong>Gates: </strong> When I was trying to figure out why lives have improved so much in the last 300 years, where we've gone from a third of kids dying before 5 to - by 1990 it was down to 10% - now it's down to 5%. And saying why, over all history, there were smart people, but that number didn't change. Average life span didn't change. What's magical about what's been deemed the Industrial Revolution? It's really energy intensity.</p><p>When I was high school I had a vague sense of it. When I was in college I had a vague sense of it. I'd say that I didn't really start to understand it fully until I started reading <a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/A-Rational-Look-at-Energy-Energy-Myths-and-Realities">Vaclav Smil</a>, who has written a lot about this. David Christian, in "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/big-history-lecture-by-david-christian-2014-10">Big History,"</a> writes about this. It's energy intensification, where we essentially have, through our light bulbs and cars, the manpower of [hundreds of] people working on our behalf, helping our food being created, helping our materials like steel and plastic and wood and paper be created. Our lifestyles are incredibly energy intense.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>GatesNotes</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Recently I've been studying how quickly we can get energy out to the poor countries - a lot of which are in Africa - and how little progress we've made there. There's no more electricity today in sub-Saharan Africa per person than there was 20 years ago.</p><p>The world is very disparate, in terms of the US using the most energy per person, and then the other rich countries - Europe, Japan, New Zealand - using about half of what we do, and then the world average being about a fifth of what we use, with China just now surpassing the world average.</p><p>My broad sense of this is that authors like Smil really paint the clear picture, and once you see that, it's kind of <em>Oh, of course.</em> That's such a primal thing to all these physical services that we take for granted.</p><p><strong>Baer:</strong> In your letter you say you expect an energy miracle in the next 15 years. When I read that, I was like, <em>Wow, that's bold.</em> What are you expecting?</p><p><strong>Gates: </strong> When I say "miracle" I mean a kind of thing like a computer on a chip, or the internet, or the cellphone, that are really quite miraculous. Most people would not have predicted them, and their effect has been very, very dramatic. In medicine, we've had a lot of miracles, and I think all of us expect and count on more.</p><p>In the next 30 years, I really do think cancer will largely be a solved problem. I think most of the infectious diseases like malaria - our <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/">foundation</a> is very involved - once we're finishing polio eradication, then starting up this malaria eradication, and getting that done as fast as we can.</p><p>So on the demand side [for energy], there have been a variety of policies that globally have been way over $50 billion a year of tax credits, raising the price of electricity through things like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_portfolio_standard">renewable portfolio standards</a>, so the total amount of money that's gone into sending a price signal to push up demand versus what would happen without it has been gigantic.</p><p>On the supply side, for innovation, you'd say, go look at those R&amp;D budgets, and they haven't moved in the last 20 years. In the case of the US - which is the majority of R&amp;D funding across every category you can name: health, energy, whatever - it's been about $5 billion a year from the Department of Energy.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Skye Gould / Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>It was kind of a milestone to get this commitment from Paris to get <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/paris-climate-agreement-approved-2015-12">20 countries, including all of the big ones - US, India, China, France Germany, the UK, Japan - to double their energy R&amp;D budgets over a five-year period</a>.</p><p>Finally, assuming that many of those are fulfilled, which won't be easy in tight budget times, we're taking the supply side at the basic research level, because that's where government is absolutely fundamental.</p><p>How much further beyond basic research the role of the government should be, you could have a really good debate about it. Almost nobody would say it's zero. But that's where at least we need the private sector to play a big role. That's why we paired this announcement of the R&amp;D [commitment] with the so-called <a href="http://www.breakthroughenergycoalition.com/en/index.html">Breakthrough Energy Coalition</a>, which is 27 [major investors] saying, "Hey, we'll put significant money into [energy innovations] when they're ready to spin out probably into startup companies."</p><p>When I say "an energy miracle," I mean that there will be some form of energy whose 24 hour cost really is competitive with hydrocarbons given, say, 20 years of learning curve. You invent it, then you look at how much its costs go down over the next 20 years, that it really beats hydrocarbons. You might say, well, aren't people saying that about wind and solar today? Not really. Only in the super-narrow sense that the capital costs per output, when the wind is blowing, is slightly lower.</p><p>But the reason it still needs subsidies, and it can't go above a certain percentage, is this intermittency [in availability for wind and solar] - it changes the economics, particularly this requirement that the power company at all times be able to require power. That's large. At the end of the day, natural-gas peakers sit back there and get financed so that the Midwest corridor can have a huge [period] of four to five days of no wind. The peakers are running big time to make that up, because that is the swing piece that can always be turned on. (<em>Editor's note:<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaking_power_plant"> Natural gas peakers</a> are power plants that run when there's a big, or "peak," demand for energy.</em>)</p><p><strong>Baer: </strong>You've said it will be the world's poorest who are most affected by climate change. Can you paint a picture of what that will be like?</p><p><strong>Gates: </strong> We need to get a broader awareness. People say climate change is really bad, but painting that picture of what you're putting at risk.</p><p>First of all, there are ecosystems like coral reefs [at risk] through ocean <a href="https://sharkresearch.rsmas.miami.edu/conservation/coral-reefs-and-the-threat-of-ocean-acidification">acidification</a>. Those are valuable things that we should protect. But humans - the first big effects will be farmers that live on the edge. Today's weather, they barely get by. Their kids, a high percentage are malnourished, and so if you impose more variable weather and more heat, you're getting more floods, more droughts, and during the germination time, the high heat, most crops...do poorly when there's more heat.</p><p>Maize, rice, wheat - all have heat sensitivity. Sorghum is kind of unusual. It can go to very high heats, but it's not as productive in most environments as maize is. So we need to help those poor farmers out. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>GatesNotes</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Over 80% of the poor are people who have small plots of land and grow their own food and they don't grow enough to sell much into the marketplace. So they will be hit hard by the worst in climate. They really get hit hard starting in the 20-year time frame and thereafter.</p><p>Then, depending on how quickly you get ocean rise, you have people who live in river deltas [at risk]. Bangladesh is largely a river delta, and the rising sea level means that when storms come in, the human sanitation is backing up, the ability to farm, it's destructive-type situations like you saw in New Orleans with Katrina. You're increasing the frequency of that stuff in low-lying areas fairly dramatically.</p><p>Now, if you're rich, you can spend a lot of money, Netherlands-style, and reduce that. But Bangladesh or parts of India, like Calcutta, they just simply won't be able to afford that kind of protection.</p><p><strong>Baer: </strong>Can billionaires save us in this situation?</p><p><strong>Gates:</strong> Billionaires should never be responsible for solving problems, because they're not the government.</p><p>The government is there day in and day out, if you want all kids to have education, if you want to run courts, if you want to have an army, if you want to have roads, you've got to have the taxation system that funds everything that you expect.</p><p>The only role other than paying their taxes, whatever those are, the only role for philanthropy broadly - of which the rich should give disproportionately - the more, the better - and I think there is a positive trend in that direction - there are certain risk-taking things, like trying out a new type of charter school or funding a new kind of medicine. The government's ability to select scientists and pick things that are fairly strange, because politicians don't like failures. They're only in office a short term, and many of these things take a long time.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Skye Gould / Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>For philanthropy, although it's tiny compared to the government, it's 2% of the US economy, which is the largest percentage, other than the Middle East. There are economies like China's economy where it's less than a tenth [of a percent] today, although it is growing, is quite small, because of the notion that the government takes care of everything, and Europe and China, philanthropy has not been nearly of the same scale.</p><p>But if you think of global public goods like polio eradication, that kind of risk-taking new approach, philanthropy really does have a role to play there, because government doesn't do R&amp;D about new things naturally as much as it probably should, and so philanthropy's there. That doesn't mean with the day in, day out things that you want to make sure get delivered to everyone that you should create a dependency. It's not big enough and it's not reliable enough.</p><p><strong>Baer: </strong>To bring it back to the US, does the US have the right political priorities to deal with energy?</p><p><strong>Gates: </strong> The US spends more on energy R&amp;D than all other countries put together, and I personally consider it quite inadequate. In fact, I would have said we should more than double it, if I thought the absorptive capacity could scale up and if it was actually possible to get to that level. I think given all the different imperatives - getting energy to Africa, security of energy, climate change, that we should be spending half as much as we spend on health, which will get you all the way up to $15 billion - the health people don't like it when things get compared to their number.</p><p>The US in some ways has been the best. Who figured out shale gas? Although that wasn't a good thing [for CO2 levels], it was very innovative. It's led to low-cost energy. Who figured out nuclear power? Largely the United States. Once you get past the steam engine, which is mostly British, then the US has been at the center of most of the energy things that have happened.</p><p>You say, what are the top 20 universities in the world that do good materials research that might create carbon fibers to do <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_wind_power">jet stream kites </a>or new magnets that will allow [energy] generation to be done up there and you just bring the electricity down. You either have to bring down rotational energy, which is hard, or you have to have the generator up there and bring down the electricity. Well, putting the generator up there is hard to do because it's too heavy.</p><p>Anyway, the US, as in most issues, is the best, has the best capability to lead, and really needs to lead. It doesn't [mean] that other countries won't pick different tacks and emphasize different things. In aggregate, they're almost half of the energy R&amp;D. Europe, China, Japan - it's very important that they come along and contribute to these things.</p><p>The US really has to get out in front. We are the biggest per person, by a substantial amount, greenhouse emitters, and we give the most foreign aid, not per person but in absolute. This is another issue where hopefully we will take a long-term approach which, even though we sometimes have a hard time doing that, it's easier for us, as a rich country with this kind of scientific depth, than it is for the poor countries who will suffer the problems.<br /><br /><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Bill Gates, flanked by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Barack Obama, at the 2015 World Climate Change Conference.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p>

You Searched For "smart bulbs cheap" and got 12 results

Best smart LED bulbs for your home in India for 2023

Sourabh Jain

I never thought I'd pay $150 for smart light bulbs, but the Philips Hue starter kit is the best upgrade I've made in my small apartment

Mara Leighton

The best Prime Day deals for your smart home - get light bulbs, robot vacuums, and more for a lot cheaper tonight

Christian de Looper

Why Did A Lightbulb Win The Nobel Prize?

Jessica Orwig

These Philips Hue outdoor light strips can brighten your backyard, patio, or stairs - and they only take 10 minutes to install

Christian de Looper

Signify to make 80% of its revenue from sustainable products in 2020; will continue investing 55% of its marketing monnies on TV

Karuna Sharma

The best Prime Day speaker deals from Sonos, Vizio, Onkyo, and more

Christian de Looper

Why Amazon's Echo is totally dominating - and what Google, Microsoft, and Apple have to do to catch up

Matt Weinberger

Elon Musk may never deliver a $35,000 Model 3-and that would actually be great news for Tesla

Matthew DeBord

THE BILL GATES INTERVIEW: An energy miracle is coming, and it's going to change the world

Drake Baer

AMAZON: Here's The Finally Tally For All The Insane Shopping Everyone Did This Holiday Season

Jay Yarow

The death of the unicorns: How the interest rate bubble might cause a new tech crash

Jim Edwards

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides