The big question in the lighting world:  When will the gigantic number of “no-name” Asian entrants into the lighting field move from emulating — to put it nicely — to actually innovating and differentiating themselves?

It won’t happen all at once.  Buried amid the piles of commodity crap will be isolated, innovative product experiments from individual companies.  Eventually, these small experiments may catch on and — if shrewd enough — those companies will grow into prominent brands.

A small example of this is a product I saw on the web, from DQM China…another Chinese company with an awkward name.  They are experimenting with flexible LED edge-lit panels.  Who knows?  Maybe they will keep refining the product and build it into a professional-grade system.  The concept is interesting as an interim alternative to flexible OLED panels.