More than 100 years ago, Edison, the inventor of the improved light bulb, founded the General Electric Company, and since then, the lighting business has been a signature business of GE, and its light bulbs are household names around the world, along with Osram and Philips, as the world's top three lighting solution providers.
 
Today, GE is the world's largest diversified multinational company, with businesses in aviation, finance, healthcare, energy, etc., and ranked 28th in the 2018 list of the world's most valuable and trusted choices. But GE's signature lighting business currently accounts for only 2% of the company's revenue, and sales are declining year on year, including a 66% decline in 2017. The reason for this is not that GE has any problems with quality, but that after entering the LED era, the lamps have a longer life and do not need to be replaced as frequently as incandescent and fluorescent lamps, so after the first large-scale replacement boom passed, sales plummeted.
 
In addition to the sharp slowdown in business development, due to the weakening of LED technical barriers, the competitiveness of Chinese manufacturers has increased, so that the gross profit of LED bulbs is much lower than that of traditional lighting products. For GE's diversified giant, the focus of the future is on highly profitable businesses such as aviation, power and healthcare, and with GE's setbacks that have shrunk by $470 billion in market value over 17 years, leaving it no longer time to focus on the lighting business, so divesting the business is not only justified but also urgent. At present, GE has closed two lighting equipment production plants in the United States, and the rest of the lighting business is led by its subsidiary Current, which may sell the entire lighting business and Current in the future.
 
Although we don't know what GE will do next, its fluorescent lamp products can still be easily purchased on domestic e-commerce platforms, including spiral energy-saving lamps, 3U-shaped energy-saving lamps, and T5/T8 straight tube fluorescent lamps, although not as rich as Osram and Philips, but they are enough to meet daily use.
 
T5/T8 straight tube fluorescent lamp power specifications are complete, there are 3000K (warm yellow light) / 4000K (warm white light) / 6500K (white light) three color temperatures, of which T5 series lamps are named starcoat, is a symbol of high quality, light transmittance is greater than 90%, color rendering index is above 85, service life is up to 20,000 hours, and T8 service life is also up to 13,000 hours, comparable to Philips in terms of durability. Generally speaking, the light efficiency of T5 is higher than that of T8, and the power saving effect is better, but because the size of the two lamps is different, the lamp holder is not universal, so the user should also confirm the type of lamp holder in advance.
 
If the lamp is designed for children, it is recommended to choose a softer warm yellow light (2700K), which can reduce the irritation of children's eyes. The service life is more than 8,000 hours, which is an excellent level among energy-saving lamps. The price is between 9-19 yuan, and the cost performance is medium.