HOW LIFI WILL TRANSFORM THE WAY WE COMMUNICATE
the lifespan of a car . This means that old business models become invalid , and the industry is now going through fundamental changes similar to the photography industry when digital photography arrived . This can be witnessed by the fact that Philips are selling their lighting business after 123 years .
Lights in the future will need to become smart sensing devices and high speed data communication devices , and they are probably not going to be replaced because they fail , but because there are new functions and applications that light will enable – this will be similar to what we experience with smartphone releases nowadays .
In fact , it is very likely that the lighting industry will go through developments similar to the mobile communications industry during the last 25 years . The first mobile phones served one purpose / application : mobile telephony . Now , smartphones serve thousands of applications . The incandescent light bulb has served one application : lighting .
In 25 years from now , the LED lightbulb will serve thousands of applications and will be an integral part of the emerging smart cities , smart homes and the IoT , and LaaS will be a dominating theme in the industry which will drive the new business models . LaaS in combination with LiFi will , therefore , provide a business model driven ‘ pull ’ for the lighting industry to take market shares from what has traditionally been a wireless communications market .
Likewise , the wireless communications industry has the opportunity to enter the lighting market by offering products that will provide wireless connectivity through lights . The emerging IoT and 5G ( and beyond ) combined with LiFi will create a technology driven ( since RF spectrum will not be sufficient ) ‘ push ’ for this trend .
In the future , we will see a scenario where a mobile operator sells wireless access points and lights at the same time , while similarly , a traditional lighting company will become a wireless operator selling wireless connectivity and lights at the same time – essentially , both will be part of a new eco-system of a larger new single industry .
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