OSAKA (Kyodo) Panasonic Corp. said it will enter the market for light-emitting diode home lamps Oct. 21 by releasing eight models with the best energy efficiency in the industry.
Panasonic aims to sell 400,000 units of the Everleds LED lamps by the end of next March, company officials told reporters Thursday.
Competition in home LED lamps is expected to intensify as Sharp Corp. and Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corp. have already entered the market and Mitsubishi Electric Osram Ltd. plans to follow suit.
As Panasonic's LED lamp with the brightness equivalent of a 60-watt conventional incandescent lamp can reduce power consumption to about one-eighth, yearly power rates are estimated to come to about ¥300, down about ¥2,000 compared with a conventional model.
Four of Panasonic's LED lamps will retail in the ¥4,000 range, while the other four models will be priced at about ¥5,000.
