Buddy Technologies commences global commercial push for smart lighting
Buddy Technologies has launched pre-sales for the world’s first multi-colour (in a single bulb) smart light, the LIFX Candle Colour.
Smart space and lighting enabler Buddy Technologies (ASX: BUD) has launched the world’s first polychrome smart light as part of a near-simultaneous global release.
The IoT and cloud-based technology company said US customers will have to wait until the end of October to purchase the product although pre-sales for the world’s first multi-colour smart light – combined into a single light bulb – will commence at noon today.
Dubbed the “LIFX Candle Colour”, the next-generation product features 26 customisable light zones, making it the world’s first multi-colour light bulb.
Buddy Technologies confirmed the bulb will be available in E14 and B15 fittings internationally including Australia, as well as an E12 fitting for the US and Canada.
The new product claims to give customers “the unique ability to direct different light colours and shades to various sides of a room” from a single light bulb and is compatible with smart home and voice assistant technologies provided by the likes of Amazon, Google and Apple.
Making smarter homes
Buddy Technologies currently operates two distinct business units – a commercial business and a parallel consumer business, which trades under a brand called LIFX.
The companysaid it has established a leading market position as a provider of smart lighting solutions on the back of its suite of Wi-Fi enabled lights currently being used in nearly 1 million homes around the world – second only to lighting giant, Philips Hue.
Currently, LIFX products are sold in more than 100 countries worldwide, directly and via distribution and sales partnerships with leading retailers and e-commerce platforms including Amazon, Google, Apple, JB Hi-Fi, Bunnings, Officeworks, MediaMarkt and Saturn. In the US and Canada, LIFX products are being sold by retail chain Best Buy.
Buddy Ohm and Buddy Managed Services are the company’s core commercial offerings that provide its customers with the ability to “fully leverage digital technologies and their impact in a strategic and sustainable way”.
Buddy Ohm is a resource monitoring and analytics solution that provides energy monitoring, reporting and auditing services for commercial and industrial customers, while Buddy Managed Services licenses Buddy’s technology platforms to customers for integration into their own products.
The company also operates Buddy Cloud, a platform which it said “is at the centre of everything we do” including offering ubiquitous access and storage of data from any environment including recreational vehicles, schools, commercial buildings or an entire city.
Courting the UK market
In parallel to today’s launch of the world’s first polychrome smart light, Buddy Technologies has also commenced sales of its LIFX brand of smart lighting products through Dixons, Carphone Warehouse, Currys and PC World in the UK and Ireland.
Large UK-based retail chain Dixons will stock Buddy’s products in over 250 stores across the UK as of today withLIFX products being marketed via “strategically positioned free-standing display units” across various Dixons store brands in the UK and Ireland.
Buddy Technologies said having its products stocked across hundreds of UK stores is significant because it represents the first offline sales of its LIFX smart lights in the UK and makes LIFX one of only two brands of smart lighting sold by Dixons.
Currently, the UK is the largest market in Europe where LIFX smart lighting products are not sold in high-street stores, with today’s rollout expected to build upon the existing relationship LIFX has with Dixons following the company’s earlier launch in other stores such as Elkjøp, Elgiganten and Gigantti in Nordic countries.
“The European region is of significant interest to the company at present, with only one competitor finding any real retail assortment footing in the market, which has led to a market share for them in excess of 90%,” Buddy Technologies said.
In addition, the company said “it is clear that on-shelf retail assortment is crucial in this region and LIFX is on track to be only the second on-shelf smart lighting product broadly distributed across Europe”.
This morning’s global commercial sortie boosted Buddy Technologies shares to $0.022 per share, up around 10% in morning trade.