With the awareness of global warming and energy saving appliances available companies like GE have recently made plans to end the development of incandescent bulbs. Also because of this they can now focus more on the production of Organic bulbs which save energy and actually last longer. I believe the real reason for the switch is because Australia, Canada and many US states are planning to ban the companies with bans starting in 2012 so that’s a nice little motivational push for GE.

Spokesman David Schuellerman from the company GE stated to following at this announcement:

“GE Consumers & Industrial and GE Global Research have suspended the development of the high-efficiency incandescent lamp (HEI) to place greater focus and investment on what we believe will be the ultimate in energy efficient lighting — light emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Research and development of these technologies is moving at an impressive pace and will be ready for general lighting in the near future. LEDs and OLEDs used in general lighting are now poised to surpass the projected efficiency levels of HEI, along with other energy-efficient technologies like fluorescent, and have the additional benefits of long life and durability.”

via ct