So the recent surge in bayonet sales meant that LIFX was finally getting traction among older consumers, and not just among the consumers in the 25-to-34 year-old age range who had been buying LIFX lights since the company first launched on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter in September 2012.

LIFX sold out of bayonet globes in Australia, and to Alexander that meant its market demographic was finally maturing.īayonet sockets, also known as 'B22' sockets, tend to be in older houses and in older lamps than screw-in (or 'Edison') sockets, and, according to Alexander, they tend to be owned by older people. Marc Alexander: 'The whole experience needs to get a lot easier, because the older demographic cares a lot less about fiddling about on their smartphone.' John Davidsonīut it was a recent development in its regular smart bulbs that caught Alexander's attention. LIFX (which is pronounced 'life-x', though Alexander admits it's hard to stop people calling the company 'liff-x') has now been operating for more than five years, and now has a range of products that includes LED strip lights, downlights and feature lights that you mount on a wall like artwork. Marc Alexander can tell a lot about you from the type of light sockets you own.Īlexander, a software and electronics engineer from Melbourne, developed LED light globes that can be controlled via WiFi, and the Australian company he co-founded, LIFX, now ranks behind only the Dutch lighting giant Philips as the world's biggest manufacturer of smart lights, that users can control with their mobile phone, with their voice, or through automation.

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