The GL350's performance is poor even by OLED standards

Philips's own Lumiblade PLUS OLED panel achieves 45lm/W, though its output per unit area is only one quarter that of the GL350's. In fact, an efficacy of 16.7lm/W is firmly within incandescent territory, and had international lighting legislation focused more on performance targets than on banning specific technologies, the GL350 might never have emerged. It certainly falls well short of the minimum efficacy of 45lm/W for general-purpose lighting, set to come into effect in 2020 in the US.
Looking through the lens of efficiency, it's hard to justify the claim that the GL350 is the first OLED suitable for general lighting. "I would have still put [OLED] in its innovation stage. It is not stable enough, efficient enough, or low enough cost to become mainstream yet," Macrae told Ars, when asked for his take on the general state of OLED lighting today. "Our brand specifically would not adopt a technology until it can outperform the existing technology on a number of levels," he added, speaking with his Thorn Lighting hat on. "I think energy efficiency has to be balanced with sustainability, where OLED will have benefits, but also on cost, useful light, and on practicality.LED supplied by Toshiba to light up Louvre.Compared to LED and to fluorescent, OLED technology is simply not efficient enough for our customers, but there will be early adopters who see other values, making it worthwhile."
Having said that, Macrae shares the industry's broader optimism for the possibilities OLED technology presents, which we reported on last year. "The technology could allow the window glass to be lit, the walls too, the ceiling even, but as complete surfaces or decorative panels," he said. "It should push the market away from the ceiling-mounted regular arrays of luminaries we currently see." Though Macrae points out that for such developments to occur, some innovations in power supply are necessary.If the future of OLED lighting really is glowing walls and ceilings, then Philips would appear to be barking up the wrong tree by producing small, bright panels that compete for the same market niche as traditional light sources. Though the GL350 is doubtless a noteworthy evolutionary step in the development of OLED lighting, it is larger, lower output surfaces we're waiting for (and besides, LEDs have the small-bright thing covered).
Whatever form OLED lighting eventually takes, more efficiency is required. Philips is optimistic. "Moving forward, we expect efficacy of our Lumiblade OLED panels in our decorative line to reach 35 lm/W by 2018," a Philips spokesman told Ars. "For our Lumiblade OLED performance line we expect to attain an efficacy level of 130 lm/W by 2018." (It's interesting that by this metric, Philips would seem to be positioning the GL350 as decorative rather than general purpose lighting.)