It looked great - finally, an LED replacement for standard 60w incandescent bulbs that looked good, had 90+ CRI, 2700K, was dimmable, didn't light up only on the top half of the bulb, and hopefully would be as affordable as their CR6 downlights. Unfortunately, it proved to be vaporware.

Now they're at it again. They just announced yesterday an improved version that makes even the $50 Philips "L-prise" LED bulb seem behind the times. The specs on the new Cree bulb look great - the equivalent of what would be an 85-watt incandescent bulb all from 7.3 watts, an impressive 90+ CRI using TrueWhite. No word on color temperature or dimmability, but I assume it would be incandescent-matching 2700K like their incandescent-replacing floodlamps and hopefully dim down to 5% like their low-end CR line.

Only problem: once again, it's just a prototype undergoing testing. Let's hope this time it actually reaches store shelves and online retailers, and soon. The wording of their press release does make it seem as if they do intend to bring it to market this time. There are lots of LED retrofit bulbs for incandescent 40w and 60w bulbs out there, but none of them (save the $50 Philips) give off 90+ CRI high quality light, and few are omnidirectional. Thus far, only Philips has a 75w replacement, and it's expensive, a bit oversize, and has mediocre color rendering,