Thomas Edison was pretty proud of himself for finding an effective filament for the light bulb (or stealing said idea from Tesla, or whatever) but that technology may be a thing of the past. A new bulb from Philips ditches the filament in favor of light emitting diodes and said bulb reportedly can last 20 years. It also costs as much as 60 dollars. Not sure which of those numbers you want to focus on but it probably depends on how forward looking of a person you are or perhaps how much stock you put in the claims of the marketing department at Philips.

The BBC reports that some merchants will be offering deals that drop the price to just 20 bucks, or a dollar a year if my math is right.
The bulb is the result of a contest run by the Department of Energy to create a bulb that gave off a warm light but was more energy efficient than current options. Phillips was the ONLY company to enter the contest and after 18 months of testing was declared the winner.