Tuesday 4 January 2011

Printed Electronics - Predictions for 2011

4 January 2011
Printed Electronics - Predictions for 2011
Cambridge, UK

Printed Electronics - Predictions for 2011
By Raghu Das, CEO, IDTechEx www.IDTechEx.com

In this article, we examine what to expect for 2011. To do that, we must understand the spectacular successes of the recent past as well as the failures. This has often been an industry with poor business planning and marketing. For example, in e-readers, Plastic Logic belatedly realised it could not meet Apple and Amazon head on and it said it would create a professional sector but such a niche may never exist. It failed to launch a product anyway. Those developing printed organic and inorganic flexible solar cells, most of which had life of no more than five years, obsessed about replacing power stations by meeting "grid parity" efficiency when the potential lay in consumer goods, military, healthcare and media.

Lessons from failure

Frequently, participants tried to run before they could walk or at least chose objectives that were too ambitious for the level of investment available. For example, Microemissive Displays, OLED-T and many other Organic Light Emitting Display companies are no more. Those making printed antennas and keyboards prospered.
Some have simply failed to meet the price- performance points necessary for market entry. For example, no one has taken a meaningful order for the long promised printed organic transistors, despite transistors being the engine of most electronics. That has had a severe knock on effect. For example, the printed organic memory of Thin Film Electronics AB and many printed sensors cannot fulfil their primary market potential without them.