Printed Electronics - the Giants Get Involved
New business models
The business models for printed electronics are very different from those for the silicon chip or other conventional forms of electronics or electrics. Indeed, in this new world, electronics and electrics merge. The fundamental drivers of printed electronics are (a) to make new things possible and (b) to replace silicon chips and conventional components where they are hopelessly uneconomic for certain applications or are constraining a mass market to a tiny niche as with talking gift cards or blister packs that record when you took your pills. These blister packs, despite having printed sensors and interconnects, cost $15 to $30 so they will never be used beyond drug trials. Fully printed versions could be a few cents each and sell in tens of billions yearly.
