Printed Electronics - the Giants Get Involved

A new marketing paradigm

Printed electronics calls for a new marketing paradigm, where we go back to basics in looking at needs, we create new markets most of the time and our solutions most commonly take the form of an enabling technology such as a way of printing electronics on to things or a reel of electronic tape rather than a stand alone product. This is more the world of 3M, DaiNippon Printing and Toppan Printing than the world of many electronics giants though the latter seek to enter it. Indeed, Matsushita, Canon, Fujitsu, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Hitachi, Pioneer, Xerox, Samsung and many other giants are now investing heavily in printed and potentially printed electronics. Some are already trading at the conjunction of paper, plastic film, printing and electronics. They are backed by the might of the chemical giants developing the sophisticated materials and inks that are needed, such as Sumitomo Chemical, Mitsubishi Chemical and Nissan Chemical in Japan and Merck Chemical and BASF in Germany.