Business Management - Industry Trends

RFID is mainly a card business today and more is spent on RFID in China than in any other country. However, that hides the fact that the Manufacturing and Logistics sectors are rapidly adopting RFID for security, safety, efficiency and other reasons. The IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase of 2959 RFID projects in 98 countries reveals that Manufacturing and Logistics have risen to become 17.2% of all projects, as shown below. Indeed in China it is already 26.3% of all projects as befits China’s dominance of manufacturing for the world. The adoption of RFID in the Manufacturing and Logistics sector is taking many new forms

It is inevitable that the choice of best markets for printed electronics will change as developers establish the strengths and weaknesses of their products and learn which users are keen and which are not. Five years ago, most of the developers of printed transistor circuits TFTCs were prioritizing RFID as the first commercialization of their products. Then it was realized that the specification creep in key RFID standards was taking the parameters further and further away from the inevitably primitive, initial capability of TFTCs. That may be a Pyrrhic victory for the silicon chip people because even they can not address such complexity without

Based on the latest research by IDTechEx, reported in the new report Organic & Printed Electronics Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2007-2027, the market for printed and thin film electronics will be $1.18 billion in 2007. 59.1% of this is spent on organic electronics, predominantly OLED display modules. Of the total market, 31.6% will be printed. IDTechEx forecast the market growing to $5.06 billion by 2011, and $48.18 billion in 2017. The last year has seen a rapid change in the perception of organic electronics. What is it, why use it and what is it for? Conventionally, we have defined organic electronics as devices with

GLEN ALLEN, VA—July 10, 2007—The e-paper display business will surpass $2.0 billion ($US) in annual revenues by 2012 and surpass $4 billion in 2014 according to a new report from NanoMarkets, a leading industry analyst firm based here. NanoMarkets expects that the arrival of high-quality color e-paper technology, better encapsulation and the ability to print large e-paper displays will create new opportunities in smart shelves, point-of-purchase (POP) displays, cell phone displays and disposable electronics. Additional details about this new report from NanoMarkets are available on the firm’s website at www.nanomarkets.net. Members of the press can request a full executive summary. Key findings

As digital media in the form of portable devices, touch-screens and pervasive wireless networks offer new possibilities for interaction, the traditional book defined by UNESCO, “As a non periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages excluding covers,” starts to look rather featureless when compared to electronic versions. But the traditional book has many advantages too - not least the comfort of tradition itself. The BlueBook aims to find a compromise between these two objects, between the digital and the physical. The BlueBook created by Manolis Kelaidis at the Royal College of Art in London is a traditional book over-printed with conductive ink. This conductive

Smart Stamp technology keeps traditional mail highly interactive, current and relevant by applying printed electronics to postal mailings that grant secure “touch to connect” rich-media contact access to privacy–protected pictures, video, data, music and interactivity. It represents the next evolution of postal applications where the so–called ‘Internet of Things’ can be embedded into everyday items with built–in Internet access technology to grow the value of envelopes and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The new service provides seamless verification that mail has been received, read and contractually acted upon by integrating with USPS Intelligent Mail printed codes and graphics linked to postal identifier solutions. Intellareturn

Researchers from Mid Sweden University (www.miun.se) have constructed an interactive paper billboard that emits recorded sound in response to a user’s touch. The large prototype boards and store displays talk to you directly, using digital information embedded in the paper. When a user touches the paper, the conductive inks send information to a tiny computer that has the recorded files which are then streamed from the paper speakers. The team envisages that the technology could be used for advertising campaigns, marketing and events, product displays in stores, and in the future it might even be employed for product packaging for example in self instructive

Most of the thousand or more participants in printed electronics are attempting incremental improvements to existing products and missing the big picture. For example, faced with heavy losses on Liquid Crystal Displays LCD displays because of over capacity, many are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Organic Light Emitting Displays (OLEDs) with slightly better performance but still a rigid glass structure and minimal printing. This is rarely profitable either, as these displays are applied to the very price competitive applications such as television and mobile telephones. Startling new capabilities If we look at the big picture, we see that printed and even partially

If I were to ask you, “what is the fourth most populous nation after China, India and the USA?” you might say Brazil or Russia or Germany, but how many of you would say “Indonesia”? Well, with 225 million people, Indonesia is the fourth largest nation in terms of population. If I were to ask you, “what are the 10 fastest growing print markets in the world”? Most everyone would include the BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India and China, but would you pick Indonesia as no. 7 with a growth rate expected to be 56.6% over the 2006-2011 timeframe? Indonesia is growing even faster

Print has profoundly changed the world, and now the printing industry is being called upon to profound-ly change itself... so that it can continue to package knowledge and goods for human consumption in ways that address the challenges of sustainability and climate change. “Sustainability” is the conceptual framework used to redefine the way business is done by Fortune 1000 companies and, increasingly, it will change the nature of demand for printing services, printing equipment and supplies. While historically “green” primarily referred to environmental regulatory compliance, sustainability is a term that encompasses the “beyond compliance” environmental, social and economic aspects of a business, a