The smart money on smart packaging

Laurence Hogg - 10 Jan 2011

Understanding consumer response is the key to smart packaging succeeding, says knowledge development expert Laurence Hogg at Faraday.

Smart packaging is a concept that emerged from the plastic electronics supply chain a few years ago, as a way of demonstrating the incredible potential of new printed electronic technology. Because it would be cheap to print in roll-to-roll processes, and it could go into places that other electronics could not, printed electronics would deliver consumer goods packaging that spoke to us, had scrolling labels, linked to the 'Internet of things' and had tear-off mobile phones.

The market for printed electronics companies providing smart packaging to brand owners is still forecast to be €5.7 billion by 2020.

As of now though there are no products like this on the market. The potential is still there - incremental advances and breakthroughs in the development of printed devices are still being made, and the opportunities for interactive packs are still too numerous to count, but by now we would be forgiven for asking how far behind the hype curve we really are.

This technology is making its way slowly into games and cards. There are also some impressive examples of electronic paper used in e-readers, and the industry can be pretty confident that some military applications will emerge over the next few years.

As far as smart and interactive packaging for branded consumer goods goes, however, there is next to nothing on the market.

Why are these incredible products not yet on the shelves in Tesco, given that we have been hearing about them for so long?

Industry issues

It seems to be a mix of issues, including many familiar ones for the plastic electronics industry as a whole.

Firstly, the industry that makes this technology is still very fragmented, with only a few players acting out the role of integrator.

Secondly, it turns out that the technology touted for its cost-competitiveness is not actually that cheap in general, and does not look like it will be any time soon.

Another familiar issue is intellectual property (IP). Managing IP, particularly in an intensively innovative area like printed electronics, can be a difficult issue.

It seems that in discussions between solution providers and their potential clients, agreeing who actually owns the solution and how its commercialisation is managed has been a stumbling block for development.

But for me one of the most obvious concerns has yet to be adequately addressed - that is, does the end user actually want it?

Want to read more?
This article appears in full in Volume 3, issue 3 of +Plastic Electronics magazine, analysing the commercial issues that surround smart packaging, and outlining how these technologies can progress to market.

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