HP's inkjet tech declines

Hewlett-Packard's inkjet printer business, built on homegrown Oregon technology that spawned decades of hi-tech, high-wage jobs in two Northwest cities, is drying up, says Oregon Live.

HP campuses in Corvallis and Vancouver have already suffered as the company outsourced manufacturing work and pared jobs.

Now, in detailed accounts of internal company meetings in April and June provided to The Oregonian, HP executives spell out in extraordinarily blunt terms the decline of what had long been HP's most dependable and profitable technology - and the engine of its Northwest operations.

According to market research firm IDTechEx, the printed electronics business will rise to the order of $300 billion twenty years from now, reports Evertiq.

Today the printed electronics business largely consists of applications such as screen, flexo and gravure printed silver for RFID antennas and membrane keyboards, and carbon and metal for printed heaters and sensors.

Few elements have been involved but that is now changing with the first sales of printed organic light emitting diode displays, a variety of screen printed and thin film manganese dioxide zinc, lithium ion and lithium polymer batteries, inkjet printed copper indium gallium diselenide photovoltaics and dye sensitised solar cells.

Digital camera shipments in Japan decreased 9.4% year-on-year (YOY) to 781 700 units in June 2008, according to the statistics announced by the Camera and Imaging Products Association, says TechOn.

Shipment value also declined 11.9% YOY to yen19.21 billion (approximately US$178 million).

Shipments in the first half of 2008 were up 0.6% YOY to 5.2733 million units, or up 1.4% YOY to yen129.356 billion. Digital camera shipments had grown more than 10% YOY for the last two years, but the growth rate slowed in the first half of 2008.