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NEW YORK,
March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Who will win and lose as nanotechnology
pervades consumer goods? The answer will differ greatly by
industry and product category, according to a new report from
Lux Research entitled "How Nanotechnology Adds Value
to Products." Nanotech could slash the cost of breast
cancer treatment by 39% and add an average of seven years'
to patients lives, reinventing the field -- but in another
sector like automotive, nanotech innovations will add a series
of small, incremental innovations from which component suppliers
benefit the most.
"First-generation consumer products incorporating nanotechnology
are already on the market. They show price premiums of 11%,
on average, over conventional products. For example, Easton
Sports' Synergy SL hockey stick is built from a carbon nanotube
composite, and Wyeth's Rapamune immunosuppressant tablets
are milled into nanocrystalline grains," said Matthew
Nordan, Vice President of Research at Lux Research. "But
these products form a poor guide to the future. Second-generation
nano-enabled products will differ by tapping many nanotechnology
innovations instead of just one, employing active nanostructures,
and requiring new manufacturing processes to exploit."
To calculate the value that will be created and destroyed
by nanotechnology in second-generation products, Lux Research
built detailed, quantitative case studies of 1) a high-volume
consumer truck, 2) a high-end 3G mobile phone, and 3) the
course of treatment for breast cancer. For each, Lux Research
identified a shortlist of nanotech innovations likely to have
the greatest impact in a five- to ten-year time frame and
quantified how much value would be created and destroyed if
the innovations were deployed in volume -- as well as who
would capture the net value created.
Based on the case studies, the report finds that:
* Nanotech's impact on a consumer truck is broad but shallow,
with many
minor advances. If six emerging nanotech innovations were
all applied in
one model year of a high-volume truck like the Ford F-Series,
tier-one
suppliers to the auto manufacturer would win the most with
$493 million
in incremental revenue for that model year. Consumers would
rank next
with $327 million in cost savings over five years of use,
mostly from
better fuel economy, as well as soft benefits in performance
and safety.
The truck manufacturer itself would follow with a net $248
million in
cost savings and boosted resale value, plus points of differentiation
against competitors. But incumbent suppliers of materials
like talc-
filled composites and microparticulate platinum group catalysts
would
lose $297 million in combined sales displaced by nanoscale
alternatives.
* The mobile phone case is narrower but deeper, where nanotech
will
sustain existing price/performance curves. The biggest winner
from
nanotech in one model of a high-end 3G mobile phone would
be the
manufacturer, which could use five emerging nanotech innovations
to gain
crucial market share and keep giving consumers more for
their money
every year. New suppliers would earn $355 million from nano-enabled
components like OLEDs and single-chip memory solutions,
at the expenseof $251 million in lost sales by incumbent
suppliers.
* Breast cancer treatment sees a revolutionary, narrow-but-deep
impact
from nanotech. If four emerging nanotechnology innovations
were
universally applied to breast cancer treatment, patients
would win the
biggest with seven years of life added on average -- a gain
impossible
to quantify in dollars. Fifteen-year treatment costs for
one year's
worth of diagnosed patients would drop by $4 billion --
a savings of 39%
-- and entirely new franchises would be created in new nanoscale
screening tools that replace mammography, nano-enabled MRI
contrast
agents that replace biopsies, nanoparticulate ablation procedures
that
replace lumpectomy and mastectomy, and nano-reformulations
of existing
chemotherapy agents. Incumbent suppliers would lose: for
example, entire classes of chemotherapy agents worth billions
of dollars in annual
revenue would be displaced.
"The rise of nanotechnology in consumer products will
spur action from start-ups and large corporations alike,"
Nordan commented. "Start-ups should pay attention to
their partners' and customers' soft branding issues as well
as hard business case concerns: Although few consumers are
likely to use a nano-enabled solar cell recharger packaged
with their mobile phone, Konarka could sell millions of such
rechargers to Nokia anyway if they provided a means to differentiate
against competitors' phones. Corporations should consider
'blocking acquisitions' that allow them to gate the introduction
of nanotech enablers rather than letting competitors set the
pace, in the same way that they pursue 'blocking patents'
in nanotech today."
The report's case studies identify 43 nanotech innovations
across the three product categories studied, and quantify
the impact of 15 key innovations in terms of net value captured
by suppliers, manufacturers, customers, and other parties
in the products' value chains. The report is available immediately
to clients of Lux Research's Nanotechnology Strategies advisory
service. Clients can also access the Lux Research team to
drill down on specific aspects of the cases, as well as to
apply the same case study process to other product categories.
For information on how to become a client, contact Rob Burns,
Vice President of Sales, at (646) 723-0708.
About Lux Research:
Lux Research is the world's premier research and advisory
firm focusing on the business and economic impact of nanotechnology
and related emerging technologies. Lux Research provides continuous
advisory services, customized consulting, and reference studies
to corporations, start-ups, financial institutions, and public
sector organizations. Our founders and our research staff
are the most widely recognized nanotechnology visionaries
throughout the world. Visit http://www.luxresearchinc.com/
for more information.
Source: Lux Research
CONTACT:
Peter Hebert, Lux Research, Inc., +1-646-723-0702,
peter.hebert@luxresearchinc.com
Web site: http://www.luxresearchinc.com/
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