Simon Baker (Senior Research Director, Mobile Phones/Consumer Devices)
The Eastern bloc's attempts to rival the West in IT were doomed to failure and already collapsing before the Berlin Wall fell 30 years ago on November 9, 1989. Little was left of the hardware companies such as East Germany's Robotron within a few years as Western PC imports flowed in, but the emphasis on technical education and programming skills in general has proved a valuable legacy.
Expenditure on IT by governments bucks the wider trend of cost cutting across the public sector. While overall government spending across Europe has steadily fallen from the highs of 2009–2010, when government spend as a percentage of GDP across Europe peaked at 50%, growth in government IT spending has remained on an upward trend
The blockchain buzz has been around for a while, and for an industry like manufacturing, which is an avid adopter of a wide range of digital technologies, it is far from being an anomaly.
In our eBook, we discussed how vital strategic partnerships are for the development of the 3D printing industry. Throughout this year, we have witnessed a number of new partnerships centered around applications, technology, materials, education, and traditional manufacturers investing in 3D printing. Here we take a look at some noteworthy examples of the latest partnerships in this industry.
