Research Articles

As we enter 2007, many RFID suppliers are licking their wounds, while for others, RFID business is booming. As IDTechEx interview solution providers and users across the RFID industry for the new report RFID Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2007-2017 to be released in January, Raghu Das, CEO, summarizes some of the findings.

CEO's from the creme-de-la-creme of the pure-play RFID companies that are leading the market as well as stealthy start-ups will gather in Boston on February 20 at the RFID Investment Summit to meet with investors.

With the launch of an RFID Investment Summit to be held in Boston on Feb 20, Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx looks at the recent investor interest in RFID and particularly active RFID and Real Time Locating Systems.

Over 200 people attended the second annual IDTechEx Active RFID Summit in Atlanta, Georgia in November. There were many positive remarks about the event and delegates expressed particular interest in Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) this year.

Despite some areas under performing, most of the RFID business is booming. Here IDTechEx has interviewed key companies in different vertical sectors. We present their comments on the opportunity for RFID in those sectors.

From inception to creating - all you need to know about manufacturing low cost high performance RFID

Where are the RFID success stories and in which market sectors? Here Teresa Henry highlights the leading adopter nations, the big spenders and surprise niches for RFID implementation.

Has the pallet/case market for RFID tags and other hardware become the nearest thing to a black hole in the RFID universe in 2006, thanks to reluctant mandated customers, technical problems and pricing for volumes that never came?

RFID technology is moving on apace in some areas. Certainly EPC Gen2 tags have demonstrated spectacular performance improvements when tagging cases and pallets. However work is still needed.

At IDTechEx, when we teach Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), we talk of it being a ubiquitous enabling technology like the wheel or paper. After all, RFID is now used from Bulgaria to Namibia, from Azerbaijan to Vietnam and Antarctica. There are well over 10,000 RFID projects out there and there are over 1000 suppliers that have now landed substantial orders for the specialist RFID hardware and services involved. Yet things have barely started.

With the ability to track, locate and sense, Active RFID is being rapidly adopted around the World, often creating new markets. Many adopters have reported a rapid return on investment (ROI) of 12 to 18 months which is leading to active RFID being a $6.78 billion market in 2016. Here Dan Lawrence summarizes the topic for the forthcoming IDTechEx Active RFID Summit event.

IDTechEx is delighted to announce the sixth annual RFID Smart Labels USA 2007 conference and exhibition which will be held in Boston, MA, Feb 21-22, 2007. Covering all the RFID applications and technologies, the event focuses on the business case for RFID, item level tagging, RFID progress around the world and state-of-the-art technologies. Register early and save.

The IDTechEx RFID Smart Labels Europe Conference and Exhibition on September 19-20 broke new ground, showing how the subject has moved on. Here are some highlights of the event.

Contactless smart cards are the largest RFID sector by far and the business is booming. As a result of the reduced cost of the latest contactless systems IDTechEx forecast a boom in RFID smart cards.

On Tuesday delegates from 29 countries will meet in London at the IDTechEx RFID Smart Labels Europe and Active RFID Europe events. See the latest unmissable speaker additions and event updates.

The September edition of the IDTechEx monthly journal, Smart Labels Analyst, is free. Follow the link to download your copy.

In RFID, the amount of acquisition activity is picking up fast but is still well below what the market demands. With about 1000 companies doing something significant in the RFID value chain and mergers being less than the rate of formation of new RFID companies, there is scope for much more M&A activity and for the weak to disappear.

An analysis of 75 case studies from 18 countries of Active RFID in action shows the hot sectors in this technology vertical.

While many agree that China will become the largest market for RFID, few know of what is going on there or even companies involved in the sector. Therefore IDTechEx technical consultant Ning Xiao has toured China visiting RFID companies, users and the government to uncover the latest developments. IDTechEx has discovered progress from dozens of Chinese companies and surprising major RFID activities. In this article Ning Xiao summarises his learnings, which can be read in full in the IDTechEx journal Smart Labels Analyst.

If you are looking to raise money for your business involved in RFID, Printed Electronics or Smart Packaging, IDTechEx can offer free help.

The correlation between the volume and pricing of RFID tags has been a much debated topic in recent times. Here is Dr Peter Harrop's forecast on pricing for the next ten years and his justification behind the figures.

Item level RFID is set for substantial growth over the next decade. A new study from IDTechEx forecasts and explores key markets that will apply item-level tagging, advances in technology and the mass adoption that will follow. Dr. Peter Harrop from IDTechEx summarises this study. See www.idtechex.com/item for more information.

RFID in healthcare is growing rapidly to become a $2.1 billion global business in 2016. Smart packaging for healthcare has additional value, for example, ensuring that people take the correct pills at the right time. RFID can improve the lives of patients in many different ways...

With IATA's decision to settle on one standard for RFID tags in airline baggage that sector of the market is due to rise from $20 million in 2006 to $100 million in 2016. RFID will also be used by airlines to tag crucial aeroplane parts and by airports to improve security...

The IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase, the world's largest searchable database of RFID in action, has reached 2000 cases, revealing surprising trends. In this article Dr Peter Harrop analyses lessons, global trends and statistics from 2000 RFID implementations.

Item level tagging is happening faster than most realize - 200 million tags will be used in 2006 for item level tagging alone - mainly on apparel, books and drugs to name a few applications.The seventh annual RFID Smart Labels Europe event focuses on the progress to item level tagging, giving analysis of suitable technologies from global experts.

An analysis of RFID adoption in New Zealand and Australia. Australia and New Zealand have some leadership positions in adopting RFID but in some other respects, these countries are laggards in adopting RFID and need to benchmark against best practice elsewhere and catch up. Learn of the major RFID projects in these countries so far.

Pfizer, NHS, Stora Enso, LifeForce Immune System Bank and Siemens keynote RFID in Healthcare session at the seventh annual RFID Smart Labels Europe event in London on September on 19-20.

An update of Wal-Mart's RFID progress, paybacks so far and experience from consumer packaged goods suppliers.

There is a great need for profit optimization and careful product positioning and repositioning in the frenetic but unforgiving RFID market that is increasing ten times to become a $26 billion business in 2016. IDTechEx has analyzed profit, cash generation, fund raising and acquisition strategy in RFID for a new report.

Investors seek unique technologies, then some major customers. Passive RFID oversupplied; but opportunities for active RFID and software.

In 2006 1.3 Billion RFID tags will be sold, with 500 million being applied to pallets and cases, over 200 million for contactless smart cards and the rest in a very diverse range of markets. Learn of these developments at RFID Smart Labels Europe, now co-located with Europe's first Active RFID summit.

Definitions of RFID frequencies

Item level tagging is going to be the biggest market for RFID. However, despite many companies wanting everything at one frequency - UHF - the limitations of far field UHF systems with water and metal have hindered this. Recently there have been big developments in near field UHF, with companies citing performance similar to that of HF tags. IDTechEx provides an independent analysis.

The market for RFID tags and systems in healthcare will rise rapidly from $90 million in 2006 to $2.1 billion in 2016. Learn more in our summary of our new research report.

Definitions