Research Articles

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

IDTechEx has written a new report, with the support of GS1 UK, introducing you to 22 global implementations of RFID in Action.

We are delighted to announce that we have won the UK's most prestigious business award.

Extreme fragmentation of RFID supply is not what the users want, and IDTechEx believe that appropriate international acquisitions could gain massive competitive advantage.

The fifth - and largest - IDTechEx event RFID Smart Labels USA event

As processes are scaled up and costs have to come down, we see printed electronics increasingly being made with traditional high speed printing technology, particularly as suitably thin, high integrity inks become available. Read about this battle.

This seventh annual RFID event is Europe's most established and important RFID show, now co-located with the first Active RFID Summit Europe!

In any rapidly emerging market sector, there are those that make bold initiatives but miss their targets and there are those that quietly create profitable businesses. So it is with RFID, where many companies are reviewing their strategies after disappointment while others are succeeding. However, as far as the press and the analysts are concerned, profit is a taboo subject. Until now.

Introduction of a new bielomatik entry-level HF and UHF smart label converting machine - The T-100/165 Explorer

IDTechEx recently visited Japan to learn about the latest RFID developments there. Read highlights from our full report on the country's RFID progress published in the March issue of Smart Labels Analyst.

Learn about RFID progress from East Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Americas and network with delegates from 30 countries. Now only days from the Boston show which kicks off on March 28, we examine the key uniques of the fifth annual RFID Smart Labels USA event.

The number of companies offering Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) has tripled in the last year. So what is going on and what is RTLS anyway? A new report on this topic from IDTechEx finds some exciting developments.

Globally the printing industry is in decline. Are the centuries of sophisticated development of the science and production technology for printing declining in a whimper? The answer is probably not. Certainly there is a fascinating escape route opening up for some. It is the printing of electronics.