Communications and Technology Industry Research

New forecasts released by ABI Research (News - Alert), a market research firm focused on the impact of emerging technologies on global consumer and business markets, indicate that the total RFID market will turn over approximately $9.7 billion by 2013, representing roughly a 15 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the period from 2008.

“These figures highlight an RFID market that is growing robustly,” says research director Michael Liard. “Across all product categories and flavors of RFID technology, market trends continue to be positive. We saw a strong finish to 2007, which continued into a healthy 1Q 2008.”

 

The research attributes part of this gratifying performance to several long-term RFID commitments and investments by large end-users, particularly in the passive UHF segment — such as Airbus' significant commitment to RFID technology for numerous projects throughout its supply chain and assembly operations, and Sam's Club's decision to enforce its RFID customer compliance program for retail consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers in the U.S. It is worth mentioning that recently, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a new request for proposal (RFP) for passive UHF solution components.

 

Passive UHF RFID solutions typically consist of the transponder (tag (News - Alert)) transmitting its ID in the broad UHF frequency range of 868 MHz to 928 MHz. Since passive tags do not have a built-in power supply, they can be packaged in small sizes and even be embedded in stickers. Depending on the size and power of the reader antenna, passive RFID tags can be read from a distance of 10 cms up to a few meters.

 

These examples represent different vertical markets, and to them, said Liard, can be added the enthusiasm for RFID shown by energy and utilities, healthcare, and transportation (for asset management) as well as the fashion apparel and footwear sector (for item-level tagging), particularly among specialty retailers. All these demonstrate RFID's strength across a number of industries.

Closed-loop applications continue to lead the charge, with asset management in the forefront: library/rental items, reusable/returnable containers, spare parts, tools, work-in-process, yard management and more are all popular arenas for RFID deployment.

Liard concludes, “Future RFID market growth will come from many sources and applications. ABI Research sees growing strength across many industries, including those applications that are unique to particular verticals, as well as those — such as asset tracking, security/access control, and supply chain management — that are common to a range of verticals.”