RFID in 2006: A Story of Extremes

RFID sectors taking off
Other sectors of the RFID business is booming. Andrew Price RFID Manager at IATA, the airline trade association, enthuses, “In the next few years the air industry will be tagging an ever higher proportion of its two billion bags yearly and it will use RFID in other new applications as well.” This is a global phenomenon, not least in government applications. Dr Jimmy Li, Deputy Director of the Initiative Office for Government RFID Applications at the Ministry of Economic Affairs Taiwan and Senior Advisor of the Institute for Information Industry in Taiwan says, “Government applications of RFID are now growing rapidly. We started five RFID projects in the government area this year and there are more to come next year.”
Steve Georgevitch, Total Asset Visibility Program Manager of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems says, “The aerospace and defense industries are on a rapid RFID adoption path with substantial benefits anticipated in the next several years”.
Martin Capper, president, Mark IV IVHS Division says, “Mark IV sees RFID as an explosive market particularly in the Transportation segment with the evolution from the existing electronic payment systems to new applications delivering safety and mobility for both individuals and commercial traffic. The emergence of DSRC at 5.9GHz will create the next paradigm shift in surface transportation.”
There are also new markets opening up beyond transport. Dr Chang-Hun Lee of the National Information Society Agency, Korea says, “Ubiquitous Sensor Networks will be a huge RFID market in a few years.”
RFID tagging of livestock is driven by ever wider legislation. For example, the European Community and New Zealand join the party in 2008-2010, creating a market for tagging sheep, goats, pigs and cows, the total demand for these two regions being over 150 million tags yearly at about $2 each in 2010 from almost none today. Add a big demand for systems to that figure. The largest bookseller in the Netherlands BGN is ordering several million tags yearly for its new scheme and its payback is so compelling that others will rapidly follow.