RFID - A Tale of Four Continents

RFID is being adopted worldwide but with very great differences of emphasis as revealed by the IDTechEx Knowledgebase of more than 2,450 case studies in 92 countries. This is a tale of four, very different continents. North America is by far the largest market for RFID in value, number of tags, and number of case studies of RFID in action. That is almost entirely due to the U.S., with its massive orders for military RFID and widespread adoption in all sectors, Canada being a late follower.

The primary applications differ greatly between the continents. However, the financial, security, safety sector dominates overall and this employs mainly cards and card-like structures such as badges and flat keys.

Tag format
Australasia is unusual in its success with libraries, where about 10 percent of the appropriate libraries have RFID vs. one percent for the world as a whole.

If we look at the tag format, we see that labels are now well ahead in popularity and, other than in Australasia, cards come second. Australasia has the button format come second because it is the form used in the ears of cattle and in marathon runners’ shoes etc. and this region has a lot of animal and leisure applications relative to its size.

Tag location
Alternatively, we can look where the tag is placed. Contrary to popular opinion, this is at item level, from books to jewelery and apparel, not pallet and case, which is in the ascendant only in North America, and then only in the number of RFID projects, not the money spent, which has been little more than $100 million under the retail mandates. Once again, the money spent on item level tagging has greatly exceeded the money spent on pallet and case tagging this year. Surprisingly, the tagging of people, which occurs in marathon races, hospitals, prisons, and so on, is just ahead of animal tagging in Australasia to grab the number two slot there.

RFID frequencies
Finally, let us look at frequencies. Early RFID was mainly at LF because such tags were easily hand made in modest numbers and they were very tolerant of metal and water. With mass applications some way away, tag cost and size were not primary considerations. Then came HF tags which are an excellent compromise for the higher volume applications, including cards, the favorite format by overall money spent. However, in the last two years the proponents of UHF tags have made the greatest noise and they have got specifications for air baggage, pallets, and cases rewritten to focus exclusively on their capability—truly a triumph of marketing.

The U.S., with its exceptionally benign radio regulations at UHF and enthusiasm for that frequency from Wal-Mart and most of the leading local suppliers, is out of kilter with the rest of the world where HF is remains way ahead. To misquote Mark Twain, “Rumors of its death are premature.” Indeed, HF is staking out new ground such as RFID enabled mobile phones, some labels on drugs, and designer apparel for anti-counterfeiting, and all mass transit ticketing and RFID debit and credit cards.

For the near term, it now looks highly unlikely that HF will usurp UHF in baggage, pallets, and cases but on the other hand, it is highly unlikely that UHF will usurp HF in cards, tickets, passports, library books, and Near Field Communication. In the future, both UHF and HF RFID labels will appear on packaging but one or the other will be standard for drug packaging and it is too early to call that one.

For more information, attend the international RFID conference, RFID Smart Labels USA 2007 (http://rfid.idtechex.com/rfidusa07/en/index.asp), in Boston Mass., February 21-22, 2007.