August 14, 2006

So Which Is It? Boom Or Bust For RFID?

Depending on which articles you look at, the RFID market will either booming next year or will be down in revenue. For example, ABI Research dropped its revenue projection for RFID software and services by 15 percent, for a variety of reasons, including less spending by consumers. Still, they expect that next year's RFID market to generate over $3 billion, with the greatest gains in asset management and supply chain management.

Another reason for the reduced forecast from ABI has to do with market consolidations and collaborative solutions. Who would've thunk it, that collaborating might be bad for the bottom line?

Then there's the issue of indefinitely delaying their IPO. At first, I thought that this had more to do with the state of the stock market, especially for tech stocks, than with the RFID industry. However, the rumors from company insiders suggest otherwise. In fact, jobs were supposedly cut.

Whether jobs are cut or increased will likely significantly depend on the RFID programs of large retailers such as Wal-Mart. Despite public claims that they're moving forward with the RFID program, there are some indications they've scaled back, primarily because suppliers have not themselves move forward. Wal-Mart's actual decision will probably have a ripple effect through the RFID industry.

Still, given the positive RFID trials in other countries, it's likely that these are probably short-term situations, and that the .

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