Some technologies have the potential to change the future, and RFID belongs to this category. Mass use of this technology can bring a dramatic and radical revolution in the civilization in future.
David Ouyang, Secretary-General, RFID China Alliance, explains in a statement reported by The Star Online on February 26, 2007, “It could give everything on earth a unique and traceable identity, greatly expanding the borders of the current Internet by making everything connected”.
RFID make use of radio waves for identifying the objects, whether manufactured goods, animals, or plants. For this, a RFID ‘tag’ is affixed to the object. RFID tag consists of an Integrated Circuit (IC) and an in-built antenna and is capable of transmitting the identification information of the object to a reader (a wireless receiver).
According to Ouyang, these remarkable features could open the doors to several revolutionary applications of RFID in logistics, security, retail, military, and manufacturing industries.
Ouyang says, “In the near future, the RFID market in China will be mainly driven by government projects. We expect these programmes would lead to mass commercial applications of RFID technology in the country”.
According to the RNCOS report “RFID: Outlook China”, total number of RFID tags (comprising both active and passive across all frequency ranges) sold in 2005 was a little over to 600 million, quite less than the projections. It is estimated that by 2010, 48% of the RFID tags will be purchased by Asia.
Although RFID is technologically advanced, but its high cost is obstructing its mass application. The scenario is more serious in China where most of the local manufacturers get meager profit margins as subcontractors for multinational biggies.
“The current status of RFID is like the Internet in the 1990s: it’s expensive, has few users and lacks content and applications. But in the same way that the Internet changed our lives, RFID will surely impact us greatly”, Ouyang said.
The RNCOS report predicts that China’s RFID industry will tread the progress path gradually in 2007. With the steady deployment of RFID plan by Wal-Mart, more and more Chinese firms will speed up the RFID application process domestically.
The market research report gives an in-depth analysis of the Chinese RFID market with distinguished focus on market segmentation, RFID applications, key verticals and government policies. It provides detailed analysis on the global RFID market with success factors, opportunities, and challenges.
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.jpg "European RFID Industry Outlook (2007-2010)")
.jpg "RFID in the Manufacturing Sector (2005)")
