Forecasts for RFID in 2006

Wenzek told me that over the past year or so, he has seen a change in the way people view RFID. "A year ago," he said, "RFID was the hot topic and people were struggling to find an application for it. Now, they are looking at a business problem and seeing RFID as one tool in their toolbox that might solve that problem."

Our cover story will look at a number of companies that have embedded RFID in their products to solve business problems and even create new business opportunities. That's a trend that will only pick up steam in 2006 as more businesspeople become aware of RFID's potential to add value to many products.

No doubt, there will be projects that fail because RFID isn't the right technology, or because the benefit isn't justified by the additional cost of embedding an RFID tag or interrogator in a product. But as our cover story will show, RFID can deliver tremendous benefits to manufacturers of RFID-enabled items and their customers.

Another trend I see for 2006 is the emergence of big players in the RFID market. For most of the past three years, startups and smaller established firms have been among the key players. Some of the weaker startups will fade away (many are already conserving resources, and some are on life support). Some firms with good technology but limited resources will be bought up, while the bigger players will play an increasingly important role. Software companies such as Microsoft and SAP will likely start making more noise about what they are doing and what they can do for high-volume end users. Large integrators, such as Accenture, CSC, IBM and Unisys, will also assume a more important role as those high-volume end users start broader rollouts.

The next 12 months might not cement RFID's position as an important business technology, but they could help determine the long-time winners and losers, among both end users and vendors. The end users that figure out the business case and begin effective rollouts will be in a stronger position than their competitors, as will the vendors that get their technologies and supply chains honed to deliver the solutions their customers need.

It should be an interesting year.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below.