Jan 03, 2005This article was originally published by RFID Update.
January 3, 2005—Will 2005 be "The Year of RFID"? Probably not, according to this article by InformationWeek. As the next 200 Wal-Mart suppliers ramp up to meet the retailer's January 2006 RFID deadline, many will encounter different issues from their "Top 100" predecessors. As much knowledge as was gained in 2004 during the first wave of RFID deployments, the second wave's unique issues ensure that the learning and experimentation are just beginning.
So then, how about 2006 - will it be The Year of RFID? Or maybe 2007? No. Despite the press's habit of awarding important technologies the title of a particular year's definitive technology (2004 is already being heralded The Year of the Blog), the RFID revolution will not fit neatly into one 365-day period. As anyone involved with implementations on the ground can tell you, the processes affected are too many and the overall complexity too great for RFID to quickly transform the supply chain. The transformation will happen gradually. So perhaps a more accurate -- albeit less eye-catching -- pronouncement would be: "2004-2009, The Half-Decade of RFID."
Read the article at InformationWeek
