Nov 03, 2008This article was originally published by RFID Update.
November 3, 2008—New RFID revenue data and forecasts released today by ABI Research show worldwide sales will reach $5.3 billion this year and that five high-profile segments of the industry -- item-level tagging, contactless payments, asset tracking, RTLS and cargo tracking -- will experience growth of at least 25 percent through next year. ABI predicts the overall industry will have a 15 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for 2008 through 2013, when annual revenues will reach $9.8 billion.
"We're not seeing much of a financial impact on the RFID industry from the overall economic situation right now," ABI Research director Mike Liard told RFID Update. "There are a lot of bright spots in RFID."
Liard said overall RFID industry growth is tempered more by slow growth in high-volume, mature applications such as access control, automobile immobilization and vehicle identification, than it is by current economic conditions.
"To a casual observer the five-year CAGR for the RFID market as a whole may not seem impressive at face value. In this case, however, ABI Research notes that traditional applications with single-digit and low-double digit five-year compound annual growth rates continue to dominate current and near-term RFID market revenue share. In terms of overall market growth, if these 'traditional' applications -- access control, automatic vehicle identification, automobile immobilization, and ID documents -- are removed from the equation, the 2008-2013 CAGR for total RFID systems revenue exceeds 20%," Liard said in ABI's announcement.
Item-level tagging revenues have the highest growth rate in the industry, followed by contactless payment, each growing more than 30 percent annually, according to Liard. ABI reduced its item-level projections for the pharmaceutical industry after California delayed new drug tracking requirements, but the downward revision was offset by strong growth forecasts for item-level tagging for apparel, footwear and anti-counterfeiting applications.
ABI released the data as part of its quarterly RFID forecasting service. The data is separate from a survey ABI released in September that found end users expected to increase their RFID spending levels 28 percent next year (see Survey Finds Major Shifts in RFID Adoption Trends).
