Nov 16, 2008This article was originally published by RFID Update.
November 16, 2008—Wealth and asset management firm Robert W. Baird & Co. has released its RFID Monthly for November. Baird has given RFID Update permission to reprint the Key Developments section (below), which offers the report highlights. For those wanting more detail, the complete 17-page document is available free here.
- Market Softening; However, We Still See Growth in 2009. We indicated last edition that the broader automated data capture market was experiencing signs of softness, which we continue to see. We are hearing of some project delays and expect this to continue at least into the first quarter of 2009 as budgets are determined. Despite these push-backs, we continue to see good RFID opportunity in several key markets, including apparel, financial services, vehicle tracking, supply chain and medical. We expect increased strengthening of RFID throughout 2009 with some potential larger projects rolling out 2H09.
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- Real-World Business Applications. We are seeing an increased number of more well-defined applications that solve business problems. We are particularly encouraged to see several applications placed into production, and in some cases adding a second use case. In this edition, we profile several of these applications, including the Dutch Forensic Institute which has fully rolled out a chain of custody application, Finnish apparel provider NP, which has added in store customer applications on top of a supply chain application, and Air New Zealand, which is using RFID as a key tool as part of a broader customer service initiative for frequent travelers. NASA and the U.S. Air Force are using active RFID in a larger manner.
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- Increased Software Investment. We continue to hear industry commentary that Microsoft and IBM are becoming increasingly interested in developing and marketing RFID solutions. Perhaps more encouraging is the increased software investment by established ISV/System Integrators such as Xterprise and Lowry, which we profile in this edition. Such investment by these players brings not only increased credibility to the market, but also suggests a likelihood of greater scalability for key applications.
- Intellectual Property Moving Forward. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicated to the RFID Consortium that it does not intend to take anti-trust enforcement action against the Consortium's joint patent licensing agreement given the DOJ's view that the Consortium is expected to yield market efficiencies, and is not expected to impair competition. We view this as an important step in aggregating intellectual property, which could be a risk to larger deployment. We discuss this in further detail in the Briefs section.
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