Apparel retailers will continue to adopt RFID.
Retailers understand the technology’s value has been proved and are moving directly to trials and rollouts.
A major nonapparel retail chain will roll out RFID chainwide.
Jewelry, home furnishing and home improvement retailers are exploring RFID’s benefits. Expect one to unveil big plans in 2015.
Interest in RFID will expand across all industries, driven by news of big retail deployments.
RFID Journal is already seeing an increase in interest from manufacturers, medical device companies and other sectors.
Continued expansion of the Airbus RFID initiative will drive adoption in the airline industry.
Maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) companies are beginning to take advantage of RFID tags on parts of new Airbus planes, and it’s likely airlines will start to see the benefits as well.
Consolidation in the RFID industry will continue.
With short-term prospects still fairly weak, some RFID companies will be forced out of business or purchased by larger firms.
Microsoft, Oracle and SAP will continue to sit on the sidelines.
As more customers begin to request integration of RFID applications, the software giants will eventually catch on to RFID’s importance.
Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and IBM Business Services will continue to ignore RFID.
There isn’t enough revenue to get the big consulting firms excited, but that will likely change in 2016 or 2017.
Venture capitalists will come back into the market.
They were burned when the market didn’t materialize quickly after the early RFID mandates. But news of significant deployments will start to rekindle interest.
The Internet of Things will continue to generate a lot of buzz.
The release of the Apple Watch will fuel more IoT hype.
Political uncertainty in the United States will slow economic growth and lead to delays of some RFID projects.
Expect constant confrontation and inaction on budgets, tax cuts that are going to expire and other issues.