This article was originally published by RFID Update.
July 20, 2005—ABI Research of Oyster Bay, New York, today released as part of its RFID Research Service a warning that the RFID software market will experience a shakeout in the next six to nine months. Despite the lion’s share of attention tags and readers have historically received, is at the application layer where the collected data from RFID is used in an “organization’s operational machinery” to actually create value. As hardware matures and deployments expand, end users are increasingly focusing on making good use of the data. “New initiatives are flying thick and fast,” according to ABI.
Driven by increasing demand for software to make sense of the new RFID data, there will be general consolidation in the application space, including rollups and acquisitions. ABI’s director of RFID and ubiquitous networks, Erik Michielsen, notes that there is movement into the RFID application space from a number of areas. Enterprise software behemoth SAP, for example, is adding capabilities to its software suite Netweaver that are typically found in the products of OATSystems, Acsis, Connecterra, Sun, and Globeranger. Conversely, OATSystems is an example of a company whose products are handling standard Netweaver functions, according to Michielsen. Some of the middleware players are also expanding their products beyond mere middleware interfacing and into data analytics, business intelligence, and automation networking.
Whether or not ABI’s predicted shakeout occurs, expect the RFID application space to be the most dynamic area of RFID in the coming years. A shakeout would change the playing field in the short term, but the effects will probably be subsumed long term as so many new ideas, products, and companies make use of RFID data that today’s fledging field will be seem nominal by comparison.
Read the full release at ABI Research