RFID: 2010 Hot Spots
Wednesday, March 03, 2010 - RFID Connections
 |
Michael J. Liard
Practice Director, RFID
ABI Research
RFID Connections spoke with Michael J. Liard, Practice Director, RFID with ABI Research. Mike has been covering the RFID industry since 2000 and he is here today to take a look at some of the "hot spots" he sees as we move into 2010. He'll also share some insights into what he sees as some of the "hot spots" for action by the vendor community.
His views can be heard by clicking on the “podcast” in the article. So if you don’t have time to read the interview now, download it onto your iPod/MP3 player and listen in on your way home.
Note: transcript may have been edited for grammar and contextual flow.
RFID Connections: Mike, because you've been covering the industry for so long, you've been able to identify some of the trends and some of the growth patterns. What do you see as the current high-growth applications for RFID as we move into 2010?
Mike Liard: There are plenty of application areas that are out there being served by all the frequency ranges in RFID, from low frequency all the way to microwave, but where we see lots of activity and lots of interest today are in a few core areas, particularly passive UHF RFID. There's lots of energy and excitement today around item level tracking using RFID, again, specifically passive UHF.
We're looking at fashion/apparel/footwear for example. It's a high volume opportunity but also it provides visibility advantages, inventory control advantages to those retailers and manufacturers that adopt the technology. There's a host of activity and there's lots of discussions happening within the retail around fashion/apparel/footwear and tagging that throughout the supply chain including the in-store environment.
Another interesting area, and this is not only tied to passive UHF because you see HF, low frequency as well as some of the active RFID technologies, and that's the multiple flavors of asset management. It is a broad category; it crosses a number of vertical markets and industries but it's delivering value and that's what's important. This could be for things like work-in-process tracking; maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations in markets like aerospace and defense; you see it for capital equipment; you see it for IT asset management today. So asset management continues to be a very attractive area and a high growth category.
Another is Real Time Location Systems [RTLS]. This has become a very interesting application in vertical markets such as health care. We're seeing a lot of interest around patient tracking, equipment tracking, medical device tracking using RFID and RTLS technologies. So that's another high growth area.
Another interesting area that we're seeing continues to be e-ID [electronic identification], government ID documents, and some folks would include healthcare cards into that marketplace. That's an HF market opportunity. That continues to drive significant volumes within this space so that remains a high growth application.
Another core high frequency segment which continues to sustain promising growth is POS [point-of-sale] contactless payment using RFID for transaction-related purposes. It's a well-established solutions suite or application in the Asia/Pacific region; it's increasing in Europe and the U.S. so we're watching that contactless payment marketplace as well.
Those are some of the high growth areas that are out there but as you start "peeling back the layers of the onion", so to speak, with RFID you start to look at this technology becoming increasingly vertical while solving horizontal challenges as well. So, while something like asset management is certainly a horizontal application, it's becoming more verticalized than ever. Whereas you start seeing asset management-specific solutions for IT, for healthcare, for transportation, for manufacturing so I think that's a positive sign for the industry but points to the wide-spread use of RFID in a wide number of application areas.
RFID Connections: Mike, that's a very interesting point because even if the technology solutions for, say, asset tracking are very similar between industries, it's very important to understand the specific needs and differences of those industries and even the terminology they use in order to really address their issues and provide a solid solution.
What are some of the other things the vendor community needs to do to really get the message across to the end users? Given that we have this wide range of applications, the variety of RFID technologies, the large number of solutions that are currently out there, how do vendors get the message out there so that the end user can begin to understand and then take advantage of all of these solutions that are currently available?
Mike Liard: There are three things that come top-of-mind as to what the vendor community can do today.
Number one is enable total solutions. Certainly you don't need to deliver a total solution in order to be successful but it's good to be a part of one. With the fragmented nature of this RFID marketplace there are a lot of pieces to the value chain and there are a lot of players in that value chain. From all the research that I've done over the last ten years, end users really desire that kind of single source, total solution approach. And we can do that as an RFID community by partner-enabled total solutions. So work with your partners; work with your channel; work with systems integrators; work with the ISVs, the independent software vendors out there to develop and market total solutions that are very cohesive, that end users can understand and ultimately adopt.
So, that's the first thing: enable total solutions and if you don't have the bandwidth yourselves or if that's not the business model, be part of a partner-enabled total solution.
The second is continue with the market messaging effort. Education and awareness is still a challenge in the marketplace today and we need to continue to press forward on that. That's talking with the regular trade media; that's continuing to exhibit at these conferences that are out there; continue to work with perhaps vertical markets; fine-tune your message to target that particular vertical market.
Earlier, we talked about asset management being a horizontal application but it's increasingly going vertical. So message to those specific verticals because it's great to have all these case studies and use examples out in the marketplace. End users and peers learn from those and those remain critical today but the next step for us is to start messaging to specific vertical markets and making sure that end users within specific verticals understand "what's the business problem that I have and, yes, the vendor or vendors that I'm working with that are providing the total solution understand my space, they understand my business challenges and they can respond appropriately to it.
So I think having a more vertical tone to your market messaging and your market development approach is going to be key moving forward.
The third thing is continue to work with industry associations. Industry associations such as AIM, such as EPCglobal, such as the Automotive Industry Action Group, let's say, or something like that. You've got to work with industry associations whether they are specific to our industry, RFID and automatic data capture, if it's specific to the automotive space, if it's specific to standards development, we've got to continue to work with industry associations to help drive the adoption of RFID and to continue to move the technology forward on a standards level, on a performance level and also on an awareness level.
So, I think that working with those industry associations as a vendor community is going to be mission critical moving forward, to continue to really push for increased education awareness and actions around RFID.
RFID Connections: Mike, that's certainly sound advice and it fits very well with AIM's mission -- what we try to do and encourage our members to do, and try to help them do, on a daily basis. Are there any final thoughts you'd like to share with our listeners?
Mike Liard: I think the market was certainly challenging in late 2008 into 2009 with the tough economy but from the research we've done and we continue to do, end user spending is expected to increase, interest and awareness around RFID is at its highest point and continues to climb, and as we've pointed out throughout this conversation, we haven't yet seen all the application possibilities with RFID and that's what keeps this technology and this market exciting for sure.
-----
About Michael Liard
Practice Director, RFID
ABI Research
About ABI Research
ABI Research provides market-based intelligence across a range of technologies: mobile devices, networks, and services; wireless connectivity; the “digital home”; telematics and navigation, RFID, and “clean telecoms.” Its teams of expert analysts and researchers combine long experience, deep understanding of technology and business, and a firm dedication to objectivity. ABI Research reports and services offer subscribers critical interpretation of market trends, backed by verifiable facts.
In addition to being relied upon for strategic insight by over 500 clients annually, our analysts’ opinions appear in the major media sources of the world and hundreds of industry specific trade publications.
Share this Story
Digg 
del.icio.us 
Yahoo 
Reddit 
Facebook 
Google
Related Articles
:
No Related Content Found
or 