Global market growing for radio tags
by November 6, 2008 2:24 pm 57 views
One of the more interesting research projects at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville is with the commercial applications of radio frequency identification, or RFID.
Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the key driver of the UA research and is largely responsible for global interest in RFID. The giant retailer is requiring many of its vendors to adopt some level of RFID usage.
RFID has many uses. One is in inventory management. For example, small radio tags attached to pallets of baby wipes would signal key information about that product along strategic points of the supply chain. Inventory managers in Bentonville, for example, would know exactly when the pallet is loaded onto a ship, offloaded onto a truck in Japan and/or stacked in a holding area near a store.
ABI Research, one of the leading market research firms that monitor the value of emerging technologies on global consumer and business markets, has reported that the global RFID market will reach $5.3 billion by the end of 2008. By 2013, the market could top $9.8 billion.