July 25, 2005
RFID Craze Premature?
What has caused the sudden RFID buzz followed by predictions of an industry shakeout before it has even had time to mature? Some experts are pointing fingers at large retailers like WalMart and the U.S. Department of Defense. Their mandates on suppliers to adopt RFID possibly spurred a premature RFID craze and overly optimistic spending forecasts. A study by AMR Research indicated that the number one reason for deploying RFID over the course of the next year was due to customer mandates. With the price of the technology still high, many companies not facing customer mandates are opting not to rollout the technology. This leaves some experts believing that industry consolidation is inevitable since current spending levels won't support the large number of vendors that have emerged. According to Forbes.com:
The mandates “prematurely accelerated” RFID into the mainstream, wrote Gaughan, and suppliers are complying in order to keep their relationships with large customers. It usually takes emerging technologies five to ten years to reach a level that will support broad industry adoption.
Read more: The Great RFID Experiment that Wasn't
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