This article was originally published by RFID Update.
February 9, 2006—Research firm IDTechEx of Cambridge has released a report on the active RFID market and its growth prospects over the next decade. Listed below are key findings from Active RFID 2006-2016:
- The market will grow from $550 million in 2006 to $6.78 billion in 2016.
- At that time, real-time locating systems (RTLS) will contribute 40% of the spending, smart active labels (SAL) and ubiquitous sensor networks (USN) another 40%, active RFID-equipped cell phones 9%, key fobs 3%, and the remainder will come from other miscellaneous applications.
- Over the next decade, the primary industries using active RFID will be automotive, transportation, logistics, healthcare, and military.
- Unlike the passive RFID market, in which the expectation is that a large chunk of future spending will be on the tags themselves, the active RFID market will see systems contributing “a much larger part of the whole spend than tags.”
- Active RFID will not thrive in isolation. It will be applied in conjunction with the growing array of other wireless technologies and interfaces like ZigBee, NFC, passive RFID, WiFi, WiMAX, Bluetooth, GPS, and cell phones.
- Historically, active RFID has been something of a technological “backwater”, with the few sources of million-dollar sales being car clickers and military vehicle and asset tracking. Going forward, a number of developments will open up the market:
- First, Moore’s Law. Active RFID has dropped in size and cost considerably, and will continue to do so.
- Second, improved power sources. Advances in battery and power technologies “will overcome [existing] constraints of tag lifetime, cost, performance and size.”
- Third, standards. As in passive RFID, the availability of open standards will bring interoperability and a level playing field. IDTechEx cites ISO 18000 EPC Types 3 and 4 and IEEE 802.15.4 specifically.
Read the announcement from IDTechEx
