I'm grateful to Chris Kapsambelis for his comment below on Active/Passive RFID and the likely return on investment compared with bar codes.
"I believe that the majority of RFID applications can yield a positive ROI. But, that is not the question. The questions should be "Can you get the same ROI by using Bar Codes?". For most applications the answer is YES. This is especially true for Passive RFID. The performance of Passive RFID has been over-hyped and confused with that of Active RFID. There, simply, is not enough difference in performance between Passive RFID, and Bar Codes to justify the additional cost."
Certainly, it seems Active RFID is where the real action is, as these quotes from IDTechEX's recent Review of 2007 in RFID explains:
"Active RFID accounted for about 13% of all RFID expenditure in 2007, but this figure was depressed by the huge Chinese national ID card scheme, which involves passive RFID. Look at the IDTechEx Knowledgebase and you see a more meaningful picture for the future, given that the Chinese ID card scheme has now peaked in deliveries of both cards and infrastructure. A remarkable 32% of projects added in 2007 involved active RFID, taking the cumulative figure to 22%. Little wonder that over 20% of both RFID fund raisings and RFID acquisitions in 2007 involved companies somewhere in the active RFID value chain. The IDTechEx conference Active RFID and RTLS, the only one of its type in the world, also grew strongly in attendance and number of exhibitors in 2007. RTLS is mainly driving this burgeoning active RFID activity. For instance, Ubisense, founded as recently as 2003, already has over 200 clients.
"Active RFID will now be powered by two waves. RTLS is the first wave, with 2007 seeing the first major deliveries, including about 100 healthcare facilities adopting RTLS. Ubiquitous Sensor Networks will be the second wave but it has yet to begin in any serious manner. Indeed, some applications will merge both capabilities.
"Politicians like to do exit polls so let us try one too. The last 50 projects entered into the IDTechEx Knowledgebase in 2007 came from a remarkable 25 countries. Active RFID was used in 40% of these projects and passive UHF and HF were responsible for 28% each. Make of that what you will."
I'd be interested in other views on Chris's assertion that there isn't enough difference in performance between Passive RFID, and Bar Codes to justify the additional cost. Do you agree? Is Active RFID the future? And where does Passive RFID go from here?
Technorati tags: Active RFID Passive RFID IDTechEX bar codes