Trends 2011: RFID takes off

A Motorola sponsored white paper by IDC on The Future Usage of Communication Technologies in EMEA has found that there has been a strong adoption of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technologies to date, but that there is room for innovation and growth in under developed verticals and emerging markets.

The Motorola Solutions business of Motorola has announced the latest results of a Motorola sponsored white paper by IDC on The Future Usage of Communication Technologies in EMEA. The white paper found that there has been strong adoption of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technologies to date, but that there is room for further innovation and growth in under developed verticals and emerging markets. It also revealed that almost a quarter (22%) of organisations asked currently use RFID technology, but nearly double that number (42%) are interested in deploying RFID in the next five years.

KEY FACTS · The survey revealed there while there has been steady adoption of RFID technology to date, there is scope for innovation in its deployment as only 5% of organisations classified themselves as innovators in RFID adoption

· According to the survey, the biggest users of RFID technology are education organisations (36%), transport and logistics companies (33%) and utilities (26%)

¬∑ However, the findings also suggest that there are several sectors, such as retail and healthcare, in which RFID technology has relevant applications like intelligent inventory tracking or tracing patients and goods like drugs and blood to minimise errors, where it isn’t as widely deployed as of yet

· While relevant verticals in developed markets are seeing the benefits of RFID, there is still room for growth in emerging markets. Organisations in Germany (36%), Spain (36%) and the Nordics (35%) are the highest users of RFID technology, while Russia (13%) and Saudi Arabia (8%) are still in the early adoption phase

¬∑ Large companies lead the way in term of RFID adoption, while 63% of the small organisations asked said they has no interest at all in deploying RFID SUPPORTING QUOTES Marco Landi, Corporate Vice President EMEA Channel, Motorola Solutions ‚The report’s findings suggest that RFID has seen strong adoption thus far, but there is still huge potential for growth in verticals and emerging markets which have not yet realised its potential. What’s more, RFID solutions appear to polarise opinion, with 29% somewhat interested, 13% very interested and 42% of EMEA respondents not at all interested in using this type of technology. More needs to be done by the technology industry to demonstrate the business case and benefits of RFID for different sectors and to also help those sectors deploy RFID solutions innovatively to achieve competitive advantage.‚