Active RFID tags seeing new growth

Active (battery powered) RFID tags are seeing faster growth than the raw figure reveal. Data from analyst IDTechEx, which is hosting this month’s Smart Labels Europe conference in Cambridge, shows a rise from 11% last year to 14% this. But with the biggest user (car central locking keys) now near stagnant, that masks a near doubling of applications. IDTechEx, which claims to chart all RFID developments and applications, expects active tag usage to grow far fast over the next five years. On mobile phones alone, it expects second generation RFID-enabled units to leap six-fold on the back of additional information and payment automation services. Uses in manufacturing, along the lines of existing PDAs, will grow more modestly, but could precede the massive growth originally anticipated in supply chain uptake of passive devices. Also, the group points to the emergence of standards-based smart active labels (SALs) and RRID tags incorporating another RF or microwave device covering, for example GPS or GSM, some piggybacking Bluetooth systems, for locating people and things. So great will be the anticipated growth that IDTechEx is staging the world’s first major conference and exhibition on the subject in San Antonio, Texas in November.