RFID Changes Course

Chasing success

Other hot topics were the race to make mobile phones act as RFID tags and readers, where Japan leads and HF is the global standard but the Koreans told us they use UHF. Supplier Motorola described the scene. Clearly the race is going to the adaptable RFID suppliers with global reach. The largest recent RFID orders that were reported included such curious things as ten meter LF readers for counting salmon in US rivers, HF card systems for mass transit in the Philippines, HF rail tickets for Russia and tagging rail trucks in South Africa. Contrast the disappointments in other areas with the FDA refusing to decide on the frequency and other characteristics of drug tagging, crippling that nascent market and Michelin reporting that, at customer request, they have to retain up to 14 paper labels on tires even though RFID can replace them. They now see this RFID opportunity in tires being confined almost entirely to trucks for the foreseable future.