RFID Exotica — A Ubiquitous Enabling Technology
RFID is about Government spending
RFID companies that believe that RFID is all about civil supply chains are more likely to lose money, sometimes spectacularly so. Those that investigate where the money is really being spent and where the competition is lighter are generally prospering, from Lockheed Martin sitting on the world’s largest RFID order of $425 million for the US Military and a group of Chinese companies rolling out the $6 billion China National ID Card scheme and other companies salivating about the planned UK national ID card scheme which promises to burn many times that sum giving cards to 15% of the number of people involved in China. Governments have placed the big orders for RFID so far, including tagging post boxes in Saudi Arabia - a world first - and the massive Hong Kong Octopus card scheme for almost all transport and now for general shopping and equivalent schemes to Octopus across China. Sometimes it is local government that has the big chequebook as with mass transit card schemes, something that enabled ERG of Australia to be a US$137 million RFID business with installed equipment from Gothenburg to Beijing responsible for five billion transactions yearly. RFID is even used by the French navy on nuclear submarines and implanted into government employees in Mexico.
