In a recent issue of Industy week, Paul Faber of Thompkins Associates confirms what we've all been seeing anecdotaly.
What I've found substantiates recent news reports of a slowing of the EPC Gen 2 retail market. However, this contrasts sharply with the expansion of other, proprietary forms of RFID technology..
So less EPC, more proprietary systems for now. He attributes this to the Network Effect, basically saying that unless your network is using the technology, you may want to hold off on big investments even in an open technology.
Due to the incomplete infrastructure of EPC RFID tools, the retail RFID market is currently not big enough to drive significant value-add to all participants in the supply chain.
He has a point for most business concerns, but it's also this phase of the development of a new technology where the early adopters may just spot that "killer app." My bet is still on micropayments and credit card replacements. I just don't have room in my life for carrying change anymore, and I would like to be able to pay for a meal without handing anyone my human readable account information. I doubt I'm the only one.
So the technical corollary for what Mr. Faber is saying is the same thing we were saying earlier in the year, the trick is not just to adopt open RFID standards, but keep you architecture open overall. Don't build an "RFID Architecture." Build an architecture that supports more knowledge and descision making at the edge, tie it together with loosely coupled connections, and whatever form identification takes, you'll be ready.
Posted by bill at October 31, 2006 11:50 AM