Gen 2’s big debut means exciting but hard times for new market players
According to ABI Research: “When Wal-Mart’s new CIO, Rollin Ford, addressed his troops upon taking office last week, he confirmed the company’s unabated enthusiasm for RFID, saying, ‘When Gen 2 was released we planned to make it our standard at the beginning of this year. We have done that, and I can confirm that we will be sunsetting Gen 1 on June 30.'”
Erik Michielsen, ABI’s director of RFID research, told me via e-mail, when I asked him to translate the statement: “For example, Tagsys is focused on item level RFID solutions. T3CI is focused on retail supply chain analytics. Supplyscape is focused on pharmaceutical markets. The most successful of these players has been Savi Technology, which has focused on public sector RFID deployments for over a decade. Now, the company is leveraging its experience in container tracking and asset management within defense environments for new market entry across industrial manufacturing, aerospace, and transportation.” Alrighty then! Let the games begin.