CGT Inside News - 10/5/2005
Long-Awaited Price Cuts May Speed RFID Adoption
By Alliston Ackerman, News Editor, [email protected]
October 5, 2005 - The hype within the consumer goods industry that claims cost as the main hindrance in achieving ROI from RFID investments seems to be deflating as Alien Technology and Avery Dennison announce price cuts for their RFID tags. While Alien reduced the price of its straps to 12.9 cents, Avery Dennison is offering inlays at 7.9 cents. According to ABI Research, even this sub-8-cent price is still well above the five-cent point that some industry analysts touted as the price needed to ensure a viable RFID industry. However, that number has more recently been viewed as too simplistic in any case.
"These new low prices may represent loss-leaders," comments Erik Michielsen, director of RFID and ubiquitous networks, ABI Research. "But when you tie them to the new products and services offered by software companies to help end-users make sense of their RFID data, and to the recent spate of EPC Gen 2 announcements, we may have a three-headed 'benevolent monster' that will promote demand."
In addition, Applied Wireless Identifications (AWID) is dropping reader prices by about 70 percent, marking the first time that a Generation 2 RFID reader has fallen under the $1,000 price barrier. Lower cost hardware such as this, plus tested and proven performance requirements around a new standard, and software enabling non-technology focused end-users to make better decisions are all emerging factors that now support the widespread RFID deployments across a wide range of vertical markets.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
By Alliston Ackerman, News Editor, [email protected]
October 5, 2005 - The hype within the consumer goods industry that claims cost as the main hindrance in achieving ROI from RFID investments seems to be deflating as Alien Technology and Avery Dennison announce price cuts for their RFID tags. While Alien reduced the price of its straps to 12.9 cents, Avery Dennison is offering inlays at 7.9 cents. According to ABI Research, even this sub-8-cent price is still well above the five-cent point that some industry analysts touted as the price needed to ensure a viable RFID industry. However, that number has more recently been viewed as too simplistic in any case.
"These new low prices may represent loss-leaders," comments Erik Michielsen, director of RFID and ubiquitous networks, ABI Research. "But when you tie them to the new products and services offered by software companies to help end-users make sense of their RFID data, and to the recent spate of EPC Gen 2 announcements, we may have a three-headed 'benevolent monster' that will promote demand."
In addition, Applied Wireless Identifications (AWID) is dropping reader prices by about 70 percent, marking the first time that a Generation 2 RFID reader has fallen under the $1,000 price barrier. Lower cost hardware such as this, plus tested and proven performance requirements around a new standard, and software enabling non-technology focused end-users to make better decisions are all emerging factors that now support the widespread RFID deployments across a wide range of vertical markets.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]