Posted by Courtney Howard

NEW YORK, 8 March 2010. Despite the economic doldrums which required downward adjustments to ABI Research's RFID forecasts for 2009 and 2010, the outlook is good for steady growth through the next five years, according to new market data released by the firm.

"Not all segments of the RFID market are created equal"
.Practice director Michael Liard reports. "We expect the overall RFID market to exceed $8.25 billion in 2014, or approximately $7.46 billion with automobile immobilization excluded. That would represent a 14% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years."

This year alone, the RFID market appears set to reach a size of $4.47 billion (without automobile immobilization), 15% more than the adjusted 2009 figure, says the report.

"Not all segments of the RFID market are created equal," adds Liard. "To 2014, the greatest growth will be found in RTLS (Real Time Location Systems), baggage handling, animal ID, and item-level tagging in fashion apparel and retail."

Other key opportunities include Electronic Vehicle Registration, continued penetration of RFID-enabled e-ID/e-government documents (including health cards), and continued expansion of library systems. Also worth watching: slowed but continued progress in retail CPG supply chain management, and multiple flavors of asset management that leverage RFID technologies, including specialty passive UHF tags.

"Modernizing" applications for RFID will grow more rapidly than their "traditional" predecessors such as access control, automobile immobilization, electronic toll collection, and others that account for slightly more than 61% of the total market today. These applications are expected to grow 6% compounded annually from 2010 through 2014. In contrast, modernizing applications -– animal ID, asset management, baggage handling, cargo tracking and security, POS-contactless payment, RTLS, supply chain management, and ticketing -- are forecast to grow roughly 19% in the same time period.

ABI Research's "Semi-Annual RFID Market Data" presents ABI Research's latest RFID market segmentation and forecasts for revenue, unit shipments, and applications. It includes coverage of IC revenue and unit shipments by frequency and by region. Finally, information is provided about RFID software and services revenues sorted by region, vertical market, and primary application. It is a component of the RFID Research Service.

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