Skip to main content

Passive RFID grows by 1.12 billion tags in 2014 to 6.9 billion

More than five years later than the industry had expected, market research and events firm IDTechEx find that the passive RFID tag market is now seeing tremendous volume growth. Market research and events firm IDTechEx find that the passive RFID tag market is now seeing tremendous volume growth - more than five years later than the industry had expected. Most of the growth is based on retailer adoption of UHF RFID for shelf-level stock replenishment, with the latest example being fashion retailer Zara r
October 31, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
More than five years later than the industry had expected, market research and events firm 6582 IDTechEx find that the passive RFID tag market is now seeing tremendous volume growth.

Market research and events firm IDTechEx find that the passive RFID tag market is now seeing tremendous volume growth - more than five years later than the industry had expected. Most of the growth is based on retailer adoption of UHF RFID for shelf-level stock replenishment, with the latest example being fashion retailer Zara recently announcing its intention to roll out RFID to approximately 2,000 stores by 2016.

IDTechEx forecast in the new report, RFID Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2014-2024, that 25 billion RFID tags will be used on retail apparel and shoes in 2020 and a similar number on other ‘high value, high complexity mix’ items. Many other segments are taking off thanks to standardised, reliable technology where applications outside of retail are leveraging the considerable investment put in by RFID suppliers to address retailer needs.

Average tag prices in HF RFID are typically higher than UHF tags, often due to the need for greater security and therefore IC complexity, for example for payment applications. While NFC has been a failure so far due to lack of resolve between payment, telecoms and phone companies, it may be that Apple sets it on the right path and NFC begins to see traction over the coming years.

IDTechEx has found some striking territorial differences, as summarized in the chart below. UHF adoption is strongest in the US and Europe, and relatively weak in Asia in terms of number of tags, although tag production is increasingly moving there. In contrast, HF adoption has been strong in all territories, but particularly in Asia.

Overall, IDTechEx find that in 2014, the total RFID market is worth US$8.89 billion, up from US$7.77 billion in 2013 and US$6.96 billion in 2012. This includes tags, readers and software/services for RFID cards, labels, fobs and all other form factors. IDTechEx forecast that to rise to US$27.31 billion in 2024.

Related Content

  • February 6, 2014
    Contactless tickets forecast to reach 1.7 billion in 2018
    ABI Research has forecast that a combination of memory and microcontroller smart cards alongside disposable ticketing solutions will reach shipments totalling 1.7 billion units in 2018. The primary drivers include the increasing move to national standards and the enablement of near field communications (NFC) and open-loop payments. This trend is a consistent feature across all continents with particular progress within the UK, US, Australia, Germany, Turkey, and the BRIC countries forming a growth engine
  • July 26, 2013
    Global ETC solution revenues to grow to $8.5 billion by 2018
    Global electronic toll collection (ETC) systems revenues are expected to grow from US$4.48 billion in 2013 to US$8.5 billion in 2018, with a CAGR of 14 per cent and North America as the vital region., according to a new report from ABI Research, Electronic Toll Collection: A Key Business Driver for ITS and V2I. The study covers types of ETC (highway, urban, and area tolling), ETC technologies (RFID, DRSC, video, and GNSS/cellular), use cases and benefits, as well as an in-depth review of the main implementa
  • May 18, 2012
    Developing markets to drive commercial telematics systems to $12 billion by 2016
    Fleet management and trailer tracking system revenues will grow at a CAGR of 19.4 per cent in the next five years, rising from about US$5 billion in 2011 to exceed $12 billion in 2016. ABI Research Telematics and Navigation Group Director Dominique Bonte comments: "While commercial telematics in developed markets such as North America and Western Europe is reaching maturity, especially in the trucking segment, the major growth in future is expected to come from developing regions where safety and security r
  • April 19, 2016
    Nedap launches long range RFID solution for vehicle identification
    Automatic vehicle identification and parking detection technology specialist Nedap has launched the uPASS Target, a high-end RFID reader designed or long-range identification using the Rain RFID (UHF EPC Gen II) Standard. According to Nedap, uPASS Target is suitable for applications where vehicles and other moving objects must be identified automatically using passive RFID tags. The new reader offers a read range of up to 10m (33 ft.) which enables it to provide long-range identification of vehicles, peo