RFID to become the norm in five years

The RFID management report, however, also discovered that many businesses are cautious, with more than a third of companies (34%) more interested in seeing how other companies are implementing RFID technology than starting their own project.

The report also highlighted that the predicted growth in RFID would be driven by the fact that the technology will ‘shrink in scale’ and become ‘significantly cheaper’ over the next three to five years.

David Smith, Capgemini’s UK head of RFID said: ‘Nokia can already produce cheap mobile RFID readers for around $700 (£370), but prices will inevitably come down quickly as they move this technology into the mass product market.

‘This will enable you to ‘touch’ a poster of Kylie with your RFID-enabled phone to download information and music. People will be able to use their phones in many more ways, from checking whether an item is in a shop stockroom to using web services to finding more information about products.’

The report found that more than half (54%) of companies were concerned about the complexity of integrating RFID technology with existing systems. Some 43% of companies viewed the lack of a set of global RFID standards as a major obstacle, while 42% of cited the cost of technology.