How To Make Enduring Profits Out Of RFID By Dr. Peter Harrop of IDTechEx

Written by Dr. Peter Harrop

In a RFID value chain, the chipmakers and material suppliers sell their goods to all comers. This is called horizontal marketing. For example, all the chipmakers are famous companies selling integrated circuits for many purposes and their RFID chips are only a small part of their business. The economics of chip factories and the very similar nature of RFID and non RFID chips dictates this.

In classical fashion, the systems providers, integrators, and operators and so on specialise in certain applicational sectors such as Savi Technology in military, Trenstar in beer kegs, and TransCore in non-stop road tolling. In between, we have companies feeling their way in this immature business and trying various combinations of hardware, software and other options, neither fully positioned vertically nor horizontally.

Dr. Peter Harrop PhD, FIEE, FCIM is Chairman of IDTechEx Ltd. He was previously Chief Executive of Mars Electronics, the $260 million electronics company and Chairman of Pinacl plc, the $100m fibre optic company. He has been chairman of over 15 high tech companies. He has written 14 books on technical subjects, these being published by the Financial Times, John Wiley and others. He lectures and consults internationally on smart labels, smart packaging, and printed electronics. Peter also specialises in electric vehicles (www.ev-data.com.)

Email: p.harrop@idtechex.com