Another developing news story concerns the rail industry in Europe and TagMaster’s contract award to deliver its new UHF track-side readers to Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration). The readers will be used to automatically identify both Swedish and international goods on rail cars as they pass detection sites on the Swedish mainline rail network.

Trafikverket, along with several other infrastructure owners in Europe are implementing wagon tracking systems conforming to the EPC Gen2 standard, paving the way for the introduction of a European wide system where interoperability is a the primary requirement.

Lastly, Materials Handling World magazine reports that Volkswagen is using RFID to tag 20,000 parts for the production of its popular Passat brand at its manufacturing plant in Emden, Germany.

RFID 24-7 will be following up on these developments are providing greater details in the next few days.

During the height of the stock market volatility last month, RFID 24-7 reported that the Impinj IPO could be in jeopardy. Since the stock market has leveled of somewhat (other than Friday’s big losses of course), it appears that the Impinj IPO will occur. Impinj is in the middle of a quiet period and cannot comment on the IPO, but many industry insiders believe that the deal with be priced by the middle of next month, if not sooner.

As for the economy’s impact on RFID firms, we turned to VDC Research, which recently published an analyst update on the topic. VDC spoke with leading firms from the component, device manufacturer, channel and end user communities to ascertain the market’s health and identify where (if any) the impact is occurring within the value chain. VDC found very little change, with most firms remaining cautiously optimistic about the near-term future.

The following are some key takeaways from the report:

Components: Speaking with leading IC, inlay, ticket, tag, label, card and printer ink suppliers, we noted that although there has been a slowdown of sales, growth is still occurring at a healthy pace.  Most suppliers attributed this slowdown to high inventory levels within their channels – a trend VDC has been tracking since mid-last year (i.e.: silicon in RFID, petroleum related printing products) – and correlate only a very small portion of this slowdown with the current economic conditions.

Device Manufacturers: The scanner, reader and printer manufacturers are seeing a tremendous amount of activity in nearly every market, with several claiming growth in excess of market and internal expectations.  There were no reports of cancelled or delayed deployments and, for most, growth from new accounts remains stronger than the same time last year.

Click here to view the full VDC report.

1 – RFID made easy: Hillstrom compares the early days of RFID to attending a concert and sitting near the light boards with a million knobs and switches, and an engineer constantly monitoring and tweaking the control panel to match the show on stage. “In the past RFID was very much like that,” says Hillstrom. “You had to be tweaking constantly. But what we are seeing for 2011 is more of an easy button approach, with readers that monitor the environment they are in and change how they read the tags to support the environment they are operating in at the moment.”

Hillstrom also says to expect more all-in-one solutions to enter the market, making deployments much simpler, and to look for a greater ability to store more data on the tag. Users will also benefit from dynamic antenna switching that monitor RF environments to determine if you in high interference or low interference areas and assure peak performance at all times.

2 – Item level tagging will drive volumes: The apparel sector continues to embrace item level RFID tagging, with more than 100 projects on record. “Modest penetration will consume billions of tags per year,” says Hillstrom. “You are seeing incredible ramp-up with more and more retailers embedding tags.”

3 – Sensitivity surpasses speed as a primary differentiator: In the early days of RFID, everything was about speed and how fast you could read tags. “Speed isn’t the issue now,” says Hillstrom. “It’s more about hard-to-read tags and how can I get to those hard-to-read tags. There will be more conversations around sensitivity and you’ll see advances in RFID in the area of sensitivity in 2011.”

4 – Privacy and security: To date, most systems have been closed loop, but we’re starting to see more open loop systems installed around the world, which will call for closer attention to privacy matters. “You’ll see a standard this year around privacy and security, and then vendors will bring those solutions to market quickly and in a reliable fashion,” she says.

5 — Embedded RFID becomes ubiquitous: Most people walking up to a Coke vending machine and other applications don’t even know RFID is inside it. And the ability to share data through the cloud or other avenues is becoming huge. “Connecting to the Internet is a huge step forward.,” says Hillstrom. “It’s all in a sense executing on the vision that gets us to a point where the Internet of things is sharing information. A lot of the RFID solutions to date have been closed loop solutions but if you look at what’s happening in 2011, it’s a major step forward not only getting to critical mass with more tags being deployed but the [progression] of these systems from closed loop and into connected systems is major step forward.”

Just how far has RFID reader technology come over the years? Consider that the ODIN benchmark compared current readers to the Symbol MC9000-G, which was the strongest performer in 2005 testing. Today, it is among the weakest. That’s a testament to Motorola’s investment and continued R&D in the handheld arena. Motorola purchased Symbol in 2006 for just under $4 billion.

ODIN has granted readers of RFID 24-7 an exclusive look at how readers fared in the distance category.

The eight handheld RFID readers evaluated in the Benchmark include:

• Motorola MC3090-Z (FCC)
• Motorola MC3190-Z (ETSI) *(name may change before official launch)
• Intermec IP30 (FCC)
• Intermec IP30 (ETSI)
• CSL CS101
• Unitech RH767
• MacSema PCE 4050
• Symbol MC9000 (FCC model also included in 2005 Benchmark)

Click here for more information or to view the report’s executive summary.

From the report:

Interpreting the Results

In straight apples to apples comparison at 27 dB, we can see … that the MC3090-Z from Motorola (both ETSI and FCC versions) were lead performers. They performed well with the Steelwave Micro and exceptionally well with the Omni Ultra and Alien Squiggle. MacSema PCE4050 had the best results with the Steelwave Micro and noteworthy performance with the Ultra.

When the readers are set to max power and the tests are repeated, the CSL CS101 clearly stands above the rest of the pack. It read the Steelwave Micro reliably at 15 ft. and maxed out our testing environment for the Ultra and Squiggle at 40 ft with reliable reads. Its performance was more than 30% better in read distance than the next closest handheld.

The Motorola units remained competitive even after the other units were maxed out at 30 dB for the distance testing. All other readers did see improved performance.

The R500 RFID reader chip uses the same software architecture as the Indy R1000/2000 versions and enables UHF Gen 2 readers with the lowest development times and per unit cost on the market while ensuring the highest standards of quality, reliability and performance inherent in Impinj’s Indy products

“There is a huge growth surge happening in RFID being driven not only by retail but simultaneously by an expanding bubble of different applications,” says Scot Stelter, senior director of product marketing for Impinj. “So there is a diversification of application types as people apply RFID to more problems.”

That has led to greater demand for less expensive readers. Sharing a common architecture with all members of the Indy reader chip product line, the R500 is drop-in compatible with the high performance Indy R2000. The common architecture employed across the Indy product line significantly benefits RFID hardware vendors because design effort can be reused across multiple development projects addressing different market segments. Designed to meet regulatory requirements in over 100 countries, the Indy R500 also accelerates time-to-market by simplifying attainment of government certifications worldwide.

Impinj expects that its partners will have products developed and in the field by the first quarter of 2011.

Stelter says a very interesting market is opening up for applications that add RFID to devices that are not primarily RFID readers, such as the Coca-Cola Freestyle drink dispenser, which uses RFID to track the flavor cartridges inside the machines.

“The drink dispenser has four Indy chips inside it and they provide the ability to read the tags in syrup cartridges so that the machine can trigger supply chain replenishment,” he says. “We’re seeing a growing need for that kind of application. Virtually all of these embedded apps have very low range and speed requirements, so this chip is ideally targeted for them.”

Impinj execs say that while some users will drop the R1000 in favor of the lower cost R500, they don’t anticipate a dropoff in sales whatsoever.

“The straight answer is no,” says Stelter. “We do expect some people who might use the R1000 to convert to the R500.  But the industry growth is so rapid, and we’re seeing growth across the R1000 and the R2000, so even with the R500 those two will continue to grow. The R500 will fill an expanding void for new applications so we think the R1000 is not going to be greatly affected by the R500. It’s [market] will definitely increase.”

Click here to read the Impinj release on the R500.

We just came across this interesting blog piece from our friends at ODIN, and thought we’d share it with you. Bret Kinsela breaks down the economics of the new R500, and what it will mean for lower end reader pricing.

Read the full blog here.

Mexico’s EVR program aims to tag all 25 million vehicles in the country by the end of next year. RFID 24-7 reported on the program last month.

The Speedway Revolution reader, featuring patented Autopilot^TM technology, will encode the required sanctioned Gen 2 tags placed on vehicle windshields. In addition, Mexico-based label stock converter Digilogics is developing software to exploit the unique capabilities of the Speedway Revolution reader for uses beyond the REPUVE REPUVE program, including in warehouse management systems (WMS) and other critical business processes.

“Many potential customers contacted Digilogics because they were not satisfied with the quality and performance of currently available RFID reader products,” said Luca Pastorello, partner at Digilogics. “Impinj’s Speedway Revolution delivered the performance and reliability necessary for the demanding requirements of this project across the entire spectrum of users, including automotive manufacturers, state data and verifying centers and installations on roads and motorways.”

Alien’s Conference, held adjacent to its RFID Solutions Center in Dayton, Ohio, drew approximately 150 users from 20 countries.

The ALR-9900+ supersedes all previous regional-specific enterprise category readers with an operational frequency band ranging from 866MHz (Europe, Middle East & Africa) to 954MHz (Japan). The ALR-9900+ is the parent model to the recently announced ALR-9900-EMA, which was specifically designed for compliance with the new ETSI EN 302-208-2 regulatory compliance standards, more commonly known as ‘the four-channel-plan’.

New technological advancements led to a global reader architecture, enabling a single hardware platform to be factory configurable to accommodate world-wide regional compliance profiles. Additionally, numerous new developments resulted in significant performance improvements as well as incorporation of several innovative features, further complementing the industry leading Alien Higgs™-3 RFID tag IC, bolstering security and authentication applications and supporting all extended and customized Higgs-3 IC features.

Beyond the advantages of a global hardware platform, the key differentiating attributes of the ALR-9900+ over its ALR-9900 predecessor include a vastly improved receiver circuit design with multiple stages of configurable digital filters and high gain, low distortion amplifiers, resulting in a dramatically more sensitive receiver. This best-in-class design provides more read range margin, most advantageous for applications using ultra-high sensitivity tags in challenging environments at extreme distance or where tag backscatter signals are constrained due to sub-optimum conditions, including use with smaller item level tags which often have limited performance.

Motorola is ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix — a worldwide evaluation of handheld reader vendors — released by ABI Research this morning. Convergence Systems Limited (CSL) and Psion Teklogix Inc. claimed the second and third spots. It should be noted that product performance benchmarking is not a focus of the Vendor Matrix, although it is taken into consideration. Rather, when it comes to innovation, ABI examined the vendor’s product offering mix and the overall designs of readers, GUI and/or user input configuration, and critical performance enhancements such as battery life expectancy, antenna design, and wireless connectivity options. Motorola’s industry leadership, influence, and knowledge transfer were evaluated, as well as perceived strength and innovation in engineering.

As for the implementation portion of ABI’s research, the firm scrutinized the vendors according to the following criteria: manufacturing capabilities and strategy; pricing strategy and perceived price-to-value quotient; overall market position, leadership, and strength; perceived strength within verticals and/or applications targeted/served; persistent market presence and experience; partner strategy, approach, and support capabilities; scope of distribution channels; and go-to-market strategy and approach

“Mobile computing, bar code scanning, and RFID are highly complementary technologies and major strengths for Motorola, helping drive handheld product innovation within the organization,” says Michael Liard, RFID Practice Director. “The company’s global reach, partner/customer support capabilities, installed base, and an approach to RFID that cuts across many industries while addressing the needs of verticals all helped bolster the overall implementation score relative to the competition.”

The Passive UHF RFID Handheld Reader Vendor Matrix is an analytical tool developed by ABI Research to provide a clear understanding of vendors’ positions in specific markets. Vendors are assessed on the important parameters of “innovation” and “implementation” across several criteria unique to each vendor matrix.