In 2005 the global market for RFID will be US$1.94 Billion. Added demand will increase the market size to US$26.90 Billion in 2015.

That's according to a new research report by IDTechEx.

The number of tags alone that are sold is forecasted to grow rapidly. In 2005 IDTechEx forecasts 1.5 Billion tags will be sold. That number balloons to over 1 Trillion tags sold annually 10 years from now, in 2015, as this IDTechEx chart shows:




One interesting point suggested by the research report is that the goal of a 5 cent tag -- needed for broader RFID adoption -- will arive once the volume of tags sold annually reaches 10 Billion. However, a 1 cent silicon tag is not realistic, even within 10 years:

"IDTechEx doubt that the necessary one cent tags needed for tagging everything in the supermarket - the largest volume potential for RFID - will be profitably achieved with silicon chips within ten years if ever. It believes that giants such as IBM, Xerox, Dai Nippon Printing and Samsung that are developing 'chipless' alternatives such as polymer transistor circuits and Surface Acoustic Wave SAW devices may be on a better tack for the long term."