While only 8% of manufacturers have recently adopted active RFID, 48% planned to adopt it, according to a report by the Aberdeen Group in January 2006.

However, according to IDTechEx: the percentage of RFID expenditure related to active was about to rise from about 15% to 25%. The 2007 huge orders for active RFID is evidence to that and IDTechEx has the inside scoop:

On cue, 2007 has seen huge orders for active RFID. For example, Navis obtained a $15 million management project to install active RFID on over 7500 trucks at Georgia Port Authority's Garden City Terminal in savannah Georgia USA where a huge WhereNet active tag system already orchestrates the positioning of intermodal containers.

In item and conveyance tagging, Unisys recently landed an extension order from the US Department of Defense worth $28 million yearly and up to $112 million if three further planned extensions are granted. The $425 million Savi Technologies order for military active RFID in 2006 has been followed other large military orders for active RFID landed by that company in 2007. The Unisys project uses active RFID technology to track 125,000 shipments every week including ammunition, rations, medical supplies, vehicles and vehicle parts.

Real Time Location Systems RTLS, a form of active RFID, have been installed in 100 hospitals in the last year. VDC forecasts 40% yearly growth in RTLS to 2010 and IDTechEx sees active RFID as a whole reaching $7.2 billion in 2017, partly due to a booming RTLS sector. Aeroscout, in RTLS, has found it easy to raise $21 million in 2007 to fund its rapid expansion.

Because active RFID is now so important as a market and prosperous for participants, IDTechEx has a major stream on the subject at its conference "RFID Europe" in Cambridge UK on 18-19 September, www.idtechex.com/RFIDeurope. Speakers from Savi Technologies USA, Telegesis and Ubisense in the UK (Zigbee and Ultra Wide Band versions of active RFID respectively) and Chipsensors of Ireland and Montalbano Technology of Italy (both using sensors) will describe the latest technologies and applications and what comes next.

UK-based City Link will describe the world's largest WiFi RTLS system now being installed in its logistics business and International Post, Belgium, will cover its active RFID tracking of post worldwide. Delivery Management will explain the future of RFID in postal services. Three speakers cover how active RFID can enable mobile phones to be used to purchase things and get you onto the public transport systems. There is a visit to the premises of Ubisense, which has the most accurate RTLS in the world, and an optional Masterclass on "Active RFID, RTLS and Sensor Networks". In addition, there is a conference dedicated solely to "Active RFID and RTLS" in Dallas, USA, on 5-6 December www.idtechex.com/active

Suffice to say that active RFID has become a prosperous business.

This post is sponsored by IDTechEx.