The RFID Weblog: When will RFID reach the five cents level?

When will RFID reach the five cents level?

Filed in archive Tags and Readers by gautam on April 2, 2007

RFID is the future and its implementation has been increasing with each passing day. A question which is often asked is when will RFID break the five cent barrier? I hear that it will happen pretty soon but nobody seems to be sure about it. As of now passive rfid tags trade for prices between eleven cents to forty bucks for each piece of tag. This technology has had its own share of ups and downs with virus scare to adoption by Walmart but still it stands strong. Though prices have been falling but it is still not sure as by what percentage the prices have fallen since there are a variety of tags being sold in the market.

With this technology slowly and steadily reaching the masses and various standards issue being solved the day may not been far off when we will be able to get an RFID tag for less than five cents. Probably what is needed is a further adoption of this technology in order to reach those volumes at which it would be feasible to sell them at five cents a piece. There are some who may even feel that price may not be an inhibiting factor until and unless the objectives are being met but if one would like to reach the masses then price could surely be the deciding factor.

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Tags: RFID tags five cent RFID tag rfid five+cents

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Response from: Ashwin (04/04/07 7:04am)

Indeed its boom time for AIDC technology rather than just RFID. The small & Medium Enterprises are just waking up to the advantages of Barcoding so RFID still has to cover some distance, However its true that the large corporates are rapidly adapting to RFID. A less advocated field in RFID and Barcoding is the Software solutions that are an integral part. We at Siparium are the pioneers in developing Solutions for the AIDC sector (both Brcoding & RFID). Lets just hope that RFID creates such hype that Small & Medium Enterprises should directly go for RFID solutions rather than adapting Barcoding solutions and migrating to RFID in future.

Response from: Chris Kapsambelis (04/06/07 9:53am)

The time for the 5 cent tag has come and gone. The 5 cent tag is based on the assumption that the UHF passive tag will find universal application. This is necessary to support very high production levels without which the 5 cent tag is not possible.

Recent developments have shown that there is no universal tag, and different RFID sectors will need tags with differing characteristics, none of which is of sufficient volume to support the 5 cent tag.

Response from: Ronan Clinton (05/15/07 6:17pm)

The total confusion about 5 cent tags continues... Have a look at what you actually get for 5 cent -(assuming we are talking about the UHF Gen 2 tags) is an inlay based on a quantity of 100 million (as far as my research goes anyway). These inlays then need to be manufactured into a label or something that can be applied in a manufacturing process. So, from start to finish, the 5 cent RFID component is only one step of the process. By the time a tag is integrated into a useable media, programmed, system integrated and applied the cost is many times more - assuming you need 100 million of them..... I compare the RFID to the .com industry in the late 1990's. It will survive as an extremely effective and useable technology, but a serious correction of the hype and understanding needs to happen. As soon as people grasped that the .com industry was overvalued and mis-understood, it bombed. The same will happen with RFID, although it will survive. I have attended seminar after seminar on RFID and I have heard nothing new in the last 7 years, except the same mis-information being spread in a different way. The real world will prevail.... (I should point out that I actually love RFID as a technology and my company provides it to customers, but only when applicable..)

Response from: oyun (10/03/07 3:30am)

The time for the 5 cent tag has come and gone. The 5 cent tag is based on the assumption that the UHF passive tag will find universal application. This is necessary to support very high production levels without which the 5 cent tag is not possible. Recent developments have shown that there is no universal tag, and different RFID sectors will need tags with differing characteristics, none of which is of sufficient volume to support the 5 cent tag.

Response from: oyun (10/03/07 3:30am)

The time for the 5 cent tag has come and gone.