RFID leads $40bn tech boom-time

The market for wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies, such as RFID, is set for a boom-time with revenues expected to quadruple to $40.8bn come 2011, analysts predict.

Wireless M2M - where data is shared between devices over a wireless network without human interaction - will see revenues more than double in the next three years, from $11.6bn in 2006 to $25.3bn in 2009, according to analyst house Juniper research.

The A-Z of wireless

Click on the links below to find out more…

A is for Antivirus
B is for Bluetooth
C is for The Cloud
D is for dotMobi
E is for Email
F is for FMC
G is for GPS
H is for HSDPA
I is for i-mode
J is for Japan Air
K is for Korea
L is for LBS
M is for M2M
N is for NFC
O is for Operating systems
P is for Pubs
Q is for QoS
R is for Roaming
S is for Satellite
T is for TV
U is for UMTS
V is for Virgin
W is for WiMax
X is for XDA
Y is for Yucca
Z is for Zigbee

To date, all M2M communications, whether wireless or wired, have been notorious for convoluted business models, needing long-term investment and being associated with high costs, according to the Juniper report Wireless Telematics and Machine to Machine: Entering the Growth Phrase, 2006-2011.

Therese Cory, report author at Juniper Research, said the business case for wireless telemetry will become easier as more companies bite the bullet and provide success stories for others to learn from.

RFID is one of the best examples of M2M tech - using tiny chips to transit data through antenna which is picked up by devices that read the information in a similar way to a barcode.