This includes tags, readers and software/services for RFID cards, labels, fobs and all other form factors - for both passive and active RFID. The market for RFID has grown steadily despite the economic meltdown due to the diverse nature of its applications from tagging retail apparel to transport ticketing to animals. Historically and today, governments have driven most RFID orders as they improve efficiency (transit systems), safety (passport tagging) and protect industries (animal tagging).

Since 2000 there has been a strong push to use passive RFID to improve supply chain visibility, with a wide range of investment in new RFID technologies, new standards and much publicity. Inevitably as with most new technologies, aspects were overly hyped and demand was not in sync with capacity, but as we entered 2010 the industry emerged from the hype cycle. Since then the industry has entered a period of rapid growth and profitability for some. There are different rates of growth for different applications and many challenges - and opportunities still exist.

In total, IDTechEx finds that 5.9 billion tags will be sold in 2013 versus 4.8 billion in 2012.

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