SML's growth estimate comes from an analysis that the company initially conducted 18 months ago, says Dean Frew, SML RFID's CTO and senior VP of RFID solutions. The analysis, he says, was intended to help the company identify where it should focus its marketing strategies and planning, such as the geographic location of service bureaus that can quickly provide encoded tags, and what business requirements were emerging across different segments.

The intent to deploy RFID, or the testing of the technology, is significantly different than an actual permanent deployment, Frew says, but in some cases, statistical results can be confusing. For instance, if a large company were to conduct a pilot at a single store, that would indicate its interest in RFID, even if the sheer volume of tagged items were low.

What that means for the RFID industry, Frew explains, is plenty of room for growth — something he says the company's sales are proving. According to Frew, SML's RFID technology sales have been up 50 percent annually for the past three or four years. "We're seeing significant growth year over year, and it looks like 2017 and going forward is going to be no different than that."

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