RFID technology has steadily proven itself a reliable and increasingly affordable automatic identification solution for a variety of applications. Label printers/encoders play an important role in many RFID deployments, and although some models were initially designed and utilized in inventory management and supply chain tracking applications, changing market dynamics have pushed printer vendors to design solutions with greater flexibility and more intelligence built into the printer to service a wider range of business cases. "People are being more creative and more aggressive when looking at closed-loop applications for their particular environment," says Cindy Guiles, product manager at Datamax-O'Neil. "They are being more efficient within their own four walls and trying to do more with fewer people."
The economic downturn has negatively affected RFID adoption in traditional markets like manufacturing and distribution, but the technology is gaining ground in other areas. According to recent research from VDC Research Group, these high-growth RFID markets include commercial services (including library and textile applications), government agencies, and the oil and gas industry.
