82 percent of companies to use RFID

RFID is on 69 per cent of US businesses' shopping lists for this year, analysts have revealed.

A report from AMR Research found that over two-thirds of businesses queried were planning to pilot, implement, evaluate or use RFID. However, for most companies, the track-and-trace technology remains a future project — of the 69 per cent with an interest in RFID, just eight per cent are in full rollout phase.

For those not looking at the tracking chips this year, 12 per cent are gunning for a 2006 pilot and 18 per cent aren't interested in the technology at all.

Despite a significant proportion of RFID refuseniks, vendors look set to do well nonetheless. The average RFID budget for 2005 will be around $550,000 (£313,000), rising to over $770,000 by 2007, according to AMR.

The old problems with RFID still remain, however — 28 per cent of companies surveyed expressed concern about proving ROI from an RFID implementation and a similar percentage were dogged by standards fears.

Five hundred US companies were surveyed for the report.