Institute For The Future

NEW Memo--RFID: Implications and Recommendations

This memo (SR-926E) is the final in our series on RFID and it outlines implications and recommendations. In the next decade, RFID will move from the supply chain into the world at large. In the near term--that is, over the next three to five years--the cost of tags and readers will fall enough to allow the technology to move onto products, clothes, and packaging. As it diffuses, RFID will appear in an ever-widening variety of social and use contexts. RFID will begin to be an element in hospital, airport, and store security; a tool to identify and recover stolen merchandise; and an instrument of contactless commerce. Using this as a base, the memo answers two key questions about the futures of RFID: 1) What comes next after the supply chain and easy applications like security? 2) What can companies do to encourage popular trust in RFID and avoid controversies?