ABI Research expects the global RFID market to reach $5.3 billion in 2008, driven by high-growth, high-volume applications such as supply chain management, ID documents, ticketing and contactless payment drive shipments.

By 2013, the market is forecasted to almost double, to $9.8 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 15%. Excluding traditional applications, such as access control, automatic vehicle identification, automobile immobilization and ID documents, the CAGR for RFID revenue exceeds 20%.

Research director Michael Liard said RFID is happening across many vertical markets and industries, especially manufacturing, transportation and logistics, and has been for some time. Now, however, it's reaching into industries like agriculture, oil, gas and chemicals.

“It's touching upon more vertical markets and industries than ever,” he said.

With more industries using and developing RFID technologies, companies could expect to pay less.

“Without question increased adoption will help lower price points,” Liard said. “Volume helps drive down costs. End users are doing interesting things at current price points, and lower costs will only help fuel adoption.”

Companies are looking to create a total solution, with RFID part of that, moving further down the value chain.

“Now it's really coming together,” Liard said, “now that we know how to capture it. Now it's how do we leverage that data.”

According to ABI, it's still too early to predict the effect of the economy on RFID, but investments are still being made in the companies developing the technology. Liard said it typically takes three to six months for any impact to be felt.