REID Applocatopms Show Helps Taiwan Industry Keeping Pace with the World

The Taiwan International RFID Applications Show wrapped with success at Hall 3, Taipei World Trade Center due to the prosperity of RFID market in recent years and the attraction effect brought by Taipei International Electronics Autumn Show held during the same period.  The venue was filled with constant streams of visitors, where buyers were seen shuffling and making inquiries.  A lot of local buyers were first-time participants in a professional RFID applications show, and were very concerned about the technology breakthroughs and cost issues regarding RFID.  Some buyers also revealed that they made this special trip to understand more about the industry considering RFID applications as an irreversible trend of the future, even though they had no plan for RFID introduction yet.

TAITRA’s first professional applications show tailor-made for the RFID industry was highly regarded by lots of manufacturers.  A large number of renowned manufacturers considered it as golden opportunity to explore the Taiwan market; for example, NXP – the second largest semiconductor manufacturer in Europe – took the chance to amaze buyers with its top products such as the UCODE and ICODE series that had raised a lot of talking points with regard to NFC mobile phones, anti-counterfeiting technology for large games like the World Cup, and the IC cards for public transportation.  As for peripherals, exhibits in the show revealed that low-frequency and high-frequency applications are still the mainstream in the market.  However, it is worth noticing that several international manufacturers with proactive development ability turned the spotlight on ultra-high frequency RFID products.  For examples, NXP displayed the new generation of UCODE chip for high-frequency smart labels, which is one-third of the previous weight and has great potential in cost reduction and market expansion because of higher production output; similarly, in the international conference held on October 12, Mr. Luke Donnelly, Senior Manager of Intel, introduced the R1000 chip designed for ultra-frequency RFID readers.  “UHF RFID is taking off worldwide”, Mr. Connelly announced confidently in the conference.  All these suggested that the developments of ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID products are optimistic and will become the index for future developments.

Intermec, a leading manufacturer of RFID facilities and system integration, was represented in the exhibition by Marvel Business Systems, its long-term agent in Taiwan.  Intermec owns more than 145 patents in the field of RFID.  In order to speed up the maturity of RFID market, the company has released a number of patents in the past 2 years, and facilitated the establishment of Gen2 standard certification.  Mr. Chong-Ming Chen, the Sales Director of Marvel Business Systems, indicated that RFID is an efficient tool to solve problems, but enterprises should not take RFID for granted and blindly apply the techonogy.  According to Intermec’s experience of serving customers like Wal-Mart, Boeing and the Hong Kong International Airport, each industry has its distinctive characteristics and the problems to be solved are widely divergent.  A proper choice for system and products as well as the maximum performance of RFID could only be achieved through analyzing the demands of the specific industry.  Both Marvel Business Systems and IBM agreed that Taiwan manufacturers are more conservative in comparison to the overseas markets.  Therefore, promotion targeted specifically at Taiwanese buyers remains the main objective of the show.

Besides the usual excellent ability in developing chips, labels and readers, Taiwanese exhibitors also caught visitors’ attention with peripheral applications.  The library management systems developed by Bortechcomputer and J-Link Technology, which have already been put into practice, became the focus of attraction in the event.  In particular, the Intelligent Book Shelf by J-Link which adopts RFID to prevent book misplacement has received a large number of inquiries from interested buyers.  With regard to mobile communication, Gene Hee Yoon, the senior manager of SK Telecom Korea, delivered a speech on October 12 in connection with SK Telecom’s developments of NFC (Near-field Communication) mobile phone.  Not letting SK Telecom steal the spotlight, Chunghwa Telecom – top leading telecommunication company in Taiwan – especially exhibited its NFC mobile phone which combines the functions of a visa card and an Easycard.  With the built-in RFID tags, the NFC phone acts not only as a ticket for the Metro System, but also a device to collect various kinds of audio-visual information in combination with digital signage in the future.  Cooperation with banks and mobile phone companies is still under negotiation at present, and the product is expected to become available in the market next year.  Besides, Eclick Interactive Technology attracted flocks of visitors with an interesting game that put together active RFID tags and an 80-inch touch glass panel, allowing visitors to experience an RFID life and liberating RFID from its industrial image in a relaxed and lively atmosphere.  As Mr. Hong-Tze Lin, the Executive Director of Eclick Interactive Technology emphasized, RFID offers lots of possibilities and it is a waste to limit RFID to storage and logistics applications.  Having a deep understanding of the development history of internet, Eclick, also a long term business partner with Ogilvy, foresees the benefits of RFID in advertising and marketing activities and explores new opportunities in system development.  From logistics control and storage management to library system and entertainment, RFID is no longer exclusive to enterprises.  In the future, RFID will become the mobile secretary for every consumer.

The 5-day Taiwan International RFID Applications Show wrapped up on October 13 brought together not only top international manufacturers but also a wide variety of application products, creating a constant growing number of visitors during the show period.  The exhibitors devoted a lot of efforts into the show in order to dispel the public’s doubts about RFID technologies, disregarding the relatively small market size in Taiwan.  Actively involved in RFID packaging in recent years, Cheng Loong has high expectations for the show.  Cheng Loong expressed that it is optimistic about the future of RFID applications, and is looking forward to more manufacturers participating in next year’s show where forces in Taiwan RFID industry will be joint together to explore new markets.  Given the bright future of the global RFID market, the closing of the first Taiwan International RFID Applications Show is not the end; instead, it is the beginning of a rising tide of RFID.  How to forge ahead and seize the business opportunities in this emerging market in the future will become a common issue for RFID related industries.  The second Taiwan International RFID Applications Show to be held from October 7 – 11, 2008 will move to the brand new TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall in conjunction with 2008 Taiwan International Photovoltaic Forum & Exhibition and Broadband Taiwan. It is expected that the second show will extend to a larger scale, providing industry players with a perfect stage to display their achievements in RFID application.