Retailer NFC CARD demand is currently leading adoption of RFID throughout the supply chain,but Lalla thinks that consumer demand will soon drive signifi cant adoption. "People are curious, they demand to be informed. There's already signifi cant interest in knowing the life cycle of goods. In the grocery store, consumers will be able to scan RFID electronic product codes with their mobile phones and find out about allergens, where and when the product was produced or grown, and more.
RFID contactless cards is going to become a big part of the consumer shopping experience." Staying informed is one driver, but convenience could be another.
Shoppers might simply walk past a scanner at the exit; the scanner would read all items in the cart at once and charge the customer's account while adjusting the store's inventory. And the homely barcode? Lalla believes it will die a slow death as barcode reading equipment reaches end of life and the cost of RFID tags continues to fall. "Let's say I'm the retailer, my barcode reader is old and RFID is part of the items. Effi ciencies are such that I will not reinvest in barcode." Seppä agrees, but thinks that the barcode may be around for some time. "Industries will self-select. Some won't fi nd good reasons to replace the bar code for years and years. RFID tags can carry a barcode, and many stores will adopt combined readers - in fact they already exist." PRICE GAP NARROWS But many more industries may soon be selfselecting out of barcodes and into RFID as chips increase in functionality while they shrink in price and size. "When I worked at Nokia in the 80s, we were making mobile phones that weighed up to ten pounds," remembers Lalla. "We thought we were at the peak of development, but our visionary director said that one day they would be very small, quite cheap and everyone would have one. We thought he'd gone mad, but of course it happened, and the same thing has happened with RFID chip technology in the past 10 years. Where you see a barcode today, in the near future you will see an RFID tag."combo cards
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