11-02-2007, 01:02 PM
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U.S. – China RFID Cooperation
Issue #122 | Nov. 2, 2007 | by Andy Kowl
I am headed to China next week, for a meeting between U.S. and Chinese government officials and business leaders. [Quitting here? Please jump to opinion survey at the end.]
Last June here in RFID Street, Raghu Das surprised many of us in announcing China ranks as the largest buyer of RFID technology in 2007. Previewing a new IDTechEx study, he reported China would purchase 1.9 billion tags alone. He did go on to say this was an unsustainable bubble of buying, due mostly to purchases of new contactless cards and tickets.
Regardless of any particular tag purchases, the trading relationship between the U.S. and China deserves a serious review of anything that can bring great efficiencies. Next week’s meeting is another step in this direction. I was asked to present a "U.S. Market Report: RFID Adoption, Trends and Attitudes;" and I am honored to have the MC duties for the afternoon.
The Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade, comprised of U.S. Department of Commerce and China Ministry of Information Industry, has organized this meeting. The “Sino-U.S. Seminar on RFID Industry and Applications” will include a protocol-friendly balance of half Chinese and half American speakers.
Obviously the circuitry that really connects RFID globally is the relevant global technology standards. I am going to leave that discussion to the experts, which means Fraser Jennings of Savi, one of the leaders in that space, will be speaking on that next week. (As an occasional RFID Street columnist, I think we’ll convince him to share that here soon, too.)
Other U.S. industry speakers include Louis Kirk, Motorola’s BD Manager for RFID and Aviation; Andreas Hube, COO of SAP China; someone from Dow Chemical and RFID rock star Simon Langford of Wal-Mart. Chinese speakers include executives from Aisino Co., Tongfang Microelectronics and Nanjing Sample Technology Company. I do not mean to be rude in not sharing their names, but the agenda I have has them listed only in Chinese.
Truth be told, I am excited to make my first trip to Asia. I know that many of you are old hands at this; but I am adding a little time there to look about. In fact, when VAR marketing guru Janet Schijns heard I was going, and mentioned something about APAC – clearly a well-known acronym to Pacific rim travelers – I had no idea what she was referring to ("Asia Pacific,'' for similarly travel-challenged readers).
I will leave this a short report, as I prepare my presentation. But for that I ask your help.
Please take a moment and complete the short survey linked here. If enough of you do so by this weekend, there will doubtless be some interesting things I can share with our friends across the Pacific.
Last edited by AndreaC : 11-02-2007 at 01:06 PM.
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