Despite a lackluster progress report on retailers buying RFID technology for case and pallet tagging, one area that is predicted to grow across vertical markets is active tags that require a battery to operate. Market research company In-Stat said in a May 22 report that shipments of RFID Wi-Fi tags will grow more than 100 percent each year from now until 2010. According to the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company, there were 135,000 shipments of Wi-Fi RFID tags in 2006. An expected doubling of the market would mean more than 2.1 million tags shipped by 2010. The key application areas for growth: healthcare, heavy manufacturing, transportation and logistics.

The reason for the increase? Multi-year battery life is now a reality, according to In-Stat. "Historically, one of the key weaknesses of this market has been the short battery life of asset tags," said Daryl Schoolar, In-Stat analyst, in a statement. "G2 MicroSystems, the only tag-specific chip vendor, has made strides in overcoming this weakness, with multi-year battery life now a reality."

Separately a recent report from Research and Markets said the active tag market will increase from around 15percent of the tag market today to about 27 percent in 2017, resulting in a "massive" $7.2 billion market. The report points to Real Time Locating Systems "the ultimate supply chain and control of standing assets and people...without the need to pass an electronic reader near to the target," as the reason for the boom. Research and Markets also points to the "ubiquitous use of sensor systems linked to RFID for monitoring the status of everything from microclimate in industrial greenhouses to progress of hurricanes and forest fires and the condition of food and medicines in transit and in storage" as another driver of what it refers to as disproportionate growth.

The catch with active tags for mass consumption? They're pricy. A single tag runs roughly between $10 and $50 depending on their function.