Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

Although RFID hurdles are certainly plentiful in the U.S. these days, China is running into an entirely different set of deployment roadblocks. Given the strategic importance of the growing Chinese market, this is an area that needs to be watched closely. ABI Research issued a report Tuesday that silence from the national government and aggressive marketing by EPCGlobal are combining to create a climate of uncertainty around the issue of RFID standards in China.

ABI Research analyst Junmei He pointed to the three most daunting issues: “Chinese manufacturers’ partners in the supply chain will require them to use RFID tags complying with international standard, EPCglobal UHF G2. At the same time, foreign clients of Chinese manufacturers, who are planning to adopt RFID, will request that shipments carry tags complying with the EPC UHF G2 standard. EPCglobal’s aggressive move in the heartland of Chinese manufacturing is now turning the EPCglobal UHF G2 standard into a de facto standard on the mainland.”

“The reality is that for the Chinese government, it is no long important when the national standard will be released. It is late already,” He said.