It seems that RFID applications are truly endless today and continuing to thrive. With the traditional applications, such as access control, automobile immobilization, electronic toll collection and e-ID/ID documents, as well as “modernizing” applications, such as animal ID, asset management, baggage handling, inventory control, cargo tracking/security, contact-less payment and ticketing, RTLS, and supply chain management, ABI Research predicts the market value to exceed $6 billion.

ABI’s annual overview of the RFID market includes forecasts and market trends based on sales data from manufacturers and conversations with vendors and end-users. Practice director Michael Liard sums up the “big picture” as generally optimistic despite last year’s economic woes and growing more so. “In response to the weakened economy, most RFID and RTLS value chain participants reported reductions to marketing expenditure, staff, and on-hand inventory levels beginning in late 2008 and continuing throughout 2009.”

Near the end of 2009, discussions were positive as the demand and adoption of RFID grew with more orders and higher user interest. ABI predicts the RFID tracking solutions trend to continue throughout 2010. The latest research indicates combined annual growth rates of between 21.7 percent and 28.8 percent for the five primary applications over the period 2010-2014.

A key predictor in the report is Wal-Mart’s recent multi-billion unit passive UHF RFID tracking device apparel tag and 15,000+ handheld reader RFP order and its expected U.S. roll-out. This industry giant, some observers believe, has sparked renewed interest in RFID for item-level tracking.

ABI Research’s “RFID Annual Market Overview” provides a comprehensive overview of radio frequency identification technologies, applications and addressable vertical markets. It includes a summary of ABI Research’s annual RFID end-user research and market forecasts for RFID inventory systems, transponders, readers, asset management software, and integration services.

What else was worth $6 billion? The Large Hadron Collider that promises to recreate the conditions right after the Big Bang. Experiment costs continue to grow …