In a report entitled Market Trends: Radio Frequency Identification, Worldwide, 2007-2012, research firm Gartner this week predicted that worldwide RFID revenue will total $1.2 billion in 2008, a 30.9 percent increase from 2007 revenue of $917.3 million. By 2012, the firm says, worldwide RFID revenue will total $3.5 billion.

"The market for RFID technologies has begun to transition from being compliance-oriented to being revenue-generating and innovative," says Gartner research director Chad Eschinger. "Much of the initial adoption of RFID was driven by mandates from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and Wal-Mart where compliance with a retailer directive rather than business competitiveness was often the underlying driver. Early adopters faced tight profit margins and pressed technology providers for lower hardware costs. Fortunately for the market, this trend has waned and innovation rather than cost is becoming a key driver for adoption."

More here from VNUnet ... more here from Computerworld ... more here from OneStopClick ... more here from RFID Update ... and the press release is here.