Alien Technology has released a new lineup of "smart tags" and readers with an eye toward the service industry and firms that want better ways of tracking inventory or assets.
The new products, recently rolled out at a trade show in Chicago, stem from a half year of analyzing the market and were designed to help firms with their internal asset management.
Law firms, insurance companies or financial institutions, for example, all must track voluminous documents efficiently to ensure they are serving their clients or customers well, Ronnie Haraldsvik, Alien's vice president for marketing, said Tuesday.
"All of that is driving the need for better inventorying and asset tracking," he said. The smart tag technology involves tiny computer chips equipped with antennae to send radio signals - a much more sophisticated version of a bar code.
Alien, based in Morgan Hill, Calif., with a manufacturing plant in Fargo, also remains committed to serving what's called the supply chain, following a product from the factory floor to the store shelf.
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"The growth is there," Haraldsvik said. "It just is growing slower than had been anticipated."
A new reader, a device that communicates with the smart tags, retails for just over $1,099.
The device, 9 inches square, is much cheaper than industrial models. "It makes RFID affordable," said Haraldsvik, referring to the shorthand for Radio Frequency Identification, the technology behind smart tags.
One of Alien's new tags is designed to track pharmaceuticals or other small products.
Many companies have quietly been testing the technology for the past year or so and now are adopting it, Haraldsvik said.
Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department of Defense have been pushing the adoption of smart tags.
The industry trade press widely covered the rollout of new products. Supply Chain Digest said Alien's heightened focus on the so-called end-to-end market - internal use by a single company - actually marks a return to the early days of RFID technology.
InformationWeek noted the adoption of smart tags by major retailers through mandates hasn't worked well.
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Still, Haraldsvik said, the technology is becoming increasingly widespread, even if that isn't yet apparent at the consumer level. That likely will change in a couple of years, when specially equipped cell phones could be used "read" product information.
"There's no reason why we shouldn't be doing that," he said. "The market is growing, there's no doubt about that."
Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522 Alien unveils new 'smart tags' Patrick Springer 20071017
