5G, 6G, RFID & Telecoms

The scenario that shopping without checkout lines has been described multiple times since the introduction of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and many people believed if that could come true, it must be RFID that enables it. However, Amazon Go will demonstrate to us that other emerging technologies are going to realize it first, due to the significant improvement of deep learning, computer vision and sensor fusion, as announced on 5th December 2016. This leads us to consider which technology will be the future in the retail industry: computer vision, or RFID?

Watch our preview of the IDTechEx Show! coming up in Santa Clara on Nov. 16-17 (www.idtechex.com/usa).

IDTechEx has released a newly researched report, "Internet of Things 2017-2027".

Wearable technology for humans is a big business. There will be almost 40 product sub-categories in the next 10 years, including fitness trackers, smartwatches, connected clothing, smart eyewear, medical devices, smart patches, headphones, and hearing devices.

IDTechEx Research has been following and analysing the conductive inks and pastes market for many years. It finds that this $1.3bn* market is subject to major change with long-lasting consequences on the business models of many large incumbent suppliers.

$1.2 billion of electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) are already selling each year, and they are becoming increasingly common to replace solders in a variety of functions, applications and industries.

The state of the industry in terms of market size by component type is summarized.

The conductive inks and paste business will generate a demand of 1800 tonnes. IDTechEx Research forecasts that this will grow to 2200 by 2026. This business has come alive again and is now a business where literally everything is changing.

Whilst the majority of wearable technology products sold today still fit with the components-in-a-box design, 2015 has been a record year for investment in smart clothing and e-textile products.

Thin, flexible and printed batteries have the potential to be widely used in wearable and medical devices and will reach a market of over $400 million in a decade, according to IDTechEx report Flexible, Printed and Thin Film Batteries 2015-2025: Technologies, Forecasts, Players.