Much of the growth in the industry can be credited to government spending on various large-scale RFID projects, including transit and military applications, government-issued IDs, and animal tracking efforts. Spending on these efforts is unlikely to be cut despite the deterioration of the global economy, as governments do not need the sort of quick return on investments the private sector requires, looking instead to the long term benefits in efficiency and security.

In the private sector, apparel and laundry tagging by companies like Marks & Spencer and American Apparel is expected to be a growth area in 2009. A less successful sector of the RFID industry remains the supply chain tracking of pallets and cases, which continues to demand just a fraction of the RFID tags it was once expected to by this point in the evolution of the technology. To explain this lag in growth, IdTechEx analysts point to a combination of technical failures, lask of infrastructure, and a disconnect between the needs of retailers and the rest of the supply chain.

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