These are great questions that need to be raised.

(There's a) growing reliance on partnerships between smaller, more specialized RFID companies with great expertise but limited resources, and larger enterprise-level application integrators that have giant customers and plenty of skill at structuring their IT systems.

Dozens of companies have swiftly changed gears to take advantage of this emerging opportunity. Many companies are trying to provide piecemeal solutions. There are many brands and co-brands, many form-factors. But one theme that has emerged time and time again from our research is the need for consistency.

The industry wants to see a clear commitment from Wal-Mart that it will make a transition to Gen 2 technology in mid-2006 so that the market can focus less on consuming first generation technology and more on putting things in place to exploit the second generation.