The IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase, the world's largest searchable database of RFID in action, has reached 2000 cases, revealing surprising trends. In this article Dr Peter Harrop analyses lessons, global trends and statistics from 2000 RFID implementations.

Item level tagging is happening faster than most realize - 200 million tags will be used in 2006 for item level tagging alone - mainly on apparel, books and drugs to name a few applications.The seventh annual RFID Smart Labels Europe event focuses on the progress to item level tagging, giving analysis of suitable technologies from global experts.

An analysis of RFID adoption in New Zealand and Australia. Australia and New Zealand have some leadership positions in adopting RFID but in some other respects, these countries are laggards in adopting RFID and need to benchmark against best practice elsewhere and catch up. Learn of the major RFID projects in these countries so far.

Investors seek unique technologies, then some major customers. Passive RFID oversupplied; but opportunities for active RFID and software.

In 2006 1.3 Billion RFID tags will be sold, with 500 million being applied to pallets and cases, over 200 million for contactless smart cards and the rest in a very diverse range of markets. Learn of these developments at RFID Smart Labels Europe, now co-located with Europe's first Active RFID summit.

Printed Electronics Europe concentrated on commercialisation rather than academic research and the full picture of all printed electronics, not just organics. Indeed, it was revealed that inorganic electronic inks and materials are becoming more important.

We are delighted to announce that we have won the UK's most prestigious business award.

The fifth - and largest - IDTechEx event RFID Smart Labels USA event

As processes are scaled up and costs have to come down, we see printed electronics increasingly being made with traditional high speed printing technology, particularly as suitably thin, high integrity inks become available. Read about this battle.

In any rapidly emerging market sector, there are those that make bold initiatives but miss their targets and there are those that quietly create profitable businesses. So it is with RFID, where many companies are reviewing their strategies after disappointment while others are succeeding. However, as far as the press and the analysts are concerned, profit is a taboo subject. Until now.

Printed electronics is rapidly moving from inventions to commercialisation. This transition will be explored in the conference Printed Electronics Europe April 20-21 in Churchill College Cambridge UK. Bookings are at a record level.

IDTechEx recently visited Japan to learn about the latest RFID developments there. Read highlights from our full report on the country's RFID progress published in the March issue of Smart Labels Analyst.

Learn about RFID progress from East Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Americas and network with delegates from 30 countries. Now only days from the Boston show which kicks off on March 28, we examine the key uniques of the fifth annual RFID Smart Labels USA event.

The number of companies offering Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) has tripled in the last year. So what is going on and what is RTLS anyway? A new report on this topic from IDTechEx finds some exciting developments.

Globally the printing industry is in decline. Are the centuries of sophisticated development of the science and production technology for printing declining in a whimper? The answer is probably not. Certainly there is a fascinating escape route opening up for some. It is the printing of electronics.