Conclusion

Abstract

Within the described research it has been shown that the Internet of Things is far from being ubiquitous. Research institutes have failed in the past to forecast reliable RFID-market figures. They had to adjust their estimations continuously downwards over the past years. While part of this development may be blamed on slowed down economy, another reason is that estimations and research are often based on best guesses instead of real figures and quite often ignore the core problem of RFID, the EPCglobal Architecture and the Internet of Things – the limited economic potential of these technologies that can be raised within the four walls of a company. The real value lies in cross-company applications and more holistic networked scenarios as envisioned in the original concept of the Internet of Things. Moreover, the current business model for the EPCglobal Network relies mainly on cost reductions rather than on revenue generation and is therefore limited in its capability to support a market driven approach for information sharing.