Impinj Sells 10 Billionth Chip as RAIN RFID Goes Mainstream in Retail

Impinj, Inc. announced it has sold 10 billion Monza chips – connecting billions of items to the Internet – and strengthened the Impinj platform with new products.
 
“Impinj’s 10 billionth chip is one more sign that RFID has hit mainstream adoption in retail, and that Impinj is a key player in that growth,” said Bill McBeath, chief research officer of Chainlink Research. “There are billions of apparel items per year currently being tagged, an indicator of how mature and widely accepted the technology has become. And there is still plenty of potential for growth for RFID in retail — we estimate only about 5% to 10% of economically taggable apparel items are currently being tagged.”
 
“Selling our 10 billionth chip is a fantastic milestone that speaks to the value RAIN RFID is bringing to businesses and consumers around the world, connecting everyday items and thereby enabling the true Internet of Things,” said Dr. Chris Diorio, CEO and founder of Impinj. “Ten billion chips speaks to a technology maturity that allows us to focus on our platform and how it will make RAIN RFID part of our everyday lives.”
 
Impinj extended its platform with new products, including ItemSense software, Monza R6-P and S6-C chips and the Indy RS2000 reader system-in-package (SiP). ItemSense software transforms raw RAIN RFID data into real-time, business-relevant intelligence.
 
“Providing store operators the type of intelligence about items that previously only eCommerce sites could deliver will be a major equalizer in retail,” said George Shaw, VP of R&D for RetailNext.
 
ItemSense will support the Impinj xArray, xPortal and Speedway Revolution; in the future, it will support other third party devices as well. Its general availability is Q3 2015.
 
The Indy RS2000 reader SiP is a full-power embedded reader that enables quick and easy system development with low risk and fast time-to-market. Based on the Indy R2000 reader chip, the RS2000 integrates all reader-related components into a small surface-mount package that supports four antennas with low system cost.
 
The two new Monza chips, R6-P and S6-C, are drop-in compatible with Monza R6 inlays and retain the industry’s longest read range and fastest encoding speed. They include all the features of Monza R6 and add kill and access passwords, range reduction, user memory and usage metering. Applications for R6-P and S6-C include chip-based loss prevention, brand protection, consumer privacy, ticketing and metering.
 
“Impinj continues to drive innovation in item-level intelligence and its new Monza tag chips are no exception,” said Torsten Strauch, SVP of segment retail at SMARTRAC. “Our recently announced RFID inlays, Belt and MiniWeb, utilize Monza tag chips and truly enhance merchandise visibility and shopping experience.”
 
“The expanded Impinj Monza R6 platform of chips combined with our inlays will provide greater flexibility for our customers to enhance brand protection, track and trace, as well as loss prevention throughout their supply chain.” said Francisco Melo, VP of global RFID at Avery Dennison.