[03/27/08]
During the long, hot summer of 2006, Alien Technology of Morgan Hills, Calif., shook the foundations of the RFID business when they withdrew the Initial Public Offering that had been planned. Throughout the RFID industry, executives were worried this confirmed their critics' predictions that this new technology was all hype.
In his first major interview since assuming the reins of Alien Technology shortly after this, CEO George Everhart acknowledges today on RFID Switchboard that one reason for Alien's re-emergence is "managing the company from a more rigorous business standpoint."
As part of the new Five Minute Interview series appearing Monday through Friday on www.RFIDswitchboard.com, Everhart points out, "The market, itself, was over hyped and did go through a correction. Now we are seeing steady, healthy and aggressive growth."
RFID Switchboard, the portal dedicated to using RFID successfully, introduced the Five Minute Interview series during February in order to present ideas from all points of view relating to RFID technology. Recent interviews include Kerry Krause in Intel's RFID plans; Janet Schijns of the JS Group on who is making money servicing RFID technology; and Peter Blair of Reva Systems on why Metro Group originally delayed their pioneering RFID roll-out.
Alien's George Everhart sees growth as the best way to defeat an over hyped market. "Only fourteen months ago, we would be excited if we got. . . a million tag order," he says. "Today we have closed business where we had tens of millions of tags in one company, one order."
Possessing a deep technology perspective starting with his years at Apple, Everhart sees RFID going through the same trend line other disruptive technologies have endured. He compares RFID's situation to when LAN's were the next big thing. He points out how today LANs may not be sexy technology, but they are a ubiquitous part of the IT landscape. Everhart tells RFID Switchboard, "This technology will be in everything we do. It just takes time."
Editor-in-chief Andy Kowl, who conducts many of the Five Minute Interviews, sees this continuing series as the way to connect readers directly to those behind the RFID industry's growth. "By removing our red pencil from the process, users of RFID Switchboard get the undiluted opinions and findings from a wide variety of movers and shakers," Kowl said. "We have included interviews from Sweden, India and Australia so far, with many more international contributions to come."
Readers can use an RSS feed to get interviews delivered to their desktop each day. The complete interview can be read here: http://www.rfidsb.com/showthread.php?t=358
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