Tom Yager wrote a scathing piece calling RFID technology overrated. Essentially he believes anything that is a passive technology is useless because it can't learn. He also believes that other active technology devices can have more features than their RFID counterparts:
A passive RFID tag is incapable of learning, logging, or sensing the world around it, or doing anything on its own. If the tag is separated from the reader, or the reader is separated from the back end, the system is going to miss something. Active RFID, which can incorporate sensor-like capabilities, requires a battery or other source of power. When you cross that line, you’re not in RFID-land anymore. You’re just sending and receiving wireless data, the cost rises and smarter solutions are within reach.
Just because something can have more features does not mean more features is better. Tom couldn't be more wrong in comparing RFID to sensors, as Anita Campbell writes:
It does not matter whether RFID has the capability to pick up and sense environmental detail, like a sensor. That has nothing to do with the nature of its power to increase business productivity. RFID is about "identifying" not about "sensing."
