Impinj today unveiled a series of smaller, more powerful RFID tags to connect everyday items to the internet, an innovation the Seattle-based company claims will transform the industry by making the technology applicable to more items in a variety of areas.
Impinj didn’t give specifics about individual chips in the new M700 series or their cost. But Impinj Executive Vice President Jeff Dossett said the new tags will track items more reliably and from a greater distance.
“Today, billions of items are tagged with Impinj tags,” Dossett said. “In the future, we think that trillions of everyday items will be connected in part because these are more performant in a smaller form factor, which means they can be applied to a much broader range of everyday items.”
Dossett said the company has hit a “step change” in the underlying technology that powers the tags. The same way computers got smaller as technology progressed, so too are Impinj’s chips.
Impinj has shipped more than 30 billion tags in its lifetime. A variety of industries use the technology, though it is most commonly associated with retail. Last year the company unveiled a new set of tags made specifically for the airline industry.
In 2018, Impinj reported $122.6 million in revenue, ahead of the $120 million analysts expected, but down 2 percent from the year before. Impinj had a slow start to the year, but closed out 2018 with two strong quarters.
Impinj stock is up about 20 percent since the beginning of 2019. The company launched in 2000 and completed its initial public offering in 2016.
