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Where are the greatest areas of demand for RFID technology in Japan?  In what applications and in what industries?

Uematsu:  In the immediate future, the manufacturing industry will be first to take off.  In terms of a mid- to long-term perspective, the distribution, retailing and transportation industries will create major demand.  Factors in each industry will affect the pace of adopting RFID technology.

Distribution and retail will come second because companies within the industries are currently trying to establish industry-wide standards.  Until the industry standards are established, it will be very difficult for one particular company to start using the technology in advance.

On the other hand in the manufacturing industry, when we think about supply chain management, one factory can easily take RFID technology into the production line.  Since the production line is in the factory, the system is self-contained, so there are fewer constraints.

Looking at other sectors, such as apparel or healthcare, especially in hospitals or clinics, the same reasons apply.  And they will probably also take off, or they will at least be early adopters of RFID technology.

THE DESIGN CENTER

Why did Sun Microsystems feel the need for a Design Center?

Uematsu:  One of the major characteristics of Sun RFID middleware is the ability to use devices without device diagnostics from the application perspective.  Any device can be used from the application standpoint.  Likewise, for the application developers and the system integrators, they are now able to develop any applications independent from the readers and tags. 

So the main objective of this Design Center is to make the application development process easier.  We divide the entire process into two phases:

In the first phase, we combine the efforts of our middleware developers with the leaders in tag vendors to provide consultation and technical advice to application developers and system integrators so they can more easily develop applications.

In the second phase, we provide the physical test environment, which includes applications and devices such as readers and tags, much like we do in the U.S., Singapore and South Korea.  We provide such physical environments and verification and testing activities in these facilities together with partner companies.