Woah, time flies. I can’t believe it’s almost the end of March and I haven’t updated my blog for almost three months. Time to fix that.
I started a new job for a company called Skyetek. My responsibility is business development in Asia. Skyetek is a startup in the RFID industry, which is a new, exciting field (you may heard about it from lots of press stories about WalMart and the Department of Defense). Starting in a new industry was a bit of scary at first since I felt like I didn’t know a thing. Particulary since I come from the software industry while RFID is all about hardware. But after fours short months I’m starting to feel like an expert.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of travelling for my job. I visited Texas Instruments in Dallas - amongst other things they provide chips for RFID tags and readers. In January, I took a road trip to China to visit manufacturers, sytem integrators and semiconductor companies.
To my surprise - and delight - the Shanghai subway systems had just replaced its old ticket system and replaced it with RFID tags. Now they have RFID readers setup at all the entries. You can simply walk into a station and hold your up in the air in front of the reader. Its much better than using old-fashioned turnstiles or ticket readers like in DC or New York. Better yet, if you have a monthly pass you can just hold up your wallet next to the reader, instead of having to fumble around inside of it.
From talking to my cusomters the applications for RFID seem unlimited. My favorite one is using RFID to track lost pets. One of my customers has created a global pet tracking database that can be accessed from any animal shelter. So in theory, if you lose your pet you can goonline, type in your pet’s id and see if its ended up in a shelter. Very cool.
So far, my job has been great. I have already signed up distributors in China and Korea. I’m also working on a few large OEM account in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. You thought I would love business development so much!
I will be traveling to Singapore in April and Beijing and Seoul in May. Drop me a line if you’re in the RFID industry and want to meet up.