Accenture Ltd., Acsis Inc., ADT/Tyco Fire & Security, Alien Technology Corp., Avery Dennison, BEA Systems, EM Microelectronic - MARIN SA, IBM, Intermec Technologies Corp., Manhattan Associates OATSystems Inc., Omron Corp., Philips Semiconductors, SAP Aktiengesellschaft, Savi Technology, STMicroelectronics N.V., Symbol Technologies, Texas Instruments - TI-RFid, Unisys, Zebra Technologies Corp.

What do these companies have in common? They are the world's top twenty RFID vendors, according to the latest update of the ABI Research RFID Vendor Matrix.

What makes an RFID market leader? What are the internal development and external partner/customer relationships that determine the best companies in the field?

Technology needs both invention and execution. Some companies excel at innovation. Others are renowned for their effective implementation of new products, services and strategies. A clever few manage to do both. ABI Research has developed this tool to measure a vendor's performance on both those parameters, resulting in an easily understood visual performance model.

The "innovation" analysis examines a vendor's relevant, defensible intellectual property differentiation, the nature of its R&D activities, and its growth market focus.

To evaluate "implementation", analysts look to actual product development, contract wins, and successful execution of projects, among other criteria.

Erik Michielsen, ABI Research's Director, RFID and M2M Research, notes, "We really understand the competitive context in RFID, and the Vendor Matrix offers a single destination where organizations can understand the industry's ecosystem. The Matrix charts the vendors' relative strengths and weaknesses across many different technologies, applications and markets."

How does an ABI Research Vendor Matrix differ from other "quadrant"-based ratings? It is uniquely designed to give vendors — more than technology buyers — an accurate picture of the competitive landscape they inhabit. The interactive Vendor Matrix tool even allows users to segment the results by applications, vertical markets and technologies.

Observe that the companies in the list above are ranked in alphabetical order, not by their positions in the Matrix. The current RFID Vendor Matrix contains 137 company profiles, including the twenty named here. It is available as part of the company's RFID Research Service, a subscription plan that includes individual research studies, regular market updates, interactive industry and forecast databases, ABI Insights, and analyst inquiry time. A limited sample version of the Vendor Matrix, showing the top ten vendors ranked in their true order, may be viewed at RFID Vendor Matrix.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York, ABI Research maintains global operations supporting annual research programs, intelligence services and market reports in automotive, wireless, semiconductors, broadband, and energy. For information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.