If the new tags get down to the $5 range, you can attach them to individual items, crates, or palettes. The amount of time saved in locating and getting the items to a shipping or manufacturing line can be easily measured to see if worth the expense.
Didn’t realize this was a more commercial use-case. It makes sense.
That being said, wouldn’t this only be viable for high value items?
Depends on how cheap they get the tags. On AliExpress, you can get current ones for around $5 USD (https://www.aliexpress.us/w/wholesale-ibeacon.htm). Wiliot makes battery-free ones with a 10 meter range, but you have to use their service (https://www.wiliot.com/product/iot-pixels). By comparison, UWB runs $20-50 per tag and ~$0.50 for NFC.
If the new tags get down to the $5 range, you can attach them to individual items, crates, or palettes. The amount of time saved in locating and getting the items to a shipping or manufacturing line can be easily measured to see if worth the expense.
From crates or palettes I could see this working, for individual low cost items, the price seems way too high.
And it seems that the new spec is aimed at a more targeted level; closer to the item level.