HP, Sun Ramp Up RFID ServicesHP, Sun Ramp Up RFID Services

Hewlett-Packard will start marketing consulting services for companies crafting RFID technology strategies to ship products from their supply chains. Toy and game maker Hasbro Inc. and Conros Corp., whose brands include PineMountain fire logs and SummerLights citronella candles, already have signed up for HP services. Conros is hiring HP to oversee an RFID implementation that will use Shipcom Wireless Inc. for RFID software and Matrics Inc.'s readers and tags. HP opened an RFID testing center in Taiwan last month, following its first center in Palo Alto, Calif., earlier this year. HP plans centers in Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Sun Microsystems last week also opened a facility to work with product vendors to test RFID compliance and deployment. Sun's facility is in Dallas, 50 miles from the Wal-Mart distribution center where the retailer began its first live RFID trials.