Another factor impacting the RFID industry is standardization, which leads to hardware interoperability. Assuring end-users that readers from different manufacturers will perform across different systems helps to speed up adoption, and subsequently increases volume, decreases costs and stimulates demand. Allen explained that different markets have their own standards, such as the smart label standard, ISO/IEC 15693, ratified in 2000. There is also the recently ratified, next-generation EPCglobal Inc. ultra-high frequency (UHF) standard for the retail market, which has been eagerly awaited. "Now, companies such as TI can move forward in building RFID chips and tags that meet the EPC specifications for that standard," continued Allen. "TI will be delivering the EPC Generation 2 tag emulators to five of the leading RFID reader and printer manufacturers in Q3."