After six years in development and $60 million in funding, wireless technology startup Altierre will launch its first commercial RFID product later this year.

The company, which recently received an $8 million investment, is one of only a handful of startups using RFID for something other than product tracking, shipping and inventory.

San Jose-based Altierre markets a wireless RFID-based network that supports a number of in-store applications including the ability to automatically adjust prices, introduce new promotions, or handle internal communications.

Altierre's technology uses an electronic readout that attaches to the store’s display shelves. So instead of having workers with adhesive price markers roaming the stores, prices or promotions in multiple stores can be adjusted from a central site.

"Our system is really an information management platform that is not just about price changes - that's just one aspect of it," Altierre CEO Sunit Saxena said. "There is also messaging inside the store and to and from the head offices."

Retail operators are notoriously slow to adopt new in-store technology, so Altierre has worked closely with decision makers at retail chains, particularly supermarkets, in the development of the technology.

"This is a corporate buying decision and we've been developing and nurturing these relationships for the last six years," Mr. Saxena said. "It takes a long time for them to get confidence in a particular company because they are betting the chain on us."

And despite the fact that RFID has been heavily promoted as a product tracking technology by retail giant Wal-Mart, it has made less than modest gains among retailers.

But forecasts for RFID remain high. ABI Research expects RFID to generate $9.7 billion worldwide by 2013, which represents a 15 percent annual growth rate.

“Cost has been the big drawback for RFID, but if Altierre can sell RFID as an in-store application rather than as a tracking technology, it could be a niche breakthrough for RFID,” said Allan Krans, an analyst with Technology Business Research.

The looming recession in the U.S. will not directly impact the rollout of Altierre's technology according to Mr. Saxena, because its initial introduction will involve supermarket chains for the most part, the closest thing to a recession-proof group among retail firms.

"People buy groceries during upturns and downturns and our technology improves productivity and efficiency and our ROI case is immediate," Mr. Saxena said.

D.E. Shaw and Labrador Ventures participated in Altierre's latest funding.