Tile says AirTags helped its business, still says Apple is 'unfair'
The CEO of tracking company Tile says that revenues are up "despite the unfair competition" from Apple's equivalent device, AirTags.
Tile
After Apple released its AirTag tracking system in May 2021, CJ Prober, CEO of existing rival Tile, said his company welcomed the competition. However, "it needs to be fair," and Prober also expressed antitrust concerns.
Now according to Wired, Prober says Tile is doing well against the AirTags. "We've sold over 40 million Tiles," he said. "Revenue was up in the first half of the year."
"Third-party product activations, a big focus of ours, we're up over 200 percent year over year," he continued. "Business is good. We're seeing really strong business momentum -- despite the unfair competition from Apple."
Prober says that it wasn't long ago that you could buy Tile's products on the Apple Store," but then "very quickly, we got kicked out of their stores." He says that Apple made changes to iOS "that deprecated our experience," in favor of AirTags and the Find My network.
"Look at how Apple differentiates AirTags over Tile -- it's all platform capabilities that they've reserved for themselves," he said. "The seamless activation [for example] is not available to third parties."
"Despite all of that," continued Prober, "and despite Apple self-preferencing, business is good -- but, obviously, it's better if we are competing fairly."
Apple told Wired that it denies self-preferencing, or reserving features for its own services, and that it welcomes competition.
"We made APIs available this summer and have been working with UWB chipset developers to ensure iOS compatibility-- some already have development kits available for purchase," an Apple spokesperson said. "We have always embraced competition as the best way to drive great experiences for our customers, and we have worked hard to build a platform in iOS that enables third-party developers to thrive."
As Tile works to refresh its lineup with new devices, Prober thinks his company is also helping the "global momentum" against Apple's actions.
"Look at the legislation that was passed in Korea [and some] of the activities that are happening in the EU," he said. "It's brought an increased passion... and created a rallying cry for our teams."
"Companies that are being similarly situated might be worried about the repercussions of being vocal about these things," continued Prober, "but I'm a believer that we have to do what's right for the future of third-party ecosystems and other developers."
Read on AppleInsider
Tile
After Apple released its AirTag tracking system in May 2021, CJ Prober, CEO of existing rival Tile, said his company welcomed the competition. However, "it needs to be fair," and Prober also expressed antitrust concerns.
Now according to Wired, Prober says Tile is doing well against the AirTags. "We've sold over 40 million Tiles," he said. "Revenue was up in the first half of the year."
"Third-party product activations, a big focus of ours, we're up over 200 percent year over year," he continued. "Business is good. We're seeing really strong business momentum -- despite the unfair competition from Apple."
Prober says that it wasn't long ago that you could buy Tile's products on the Apple Store," but then "very quickly, we got kicked out of their stores." He says that Apple made changes to iOS "that deprecated our experience," in favor of AirTags and the Find My network.
"Look at how Apple differentiates AirTags over Tile -- it's all platform capabilities that they've reserved for themselves," he said. "The seamless activation [for example] is not available to third parties."
"Despite all of that," continued Prober, "and despite Apple self-preferencing, business is good -- but, obviously, it's better if we are competing fairly."
Apple told Wired that it denies self-preferencing, or reserving features for its own services, and that it welcomes competition.
"We made APIs available this summer and have been working with UWB chipset developers to ensure iOS compatibility-- some already have development kits available for purchase," an Apple spokesperson said. "We have always embraced competition as the best way to drive great experiences for our customers, and we have worked hard to build a platform in iOS that enables third-party developers to thrive."
As Tile works to refresh its lineup with new devices, Prober thinks his company is also helping the "global momentum" against Apple's actions.
"Look at the legislation that was passed in Korea [and some] of the activities that are happening in the EU," he said. "It's brought an increased passion... and created a rallying cry for our teams."
"Companies that are being similarly situated might be worried about the repercussions of being vocal about these things," continued Prober, "but I'm a believer that we have to do what's right for the future of third-party ecosystems and other developers."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Plus there is the 4 billion strong Android market. It’s not like iPhone market is the only addressable market for Tile.
This isn't to stalk someone, but tracking that I have on my vehicles as a cheap LoJack system. AirTags simply aren't great for preventing theft—only accidental loss/misplacement. Still, I appreciate what Apple is doing and wouldn't want them to change their setup. My use case doesn't trump protecting others.
Why don't you just tell Tile to make the hardware modifications?
its so unfair that they have to compete.
Amazon Alexa and Google Home show that you need Apple didn't share its technology to win. Oh, but that kind of competitive advantage costs millions in R&D to develop you say? True. I didn't say competing against one of the world's biggest companies would be cheap. Get started, Tile. When Apple started, they started from zero. They were small. They had to compete with the Atari, Commodores, and IBMs of the era. Steve Jobs didn't whine that IBM wasn't sharing its secret sauce, he sought to leapfrog IBM. I don't understand the entitlement these days from companies like Epic and Tile, but whining won't solve their problems.
my son has an air tag in his school pack but I cannot see it and look for it when in the morning we are rushing out and everyone is late. So, all back to Tiles! Waiting for Apple, as usual, to do a better and improved v2…