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Tile CEO: 'We Welcome Competition From Apple, But We Think It Needs to Be Fair'
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It’s also not a good idea to use someone else’s servers and networks, either. However, there’s few people that want to or have the money to collocate their infrastructure all over the world, so you compromise where you have to. And, when you’re on someone else’s servers, you have to follow their rules. If they say,”Your email servers can’t generate more than 500 emails per second”, if you don’t like that, then you have to find someone that WILL allow you to do what you think is important for your business.
So, yeah, since Apple’s requirements for using THEIR network isn’t going to change, the choice is, indeed use find my OR continue to build their own (or, I guess, work with T-mobile, but I’m willing to bet T-mobile isn’t going to be handing over non-anonymized location data of their customers either.
Edit: Apple didn’t open up their U1 chip specs for 3rd party til April 2021.
Third-Party Accessory Makers Can Access U1 Chip in iPhones for Find My
Apple today announced the launch of its Find My network accessory program, which lets third-party accessories integrate with the Find My app. ...
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Not being a smart ass but you’re spitting a lot of bs. Tile needs to innovate with uwb lol. Apple won’t even have uwb in their 2021 iPad Pro. Saying u owned every tile but saying it’s hardware subscription? lol 😂 saddest part about the airtag is the 50ft range. Good luck to people with non Uwb devices. Pain in the butt to look for your airtag. 1st gen tile was 100ft and that was over 5 years ago. Sad that a 1st gen tile has further range than a 2021 airtag. Their tile mate is up to 200ft and pros has gone up to 400ft.
I own both tile and airtag. I give a point for the crowd sourcing. But tile wins in every other category and still has more features. I’m not even including the features of the subscription that has more features that airtags don’t even have.
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It’s not just their network. You can only use the find my app. Chipolo is coming out with the Chipolo Spot One. It uses the Apple find my app and apples crowdsourcing. The downside for the device is that it’s just for the find my app. It doesn’t work for the chipolo app. The chipolo is losing features like clicking the tracker to find your phone, out of range alerts, device sharing, change ring tone, and wireless selfie button. Same reason why tile won’t use the find my app. They will lose features.
They will lose features…buuut gain the tracking assistance of millions upon millions of iDevices. AND, they don’t have to spend a dime on rolling out that network. Add to that, the compatible devices they’re making for Find My will be simpler because they won’t do as much. (Wireless Selfie Button?) Their new devices will be FAR more useful at actually finding lost items (maybe not as good at changing the ring tone) than their old ones on their old network could ever be.
Plus, they get access to a virtually untapped pool of folks that may not have been concerned about trackers in the least before a few weeks ago but would now like to have a “Find My” compatible tracker with a hole built in. Chipolo’s quarter financials that include sales of their “Find My” compatible trackers is going to look pretty rosy. So, they lose features and gain lots of money. That’s not a bad tradeoff.
....and spent the whole of last summer complaining that Trump’s tarrifs were going to harm them disproportionately and help their Chinese competitors and spent record amounts (for them) lobbying last year.
Apple does not dictate prices in the App Store. The app developer does that. In case you have yet to notice, the majority of the apps in the App Store are free to download and install. Apple makes nothing from those installs.
Of course you own the phone you bought from Apple. You can throw it into the river and nobody would stop you. On the other hand, you have absolutely no rights to do anything to the iOS software stack. That is 100% Apple's IP. Please go ahead and brick your phone all you want or install anything you want. Nobody would stop you. Just don't expect Apple to honour the phone warranty (if it still have any) if Apple found out that you did something to void warranty, or expect Apple to help you install software that Apple does not allow in iOS. But Apple will not stop you from trying, because, you know, it would be bad?
Crowdsourcing isn’t on my top of my list. Range and sound is far more useful. I don’t know how much you lose your items. Most of my stuff is just misplaced. The chipolo/tile app shows where It was last left. Why not mention the other missing features? Sharing device? Out of range alerts? Ringing your phone from the tracker? Important features found in the others that not available on the find my app. Apple fan boys will be apple fanboys. They will pick airtags anyway.
Sure. but I hope you understand what you are describing doesn't defend anti-competitive behavior. Owning the infrastructure, owning the servers does not preclude them from anti-competitive behavior.
This is like saying, Amazon is free to downrank any items and up-rank their own amazon branded items because it's on their servers, they own the infrastructure, we must play by their rules. No, that's clearly anti-competitive.
The scope of our argument here is whether Apple's API that powers the Find My network should be opened up to developers beyond the Find My app. I find Apple's position precarious here because 1) Apple doesn't own any of us or our phones. We are what power the network so it's weird to think that Apple should determine how our devices are used to help others find theirs, 2) they are allowing other items on Find My app, which is just one step away from allowing others to integrate Find My API.
It's weird when people are saying stuff like Apple is free to leverage their network. Guys, you are the product at that point and you don't benefit from Apple being the only company that can leverage you.
Sounds like they don't like that the Find My Network is bigger than theirs 😂
These guys have a different definition of “Fair”. They want to control the OS? Get special and favorable settings customized for their app. And I am the one who thought they don’t have access to U1 chip and FindMy network! What do they want more?
It’s just trendy these days to mourn about Apple and distort facts.
It’s just trendy these days to mourn about Apple and distort facts.
Any product/service that would work better when baked into the OS will eventually be baked into the OS. That's just what always inevitably happens.
If your product has no other differentiating feature or ability to move upmarket, then perhaps it wasn't a great product/service after all but a commodity waiting to happen.
Instead of spending their time complaining, Tile should double down on adding more value to their offering. Unless, of course, they've already conceded that there is no more innovation left there.
If your product has no other differentiating feature or ability to move upmarket, then perhaps it wasn't a great product/service after all but a commodity waiting to happen.
Instead of spending their time complaining, Tile should double down on adding more value to their offering. Unless, of course, they've already conceded that there is no more innovation left there.
Selling more devices is on the top of Chipolo’s list. And, apparently, NOT on the top of Tile’s list.
I've seen this type of remark used a number of time for a number of reasons and topics and don't understand why such a statement is seen as acceptable.
How about this:
Black people should stop whining about not being offered good jobs, they should just create their own companies.
Women should stop complaining about not being paid the same as men, if they don't like it they should just start their own companies.
Disabled people should stop moaning about the lack of products made for them, if they don't like it, they should just stat a company and make their own.
Now. None of the above would be deemed as acceptable viewpoints by any normal person.
So why should the "if you don't like the way things are, make your own phone" be a reasonable statement?
The whole unfair competition aspect is something that apple could easily solve with an updated T&C. The 'Find My' network you agree too as part of the T&C for the iOS update, and so agree to being part of the network if you have 'Find My' enabled.
If you update that T&C so that to share the info your devices are finding with a 3rd party app you have to agree to share it with that app as a pop up like the location sharing pop ups for app's, now Tile is back in the same place it is today; it provides them with zero benefit as if you don't have a Tile device you aren't going to be giving Tile that data, and Tile would have a really hard time justifying why they should get that data from non-Tile users, especially within the EU due to GDPR
Tile I think don't like this for 2 reason because firstly it's going to push people away from their app except for niche use cases where you want things like the location history, or the unlimited sharing and if they aren't in the app they aren't going to ever take out the $3 p/m $30 p/y sub. Secondly they are going to lose a lot of sales.
If you update that T&C so that to share the info your devices are finding with a 3rd party app you have to agree to share it with that app as a pop up like the location sharing pop ups for app's, now Tile is back in the same place it is today; it provides them with zero benefit as if you don't have a Tile device you aren't going to be giving Tile that data, and Tile would have a really hard time justifying why they should get that data from non-Tile users, especially within the EU due to GDPR
Tile I think don't like this for 2 reason because firstly it's going to push people away from their app except for niche use cases where you want things like the location history, or the unlimited sharing and if they aren't in the app they aren't going to ever take out the $3 p/m $30 p/y sub. Secondly they are going to lose a lot of sales.
Yes, this is how the world works. You don’t HAVE to like it. You don’t HAVE to think it’s fair. But, right now, EVERY company depending on Amazon Services knows they’re in a potentially precarious position. There’s a very good chance that Amazon won’t change their rules in large ways, BUT the example I gave regarding limiting the number of emails that can be sent? That was intended to curtail email farms from using AWS services. Those companies HAD to move elsewhere because the rules changed under them.
It’s super simple. If Apple wants to open it up, then they should open it up. If Apple doesn’t want to open it up, then that decision is theirs as a company to make. If Microsoft wanted to stop providing Office support for macOS, that is THEIR decision as a company to make. If Epic wanted to refuse to develop Unreal Engine for macOS or iOS anymore that is THEIR decision to make. Have I covered all the bases? If Google wanted to refuse access to 4k YouTube to iOS users, that is THEIR decision to make. It doesn’t matter WHICH company is being referred to. If a company wants to make a decision about how they do business, then that’s their decision to make.
Every company is free to leverage whatever they have expended capital into to build, and maintain, their business. Is it less weird when I leave out the “A” word?
Because less than 20 years ago, a company that didn’t like the way things were, made their own phone (this was AFTER attempting to work within the system with the Motorola ROKR). It wasn’t easy, it didn’t take off overnight. It was ONLY on one network for years. But, they worked hard, stuck to it, kept making it better and were successful as a result.
Do you seriously believe that the iPhone is the last technology that will ever exist? That no other company is capable of coming out with amazing products that have the opportunity to change how the world works? Really? That may make you more of an Apple fanboy than a lot of the posters here!
So tell me - why is it unfair for airtags to leverage on a 1 billion-strong iphone install base, and why is Apple somehow obligated to extend this same benefit to Tile at no benefit to themselves?
If I were Apple, I would be like - where were you when I was sinking in all those billions to design said product?
The idea of a bluetooth tracker is not Tile's. It's much older, and one of the reasons for BTLE to exist.
Then they basically opened their framework to 3rd parties, which can and will release products that works exactly as good as theirs, or even better (i.e. building other form factors, louder speakers, …).
Chipolo is doing exactly that. That Tile's business model – which is build on paid services – can not compete with that is not an issue of Apple stealing Tile's idea.
That's still both very separate items to the problem at hand though. Spacial Audio is a software feature, that other companies may be able to replicate using their own software on Apple devices, while utilising the Bluetooth protocol which Apple is not blocking them from using.
The M1 chip is accessible to other companies who wish to utilise it's functionality or access it in order to allow their products to work with it. Apple do not need to sell the M1 chip to other companies, but there is open access to other companies to access and develop products that use the M1 chip while also being compatible with other processors.
Apple is restricting Tile from accessing or utilising the U1 chip because they want to continue to allow their products to be used on their own service as well. Other companies who are willing to exclusively use Apple's services are allowed to access the U1 chip for development. This (imo) is very wrong, and is by definition anti-competitive.
I had a tile tracker years back. It was not accurate, the battery died sooner than a year and there was no recycle or trade-in program to get a new one, just a crummy discount. No replaceable battery either until someone had the brilliant idea to include one later. I ditched them, their app was garbage, their network was garbage and their product was garbage.
I may not be able to share my airtags with other people like I could with Tile but all the other benefits outweigh anything Tile has going for it right now. Bye Tile ✌🏻 You didn’t listen to your customers and now you pay the price.
I may not be able to share my airtags with other people like I could with Tile but all the other benefits outweigh anything Tile has going for it right now. Bye Tile ✌🏻 You didn’t listen to your customers and now you pay the price.
Apple essentially created a product that Tile can’t compete with because of Apple’s scale and Tile is now bitter. In my mind this is legitimate competition. If a product is universally useful enough to go mainstream it will be sherlocked in a way that is good for the consumer. Nothing wrong with this. I have other concerns where Apple is overly protective of their business interests when apps have practically replaced the Internet, but no issue here. Especially since Apple provided a way for third parties to fill any niches and offer alternative implementations.
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