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Tile Unhappy With Apple's AirTag Launch, 'Skeptical' About Fair Competition and Plans to Tattle to Congress
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I had some pretty clever/funny things to say but they might be borderline cause for being banned by the MR police so I'll simply say: this is truly pathetic. I'd be embarrassed to work for or with this guy.
yeah the cr2032 battery is the winner for me, bought Tile before and now will switch to Apple as err the Tile battery has gone flat.
I have a few Tiles now. They are ok, but limited range and I always had/have an issue with pinpointing the sound. Also the app a few times just drained the heck out of my iPhone. So much so I turned features off (and it complains about that all the time). Probably will replace with AirTags the next time my batteries run out.
Honestly this makes me want to get rid of my tile and buy the air tag just to spite them
I seem to remember Apple doing plenty of whining to government over tariffs and unfair competition from Chinese phone manufacturers. Last year they spent record (for them) sums lobbying governmen.
An accessory which works with Find My could totally work with other apps too, it would likely just be limited to using one or the other at the same time. The real problem here is that Tile's business model depends upon people using their proprietary app and opting to pay for a recurring subscription, despite that fact that your use of the app actually makes their promise of being able to find stuff possible for others in the first place!
Tile charges you £3/month for:
With Tile: Even if you refuse to pay the clearly-a-ripoff £3/month, you're still donating extra processing (and battery) power to receive less than those who do pay, with no legitimate opt-out. You're funding their business either way and receiving less for it. You're being ripped off either way!
By comparison, Find My is designed to work with third-party accessories, works entirely on the "sharing is caring" principle and is provided entirely for free without any upsell. You donate a bit of processing power so that if other people lose their stuff, they can find it. Others in turn do the same for you. Most people already do this for the enhanced tracking facilities for theft/loss protection of their iPhones. Apple AirTags piggyback off the existing network, sure, but this isn't piggybacking is open to any certified-compatible third party device.
Tile charges you £3/month for:
- Access to text chat with technical support
- Annual CR2032 replacement battery
- 30 day location history of where items have been
- "Smart Alerts" that you may be leaving things behind
- "Unlimited Sharing" with friends and family
With Tile: Even if you refuse to pay the clearly-a-ripoff £3/month, you're still donating extra processing (and battery) power to receive less than those who do pay, with no legitimate opt-out. You're funding their business either way and receiving less for it. You're being ripped off either way!
By comparison, Find My is designed to work with third-party accessories, works entirely on the "sharing is caring" principle and is provided entirely for free without any upsell. You donate a bit of processing power so that if other people lose their stuff, they can find it. Others in turn do the same for you. Most people already do this for the enhanced tracking facilities for theft/loss protection of their iPhones. Apple AirTags piggyback off the existing network, sure, but this isn't piggybacking is open to any certified-compatible third party device.
That doesn't change that Tile's reaction is pathetic ...
And yes, I do not agree with everything that Apple does ...
another whiney crybaby company. If tile wanted to continue to take over the market, it just needs a better, inclusive network and Apps that run on Apple, android, Alexa, Windows, Linux, etc. If they have that (read their statement) what are they to fear, the best app tracker will dominate. It is seriously a stupid point to make that iPhone users will open the findMy app instead of the Tile app, just ummm, because. either way it is just as simple.
I guess they have no faith in their product. That is the real reason, isn't it?
I guess they have no faith in their product. That is the real reason, isn't it?
Yeah now that you were so busy questioning people’s sanitity who thought Airtags would be launched, let’s now change that to “they’re not going to make profit with it”. Cause you know, Apple has really no experience on that front.
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Are they announcing an Airtags integration into their own app? Someone needs to tattle to congress. LOL
This $29 AirTag is closer to $60 if you want to clip it to anything. For example, my wife has a Tile on her AirPods sleeve with a ring. I have the same thing on my keychain. No accessories needed, as opposed to Apple.
Exactly. They’ll have access to the U1 chip. Quit crying. theyre afraid of the competition that a giant like Apple followed their footsreps now their business is threatened. Capitalism 100 man.
AirTags will definitely put Tile out of business... I'm definitely ditching my Tiles 😁
They're learning the lesson that it's not smart to build your business atop another's platform, because you don't control it.
They opened the platform to others, Tile included. Hard to make the unfair competition argument in this one.
They opened the platform to others, Tile included. Hard to make the unfair competition argument in this one.
I've used Tile for many years. I've never liked them going back to their non-replacable battery scam. Their app is very, very limited unless you pay a $4/month subscription for things as basic as where was your tile last seen and pretty much everything of value.
The privacy is horrible, they want always-on GPS location tracking reporting back to their cloud constantly. Their excuse is that so if your app detects someone's lost Tile, they'll be able to report the location. That shouldn't require Tile to know where you are at all times.
I've had location services off for the App for years, but I have to have notifications on for the basic functionality. So, I get constant nag notifications to give them access to my GPS. It just makes me hate Tile more every time. Plus the whole system barely works. 90 % of the time, pressing the button on the Tile fails to make the phone beep unless the phone is awake. Many times the app fails to detect or ring nearby Tiles.
The fact that I want to throw away my $15 Tiles and replace them with $40 AirTags (Canadian pricing) is not because Apple is engaging in unfair practices but because Tile is a horrible customer-hostile company that has been screwing over their customers for years.
As a long time Tile customer, all I can say is I hope the company goes down in flames quickly, and good riddance.
I was about to make a joke about Tile selling user data being the reason for being upset. But reality beat me to it!It’s bigger, tile is Saying that Apple’s privacy updates was hindering them and causing a blow to their business, next thing you know they make it so only apple’s airbags uses it’s ecosystem and you get an anti trust hearing now lolol
Apple’s new AirTags could factor into U.S. Senate antitrust hearing
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Tuesday announced the launch of attachable AirTags to help users track lost items, and the devices could become the focus of a rival company's challenge during a hearing before the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.www.reuters.com
What can you do though, the tile app claims to use your location 24/7 and it was something that irritated me, who knows with Apple
Edit: Wait, Match Group is participating in that hearing?! One, Match Group is just the sort of crappy company I don’t want anywhere near my payment info (auto renewing stealth subscriptions, heavy upsell of paid tiers, low quality service for the price, history of fake profiles intended to dupe you into paying), plus, if you want to talk market monopoly power, Match Group virtually controls all of mainstream online dating (Match, OK Cupid, Tender, Hinge, PlentyOfFish, among countless others, the only real competition being Bumble).
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Tile devices have always worked well for me. But it is going to be hard to resist the Apple version, as most of the things I'm tracking are my iPad Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro. Though it is my keys I tend to misplace most of the time. My two Apple devices don't have the ability to use that ultra tracking feature that the Air Tags support, right?