Tile Unhappy With Apple's AirTag Launch, 'Skeptical' About Fair Competition and Plans to Tattle to Congress

[DeepIn2U]

i think tile will die a slow death with no relatives at their bedside...

I have a feeling tile may yet still survive.
reasons: immediately expand being imbedded into corporate targeting laptops from HP, Dell, etc. some people who are corrupt will continue to track people without their permission and as far as apple & Samsung are concerned its not happening on their platforms

 

[alexandr]

I have a feeling tile may yet still survive.
reasons: immediately expand being imbedded into corporate targeting laptops from HP, Dell, etc. some people who are corrupt will continue to track people without their permission and as far as apple & Samsung are concerned its not happening on their platforms

well if that's the direction they are gonna go in, they may just have to go top secret on us and fake their own death)))

 

[Zboi]

Somebody needs to get this CEO a wahhh burger and some french cries! Maybe a whinny kit!

 

[johnsc3]

Tile had this statement ready and waiting for a long time now. Interesting they didn’t seem to say much when Samsung released their tile-like tracker.

🦗🦗🦗, eh?

 

[ulyssesric]

Apple definitely copied concepts of third parties and then delayed giving the same hardware access to the originals.

Man, radio trackers can be dated back to 1960s. For the past 60 years they all worked in the same way. There is no any tracker products in consumer market that is not "copied" from the original concept.

 

[incoherent_1]

I fundamentally disagree with Tile, but titling the article “tattle to Congress...” ...really? That’s very poor journalism

 

[alchemistmuffin]

Been tile user for long time. I even have subscription service.

That being said, unsubscribing and buying AirTags to replace them. I have 6 of them, so will take some time to replace them but their whining attitude and the fact that they are in so called think tank that think Apple is doing unfair competition on App Store was the final straw.

they have good product but their attitude toward competition was final straw.

Go %*#+ yourself Tile.

 

[KOTN91]

Why didn’t Tile just get a patent back in 2012, then they could have avoided all of this. They are pretty much doomed now, it has to be said

I don’t really get how it works though, does this mean you can track an item anywhere? What’s all this about using other iPhones nearby

 

[anson42]

I don’t really get how it works though, does this mean you can track an item anywhere? What’s all this about using other iPhones nearby

Recent Apple devices have a background service that can securely and without identity report to iCloud the location of a trackable Apple device. Your phone could be doing that right now for someone else's misplaced device. The millions of Apple devices out there form a giant mesh network that can be used for this purpose. There is some high level information about this on the Apple site:

AirTag

Attach AirTag to everyday items, like your keys or a backpack, to easily keep track of them in the Find My app.

www.apple.com

 

[SigurTom]

“our service is seamlessly integrated with all major voice assistants, including Alexa and Google.”

is that a dig at Siri or are their tiles also compatible with that?

 

[amartinez1660]

If Apple had kept "Find My" locked down, I would agree. But they opened it up, so shut up, Tile.

The thing is, from an user point of view and in the current state of things, even if they didn’t open it up (but Apple would still offer all the things they showed today) I would still jump on that bandwagon after today... I was never down for whatever Tile was offering: saw them on Best Buys at the exit lines, online, etc and it didn’t pique my interest. The way Apple presented them and potential use cases... I can see myself having a couple of these now.

Now, it might be true that because of the existence of Tile and careful treatment of competition we got better prices and a better service, maybe, but maybe we also got a “gimped down” (besides a lot later) just because the legal department is trying to avoid all potential legal landmines... all of which are extra resources and tedious work unrelated to the actual technology which translates back again in price increase.

 

[carletonguy]

Tile is embarrassing itself. They are effectively admitting their product is inferior. I’ve tried many tracking devices, tile included, and they were no good. I can’t wait to try these tags.

Also...why didn’t tile go running to congress when Samsung released their tracker? This is dumb. It’s time for them to face into a distant memory...

 

[Localcelebrity]

This headline seems unprofessional given Apple has indeed allowed themselves to be first to market with U1 and is strategically timing it to put third parties behind on it... Apple definitely copied concepts of third parties and then delayed giving the same hardware access to the originals.

IANAL but I don’t see anything wrong with that. Apple is just executing good product strategy.

Also, there is already an existing market of these trackers out there that operate just fine without Apple’s app integration. Apple didn’t need to create an interoperability API at all, if anything, creating the integration may have been a defensive action to fend off claims of anti-competitive actions.

 

[Fidgit]

It's Apple's platform, so Apple can do whatever they want with Find My. In fact, Apple doesn't even need to open it to third parties - it can just be exclusive to AirTags. This is just like me building a house for myself, then a neighbor keeps whining and complaining that she cannot access my house. It's MY house, and I have the right to do whatever I want and give access to only those people I like to my house, and there is nothing my neighbor can do about it.

If Tile wants to win customers, they should just build their own network and infrastructure like Apple. (But of course they lack the expertise and simply cant match the sheer power of Apple

I think you may be misunderstanding competition law. Using your example above, it would be more like you and your neighbour trying to sell very similar houses next to each other, but you are much richer and more powerful, so sell yours much cheaper (because you can lead with loss maybe) andyou also own the electricity and gas boards and control when your neighbour’s house gets gas and electricity.

I don’t think that’s what’s going on here though. To me, just by the way the statement is worded, it looks more like a sneaky attempt at advertising and reminding people that they exist rather than an actual attempt. The headline of this article surprises me, the amped up fckyeah Apple initial responses on this thread, don’t.

 

[ManDark]

Awww Really, and what about, suing Tile for being a Monopoly on that field for Years and not sharing there know-how to everyone else ... like someone said today buisnis is not in technology but in court cases Oh Boy.

 

[tollickd]

Why didn't tile start moaning when Samsung released one?

 

[Jony Ive and Co.]

Your logic doesn't really make sense:

trying to sell very similar houses next to each other,

Apple's Find My platform is way better than Tile's, hence the "houses" are NOT very similar (Apple's "house" is much nicer and better)

sell yours much cheaper

It's my house so I have the right to set whatever price I want to sell my house. This applies everywhere in every market, quite logically. For example, Best Buy can set their own price and Walmart can set their own price, individually. If you say that I cannot sell my house "cheaply", then it implies that it is not a free market, and it is not capitalism.

you also own the electricity and gas boards and control when your neighbour’s house gets gas and electricity.

The electricity boards have contracts and legal obligations. They must supply to every house on a particular street. So it does not matter if you own the electricity board or if you have any conflicts of interest, you must still legally supply electricity to your neighbour if the government says it in law.


Please explain your logic properly.

 

[deevey]

I have a feeling tile may yet still survive.
reasons: immediately expand being imbedded into corporate targeting laptops from HP, Dell, etc. some people who are corrupt will continue to track people without their permission and as far as apple & Samsung are concerned its not happening on their platforms

That kind of integration is already integrated in the form of Computrace, which is embedded into the computer bios of most corporate computer systems. It also does ALOT more than just tracking the hardware.

 

[acorntoy]

Buying 4 as well. I do not currently have a tile, I had the first one and refused to give any more money to them for a product that didn't work half the time.

It definitely got better with the bluetooth standards. They were forced to deal with with a iffy Protocol. Around 2017 they were extremely solid, but the last three years they’ve added ”premium” features and such to the app and what was once a polished product is a glitchy mess.
They had a great product after years of growing pains. Over the last few years they’ve degraded that product and complained about competition, glad to jump ship.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

Tile is allowed to join the same network - this argument is ridiculous.

 

[Happydales]

I am sick to death of companies crying fowl then suing in court. Apple is far from pristine in their business practices.However, in this particular case from my perspective they haven't done anything wrong. This situation is an inferior company complaining because they probably know apple has a superior product. My household is 100% Apple products. I will never go back andriod or microsoft. It irritates the hell out of me apple no longer includes charger cords and power adapters. I wouldn't complain had they lowered the price or offset the deficit to the consumers advantage. Whoops I'm sorry for my ramt forgot the topic momentarily! LOL LOL LOL

 

[DanTSX]

Boo hoo

I’m glad they are wasting congresses’s time however. Less time for them to screw up the world.

 

[Saturn1995]

I’ve had tiles for years. While it works functionally, they never work practically. Not once, when I’ve needed it, does it ring or get found. For some reason or another, even with battery life left, it doesn’t connect when I most need it to. It’s even told me I left it elsewhere when it’s in my house.

With years of existence, tile has never addressed stability, all they’ve done is create a subscription plan where they wall off features that should come out of the box.

Love when companies try to use “fair competition” to cover for the fact that they can’t compete.

 

[cocoua]

I can see both sides of the argument on this. Tile had the idea years before, probably when you first heard of them (like me) you had never thought of a handy little device for finding things like keys. Must be nearly a decade these things have been around now?

I usually take Apple's side with things like the closed platform and all. Sure, Apple can do a much better job and a long term strategy (U1 chip development, integration in their devices) to make an Apple like experience when using them to find something.

I'm a supporter of capitalism too, in a 'more competition is good' and whoever does it the best, the cheapest wins. But like, no matter how much talent Tile had (and I'm sure they have it , and could raise the investment money to fund big projects to develop great seamless technology that just works too) - but despite this, regardless of how good they could do it, they would face the obvious challenge of iOS high security standards and API frameworks.

Essentially, how could they really have been able to compete, given that Apple can waive its own rules / limitations for itself? Same argument comes up a lot now.

I love Apple's accessories. But this is an example of how it wasn't rocket science to make a great little product, there were some enforced limitations (not technical limitations nobody could figure out until Apple tried) by Apple that kinda prevented Tile and all from getting this good.

Interesting to hear what others think. Big Apple fan here, not trashing them, but I can kinda see Tile's argument more so than usual.

Well that’s not true.

similar devices and concepts were quite common since bluetooth and RF labels came around.
Previously you would need 3 antennas for RF and this is quite quite old.

Tech evolves and the idea get polished but you cant say none though in this before Tiles

 

[imola.zhp]

Ok, I was going to just stick with Tile and hope they eventually started to participate in the program.

But...

This make me want to make the switch to airtags and dump the Tile's on eBay. I'm sure someone can still find some use in them. It seems like they are just going to dig in with their heels, like Epic...