U.S. Senator Calls AirTags Release 'Timely' as App Store Antitrust Hearing Kicks Off

[carrrrrlos]

Tile has always been an “okay” product, limited to spotty Bluetooth and its network of other Tile users. Being able to find your stuff is a great idea that Apple is about to capitalize on simply because it’s going to be better w/ the huge network of iPhones out there. If Tile was successful in building out its network (which it had 9 years to do), it wouldn’t be an issue for them. Now they see an imminent threat - yes, AirTags will hands down be a better offering for a similar service. I have four Tiles - and they are fine, but once the AirTags come online, I’ll be deleting the Tile app, and canceling my Tile subscription (along with countless others I’m sure), and THAT is what Tile is really concerned about.

 

[BruiserB]

The Find My network is open to anybody. If Tile doesn’t want to use it, it’s not Apple fault and it is not unfair competition

And Apple is still allowing Tile's network on their devices. Amy is my Senator, and I generally like her, but I really wish the government would stay out of stuff like this that clearly isn't unfair competition. I would view it as more unfair if Apple weren't allowed to introduce their solution.

I have a couple Trackr devices and have never been that satisfied with them. They do work, but whenever I lose my keys or wallet, their batteries seem to be dead!

 

[kcslc]

Why is government always butting into what Apple is doing.

Because they have a monopoly and engage in anticompetitive activities?

 

[BJMRamage]

I don't know and surely someone here can interject with information but...

did Apple get in trouble when they launched their AirPods and how easily they connect to Macs/iDevices? I had a cheap pair of bluetooth headphones but didn't like the connection to my devices, the lack of Battery info, and the lack of Noise Cancellation (even though they claimed to be so). So, I bought AirPods Pro. part of the reason is I have Apple devices and the quick connection is very easy. But, this seems to be along the lines of trying to block the competition as Tile infers.

It is almost as if anytime Apple enters a field the competitors get a bit scared with how well most Apple products are received ...Spotify and Tile come to mind.

 

[Jay42]

U.S. congresspeople and technology. Name a worse combination

 

[huge_apple_fangirl]

This is so silly, and it's annoying how newspapers like NYT and WaPo have chose stoke this narrative by running articles highlighting how the Apple event shows that Apple is being anticompetitive withAirTags rather than... writing about the actual products. Apple has opened up Find My to third parties, Tile could join if they wanted to, but they choose not to. And because they know Apple has the better product, they make a big stink to Congress about how this shows Apple is anticompetitive even though it's actually being competitive- with Tile. And the media and politicians eat it all up. AirTags have nothing to do with Apple's App store policies and Tile knows it. They're just trying to smear a competitor while they are still the market leader.

 

[dannyyankou]

wait what? Apple launched an entire network for third-party competitors to take advantage of! Just because Apple released a Bluetooth tracker doesn’t mean they are being anti-competitive!

 

[spiderman0616]

Because they have a monopoly and engage in anticompetitive activities?

Here's the thing though--no, they actually don't. Not by any stretch of the imagination. They have never been and will probably never be the most popular platform.

 

[spiderman0616]

This is so silly, and it's annoying how newspapers like NYT and WaPo have chose stoke this narrative by running articles highlighting how the Apple event shows that Apple is being anticompetitive withAirTags rather than... writing about the actual products. Apple has opened up Find My to third parties, Tile could join if they wanted to, but they choose not to. And because they know Apple has the better product, they make a big stink to Congress about how this shows Apple is anticompetitive even though it's actually being competitive- with Tile. And the media and politicians eat it all up. AirTags have nothing to do with Apple's App store policies and Tile knows it. They're just trying to smear a competitor while they are still the market leader.

Don't forget who owns WaPo.

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

Congress can walk and chew gum, but Apple and this sort of conduct should hardly be the priority right now. If they want to focus on tech, how about some progress on social media, privacy and the ridiculous stranglehold major ISPs have on Internet access in the US first?

 

[fwmireault]

People have no sense of empathy or know what it is anymore. If you were a small third party app/company with a product and that product ended up being reborn as a new shiny Apple product everyone MUST have, you would have the opposite opinion of what you state here.

What you’re describing is pure competition, and not an unfair one. Apple has the right to propose a product similar to what Tile is doing (and Samsung too but of course nobody will say it). It would have been unfair if Apple was developing the Find My network/U1 usage exclusively for the AirTags. Not the case here. Tile can use the exact same technology if they want.

At the end of the day, if the same technology is avaible to both enterprises but Apple is doing a better product, it’s just competition and it’s true for anything.

Let me be clear: Apple has his share of unfair competition and dominant position, especially regarding the App Store. I just say that in the specific case of the AirTags, I don’t see any problems.

 

[iReality85]

Tile has known about Apple's work on the AirTag for some time now and has brought it up in prior legal proceedings as it is unhappy to have Apple as competition in the item tracking space.

Other companies that have long had competitive issues with App Store, such as Spotify and Match will participate, and will complain about the restrictive rules employed by Apple and Google and the App Store fees.

Some might call it editorializing, but I’m glad that Juli and MR are using this kind of language to call out the BS of these companies. What a bunch of freeloaders, wanting a free lunch.

 

[prefabsprouter]

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is spearheading an antitrust hearing on competition in App Stores, today called Apple's AirTags release "timely" because it is the type of conduct that she plans to examine, reports Reuters.

"It's timely given that this is the type of conduct that we'll be talking about at the hearing," she said, while also mentioning that criticisms of the App Store and Play Store have not received enough attention.

The "Antitrust Applied: Examining Competition in App Stores" hearing takes place today to examine App Stores and mobile competition. Executives from Apple, Google, Tile, Spotify, and Match Group will be participating. Apple initially did not plan to send anyone to attend, but agreed to provide Chief Compliance Officer Kyle Andeer after senators complained.

Tile General Counsel Kirsten Daru will also be attending, and yesterday, Tile said that it intends to bring up the AirTags launch. Tile CEO CJ Prober said that the company is "skeptical" about Apple's aims with AirTags, given its "history of using platform advantage to unfairly limit competition."

Tile has known about Apple's work on the AirTag for some time now and has brought it up in prior legal proceedings as it is unhappy to have Apple as competition in the item tracking space. To avoid antitrust complaints, Apple waited to launch AirTags until it had already debuted the Find My Network accessory program, which allows third-party Bluetooth devices like item trackers to integrate into the Find My app alongside AirTags.

The Find My network is open to Tile, but it does require item trackers to work exclusively with Find My, and Tile already has an established item tracking app and its own network that uses smartphones for crowdsourced tracking purposes.

Apple in a statement said that it has worked to build a platform that enables third-party developers to thrive.Other companies that have long had competitive issues with App Store, such as Spotify and Match will participate, and will complain about the restrictive rules employed by Apple and Google and the App Store fees.

With the App Store competition hearing kicking off today, Fight for the Future launched an "Abolish the App Store" initiative that calls on people to sign a petition to demand that Congress "end the App Store monopoly."

Fight the Future believes that iOS should work like other "general purpose" computing systems, giving users the freedom to install software directly onto their devices without Apple's permission.

Article Link: U.S. Senator Calls AirTags Release 'Timely' as App Store Antitrust Hearing Kicks Off

Could you use this tag to put inside your checked suitcase when you travel and find out whether your suitcase reached its destination with you?

 

[dz5b609]

If you can't compete, you can always sue.

And donate some money to politicians.

 

[MrMacintoshIII]

Yeah Senators taking time off, entire months or more off, during crises, are also very timely every time they do so.

Can I give a big fat this to the Senator?
*

 

[antiprotest]

The nerve! Releasing a product? This "type of conduct" needs to be investigated!

 

[steevn]

Even if you are an Apple super fan and believe they can do no wrong, it’s not really hard to see Apple(and others) have been taking plenty of ideas and products from others to create their own with the platform to highlight their own products over the years.

Apple is a company that takes an idea and makes it better, that’s why I like them. But we are really getting into an area of companies clearly taking ideas and smashing independent competition.

Do I like Apple and their products? Obviously. Do I want Apple, Google and Amazon to control every aspect of the future with zero chance of other competition because they were the big companies in the beginning? Absolutely not.

 

[AtomicDusk]

The cognitive dissonance here by Sen. Klobuchar is the stuff of head scratches.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I still really don't understand the logic.

The general premise is that Apple is leveraging their existing userbase for a completely different product. Off the top of my head, and I'm not even a lawyer, just a programmer who's had to deal with laws before...

Is that anti-competitive, or related to anti-trust issues?
Since Apple made the Find My service open, does this mean that there's no difference between an Airtag and a Tile?
Can a Tile product be part of Tile's network and Apple's at the same time?
If not, does the lack of competing "Find My" networks harm the consumers?

When the competition complains you have to talk to Congress?

That's exactly how it works in the USA. So many companies fail because the companies that already exist lobby to put up red tape, preventing other companies from entering the market. I worked for a company, that was established in a field, and wanted to take an existing product and deploy it into a different, more regulated field. It took over a year and 10's of thousands of dollars in testing, and I think ultimately they gave up due to the amount of red tape.

 

[Bmuir]

This is stupid. There's nothing stopping Tile from joining the Find My network. They just don't want to.

I don't get it. Who says they need to join that network anyways? Does Netflix have to integrate with the TV app? No, they have their own app, just like how Tile has their own app. Tile already has a leg up on different types of trackers (Wallet, Pro, Sticker), and they have different service tiers. They have built-in Tile options for Fitbit and Keysmart, and you don't see Apple kicking them off the App Store for doing business with an Apple Watch competitor. Apple/Google/Amazon doesn't require every smart home device to be Homekit/Home/Alexa compatible.

 

[WiseAJ]

The Coalition of Whiners / Free Lunch Brigade don't want any competition and everything handed to them on a silver plate. You even try to compete with them and they'll go all Karen on you to Congress who are dumb enough to listen. Wasting everyone's time and tax payer money.

 

[Stewie]

How, exactly, is Apple entering the device tracking business going to "unfairly limit competition"? How is Apple entering this market going to be a negative for consumers?

AirTags are going to work exactly like Tile on an open platform. Anyone can sell their own trackers and and make them compatible with Find My

I hope they don't work like tile. Tile is a huge pile of garbage that couldn't find my tiles when they were 3 feet away. Happened with both android and iPhone, so it wasn't the case of apple hindering how tile works.

 

[steevn]

U.S. congresspeople and technology. Name a worse combination

Republicans and Fox News.

 

[WiseAJ]

Republicans and Fox News.

Republicans and [insert anything/everything here]

 

[Yokon54]

I don’t think these people know much about tech and/or how to regulate a company of this size, stature, and power.