Shortly after the official announcement of Apple's AirTag, Tile CEO CJ Prober expressed concerns about competition with Apple in the location space and said that Tile would ask Congress to investigate Apple's business practices specifically related to Find My and item trackers.
CJ Prober gave an interview to Bloomberg this week where he further addressed Tile's complaints about Apple and explained why he feels Tile is being disadvantaged on Apple's platform. Prober said that while Tile "welcomes competition," he feels Apple isn't being fair.
Prober on Apple: “We had a very symbiotic relationship”
Tile welcomes competition. We've been competing with small businesses all the way up to Fortune 50 companies for eight years, so we welcome competition from Apple - but we think it has to be fair.
Prober claims that when Apple "introduced" Find My in 2019, there were changes in iOS that made it harder for Tile to work.
If you look at the history between Tile and Apple, we had a very symbiotic relationship. They sold Tile in their stores, we were highlighted at WWDC 2019, and then they launched Find My in 2019. Right when the new Find My app came out, which is effectively a competitor to Tile, they made a number of changes to their operating system that made it very difficult for our customers to activate Tile. Among other things, they started showing notifications that made it seem like Tile was broken.
Tile vs. AirTag: Platform capabilities are crucial
Prober is talking about changes Apple made to location services permissions. For privacy reasons, Apple no longer made it easy for apps to gain permanent access to a user's location. Apps were initially not allowed to offer an "Always Allow" option when requesting location access on iOS 13. The feature had to be enabled in the Settings app. Apple also began sending regular reminders to customers to let them know their location was being used. Tile was not happy about these privacy changes. These adjustments pitted Tile against Apple, with Tile asking Congress in 2019 to "level the playing field." Prober explained that Apple has now launched a Tile competitor that has access to platform features Tile does not have access to, citing seamless activation and ultra-wideband technology.
Would Tile give up its own infrastructure?
The main differentiators of AirTags versus Tile are enabled by platform capabilities that we don't have access to.
Apple did indeed launch the Find My network to give third-party accessories some of the same access as AirTags. These products will be able to access the U1 chip in the iPhone 11 and 12 models, similar to AirTags. But Tile, on the other hand, won't be able to use the Find My network unless the company abandons its own app and infrastructure. Will it do that? Probably not. Prober also explained that Tile has been "trying to access" the U1 chip in the iPhone since it introduced it, but has been denied. It's too early to say whether Tile's sales will be affected by AirTag. But Prober stressed that Tile is "well positioned" with a "super differentiated product" that's available across platforms and in many form factors. He believes Tile has several advantages over AirTags.
Prober calls for “legislation that allows innovation and competition”
We have a lot of form factors. You don't need an accessory to attach it to your stuff. We're louder, we have better range. So we have a lot going for us. We feel good about our competitive position but we don't feel like we should be competing with Apple. It's about much more than just trackers - it's about long-term consumer choice, thriving innovation and lower prices. That's why we're so vocal about it.
According to Prober, Apple could take advantage of the benefits it has on its platform and make them available to everyone to create a level playing field, calling for legislation that allows for innovation and competition.
We should have fair competition and not excessive taxes for developers.
The further development is sure to remain exciting. If you want to see the full interview, you can find the Bloomberg article here. (Photo by askarim / Bigstockphoto)
