Just hours after Apple unveiled its long-awaited AirTag, Tile CEO CJ Prober released a statement expressing concerns about competition in the tracker space.
Like TechCrunch reportedProber said that while Tile welcomes "fair competition," the company is "skeptical" of Apple's goals because of its "history of using platform advantage to unfairly restrict competition." Tile plans to ask Congress to take a look at Apple's business practices specific to Find My and competition with other tracking options. The full statement follows:
Tile: “Congress should examine Apple’s business practices”
Our mission is to solve the everyday pain point of finding lost and misplaced things, and we're flattered to see Apple, one of the most valuable companies in the world, enter and validate the category Tile pioneered. The reason so many people turn to Tile to find their lost or misplaced items is the differentiated value we provide to our customers. In addition to delivering an industry-leading set of features through our app that works with iOS and Android devices, our service is seamlessly integrated with all major voice assistants, including Alexa and Google. And with form factors for every use case and many different styles at affordable prices, there's a Tile for everyone. Tile has also successfully partnered with top brands like HP, Intel, Skullcandy and fitbit to bring our finding technology to mass-market categories like laptops, earbuds and wearables. With over 30 partners, we look forward to extending the benefits of Tile to millions of customers and enabling an experience that helps you keep track of all your important items. We welcome competition, as long as it's fair competition. Unfortunately, given Apple's well-documented history of using its platform advantage to unfairly limit competition for its products, we are skeptical. And given our history with Apple, we think it's entirely appropriate for Congress to take a closer look at Apple's business practices specifically for entering this category. We welcome the opportunity to further discuss these issues before Congress tomorrow.
To avoid complaints like Tile's before Congress, Apple waited to unveil the AirTag until the Find My Network accessory program was launched, which is designed to allow third-party trackers to be integrated into the Find My app in addition to AirTags.
Can Apple dominate the market with AirTags?
Third-party accessory makers can build Find My tracking into their Bluetooth devices, with support for the U1 chip coming in the near future. If desired, Tile could develop item tracking tags designed to integrate with the Find My app. But Tile already has its own established network for finding accessories. Find My accessories only work with the Find My app, so it's unlikely Tile will abandon its customer base to develop a Find My tag that's only compatible with Apple devices. Interestingly, Tile believes that just by launching an item tracker, Apple will be able to dominate the market due to its first-party advantage, so it's likely to be interesting to see what happens next. (Image: Apple)
