Apple Airtag
Source: Apple Inc.
On Tuesday, Apple announced a long-awaited gadget called AirTag. Users can attach the $ 29 device to valuables, such as keys or a backpack, and then locate it on a live map inside the built-in Find My software.
AirTag is competing with a number of other products on the market, including from Tile, whose general counsel complained to Congress on Apple’s general dominance on Wednesday.
But the most important distinguishing feature of the AirTag is not the technology in the $ 29 stainless steel gadget. It’s other people’s iPhones.
AirTag has no GPS signal, which would quickly drain its battery and raise privacy questions. Instead, when attached to a lost object, it sends mixed Bluetooth signals. In order for these signals to reach the internet and inform the person looking for their lost device, they will need to find an iPhone that listens to them.
“Using Bluetooth and the hundreds of millions of iOS, iPadOS and macOS devices used around the world, the user can locate a missing device even if it can’t connect to a Wi-Fi or cellular network, “Apple explained in a security release about the service. Find me. “Any iOS, iPadOS or macOS device with” offline finding “enabled in the Find Me settings can act as a” search device “.
The product represents a new frontier for Apple: using its installation base of over 1 billion iPhones as infrastructure to build services that its competitors cannot. Now, iPhones are part of a physical network in the world looking for stolen goods – even if their users have never purchased an AirTag.
“The bottom line is that AirTag is an example of Apple’s use of its ecosystem to create a more compelling product than what is currently on the market,” Loup Ventures founder Gene Munster wrote on Tuesday. “Specifically, AirTag will have better navigation and discovery features, along with a multi-billion-euro network of devices that can be used to help locate lost objects.”
Find My Network membership has benefits for iPhone users who don’t buy AirTags. Many users sign up because the same app can be used to find lost Apple products and is easy to do when connecting to an iCloud account on an iPhone.
The Find Me network can be used to find an iPhone after it has been turned off, as thieves often do after stealing a phone. (If the device is turned on, it can be contacted through Find My iPhone, a similar service that uses the device’s internet connection and predates the Find My iPhone network.)
Users can also opt out of the Find Me network in Apple settings, although that means they don’t benefit from network benefits, such as finding devices that have been turned off or not connected to your cell phone or Bluetooth. (To do this, go to Settings> Your name> Find me> Find my iPhone> and then turn “Find my network” on or off.)
A vast, global network
The number of devices participating in the network is crucial for a product like AirTag.
Apple describes the Find My service as a “vast global network” and allows third-party accessory manufacturers to launch products that use it.
If an AirTag gets lost in the middle of a desert without Apple devices in the Bluetooth range, it can’t connect to the internet to send signals or update the user map. But in the middle of an American city, where about 42% of people have iPhones – more in some areas – it’s more likely to find a device looking for the lost AirTag.
Apple CEO Tim Cook previously described Apple’s strategy as “Apple-only,” suggesting that as the company builds hardware, develops software and runs its own online services, it may introduce features that rivals such as Microsoft, Google or Samsung do not. the pot.
While Samsung or other major smartphone vendors have a similar number of phones in people’s hands, they don’t control the underlying operating system, making features like Find My much more difficult to implement on a large scale simultaneously.
For Apple, AirTag is probably an effort to add distinctive features to its iPhone to discourage current users from switching to an Android device. It is not likely to be a major revenue factor.
“While the Airtags are incremental to our model, we do not believe that a very successful launch of that product will have a significant impact on our forecasts, given the low price of $ 29,” Goldman Sachs analyst wrote on Tuesday. , Rod Hall.
If Apple becomes more adept at using installed devices as a privacy-sensitive infrastructure, it could be a lasting asset to the company. The base installed by Apple’s iPhone could become particularly important, as it invests heavily in augmented reality, a technology that combines the physical and digital worlds.
A network of location-conscious iPhones could be used in augmented reality applications, such as Pokemon Go, for example, to identify where other players are competing and start a group experience. It provides the sensors and internet connection needed to build digital experiences in the real world, without building new equipment every time.
Privacy angle
AirTag is also a major test for positioning Apple’s privacy.
Since 2015, Apple has promoted privacy and security as major differentiators for its iPhone. It has consistently built-in systems, such as Covid tracking exposure notifications, that are decentralized, meaning they are designed in a way that data is processed and calculated on a device, rather than on servers that Apple can access them.
Apple relies on this reputation to assure customers that its Find My system will not leak location or user data when acting as an identification device. Apple says the Find Me network keeps private and anonymous location data and does not store location or history data.
How Apple eliminates it is a complicated software engineering issue. “Find Me is built on an advanced public key cryptography base,” says Apple’s security statement.
Now, Apple users will have to decide if they understand and trust the Find My and Apple network – both as their users and as participating iPhone users to make them work better.