Apple AirTag is based on a large base installed for the iPhone

On Tuesday, Apple announced an expected gadget called AirTag. Users can connect the $ 29 coin-sized device to valuables such as keys or a backpack and then locate it on a live map within Apple Find My integrated software.

AirTag competes with other products on the market, including those from Tile, whose attorney general complained Wednesday before Congress about Apple’s general dominance.

But AirTag’s most important differentiating feature isn’t the technology inside the $ 29 stainless steel gadget. They are other people’s iPhones.

AirTag has no GPS signal, which would quickly drain the battery and raise privacy issues. Instead, when connected to a lost object, it sends shuffled Bluetooth signals. For these signals to reach the Internet and inform the person looking for the lost device, you will need to find an iPhone to listen to them.

“Through Bluetooth and the hundreds of millions of iOS, iPadOS and macOS devices that are actively used around the world, the user can locate a missing device even if it can’t connect to a Wi-Fi or mobile network. ” , explains Apple in a security release about the Find My service. “Any iOS, iPadOS or macOS device with” offline search “enabled in the Find My settings can act as a” search device “.

The product represents a new frontier for Apple: using the facility base of more than 1 billion iPhones as an infrastructure to create services that its competitors cannot. IPhones are now part of a physical network in the world looking for stolen products, even if their users have never bought an AirTag.

“The end result is that AirTag is an example of Apple taking advantage of its ecosystem to create a more attractive product than what’s currently on the market,” Loup Ventures founder Gene Munster wrote on Tuesday. “Specifically, AirTag will have better navigation and discovery features, along with a network of more than a billion dollars in devices that can be used to help locate lost objects.”

Finding on the Find My network 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 it’s easy to sign in to an iCloud account on an iPhone.

The Find My network can be used to find an iPhone after it has been turned off, as thieves usually do after stealing a phone. (If your device is turned on, you can contact Find My iPhone, a similar service that uses your device’s Internet connection and predates the Find My network.)

Users can also turn off my network search in Apple settings, though that means they don’t get the benefits of the network, such as finding devices that are turned off or not connected to their mobile or Bluetooth. (To do this, go to Settings> Your name> Find my> Find my iPhone>, then turn the “Find my network” option on or off.)

The number of devices participating in the network is crucial for a product like AirTag.

Apple describes its Find My service as a “broad global network” and allows third-party accessory manufacturers to also release products that use it.

If an AirTag is lost in the middle of a desert without Apple devices in the Bluetooth range, it cannot connect to the Internet to send signals or update the user map. But in the middle of an American city, where an estimated 42% of people have iPhones (more in some areas), you’re much more likely to find a device that looks for your lost AirTag.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously described Apple’s product strategy as “Apple-only,” suggesting that as the company builds hardware, develops software, and manages its own online services, it may introduce functions that rivals like Microsoft, Google or Samsung cannot. .

While Samsung or other major smartphone vendors have a similar number of phones in their hands, they don’t control the underlying operating system, making features like Find My much harder to implement at once.

For Apple, AirTag is probably an effort to add distinctive features to its iPhone to deter current users from switching to an Android device. It’s probably not a major revenue factor.

“While AirTag tags are incremental to our model, we don’t believe a very successful launch of this product will have a big impact on our forecasts, given the low price of $ 29,” the Goldman Sachs analyst wrote. , Rod Hall, in a note this Tuesday.

If Apple becomes more adept at using its installed devices as a privacy-sensitive infrastructure, it could represent a lasting advantage for the company. Apple’s installed iPhone base could be especially important as it invests heavily in augmented reality, a technology that combines the physical and digital worlds.

A network of iPhones that take into account location in augmented reality applications such as Pokemon Go could be used, for example, to identify where other players compete and start a group experience. It provides the sensors and internet connection needed to build real-world digital experiences without building new equipment every time.

AirTag also represents an important test for Apple’s privacy positioning.

Since 2015, Apple has announced privacy and security as the main differentiators of its iPhone. It has consistently built systems, such as Covid tracking exposure notifications, decentralized, which means they are designed so that data is processed and calculated on one device, rather than the servers that Apple can access.

Apple relies on this reputation to assure customers that its Find My system will not filter location or user data when acting as a search appliance. Apple says the Find My network keeps location data private and anonymous and does not store location data or history.

How Apple gets it is a complicated software engineering issue. “Find My is based on advanced public key encryption,” says Apple’s security information.

Now Apple users will have to decide if they understand and trust the Find My and Apple network, both their users and participating iPhone users to make them work better.