In article , Alan Browne
wrote:

Tile. (Object locating device). Huge success.

not for long and they know it.

The context was crowd funding and Tile certainly was successful in
getting funding and deploying a good, functional product and remains (I
believe) the market leader.

If Apple's widget is iOS/PadOS/WatchOS only then Tile will retain a huge
market opportunity base.

not really, since tile requires a critical mass of tile users who have
installed the tile app *and* are actively running in the background,
which is something that will simply not happen in the numbers for it to
be reliable.

Tile have accused Apple of dissuading users from using Tile in background:
https://9to5mac.com/2020/04/02/apple-breaking-promises/

their claims are baseless and a clear sign of desperation.

apple's changes to ios 13 are for overall security, not specifically
targeting tile.

it does affect tile, but it also affects a slew of other apps that want
to get location in the background, usually for nefarious purposes.

there is also no requirement that any store sell a particular product.

for apple's system, just one person with an ios device needs to be
nearby at some point, and with well over a billion ios users, that's a
virtual certainty.

apple's system will also do more than just tell you the general
vicinity, but *exactly* where the item is with roughly 1 cm accuracy.

I doubt the 1 cm but within 1m or so is fine by me.

https://sixcolors.com/post/2019/09/t...one-11-is-the-
beginning-of-an-ultra-wideband-revolution/
...From raw data alone, UWB devices can detect locations within
10 centimeters (4 inches), but depending on implementation that
accuracy can be lowered to as much as 5 millimeters, according to
Mickael Viot, VP of marketing at UWB chipmaker Decawave.

tile is history. they know it. the market knows it. that's why they've
resorted to lawsuits. it's all they have left.

We'll see. I 'spect just due to the larger mass of Android phones that
Tile will continue to do well.

that remains to be seen.

there will be a much smaller install base to find a tile, making it
less effective than it already is, which isn't particularly good.

What lawsuits? They have testified to Congress and to EU antitrust
regulators but I can't find any mention of a lawsuit.

Lawsuits aren't always desperation - they can be legitimate pursuits of
protecting one's IP or access to market. Apple do it too...

At some point, iOS becomes likened to a "common carrier" of sorts (in
this case as an appliance and OS) and has to be reasonably open in all
ways to all comers. I think that is what Tile are pressing upon the US
Congress and EU regulators.

tile has a substantially inferior product and instead of improving it,
they turn to the courts. that is not a good strategy.