Tile has teamed with Amazon in an attempt to improve their mesh network for tracking items as Tile tries to compete with Apple’s vast worldwide network comprised of over a billion devices for tracking items with its new AirTags.
Jon Fortt and Fahiemah Al-Ali for CNBC:
Amazon announced Friday that it is partnering with Tile, a company that makes trackers for lost items, and Level, which makes smart locks, to use those devices to enhance its tracking network based on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology.
The strength and number of devices on a given tracking network is key to its accuracy. That’s part of the reason why many think Apple’s tracking network will be so strong since it relies on more than 1 billion iPhones, iPads, and Macs to help with lost item tracking.
Amazon’s partnership will allow it beef up its tracking network, called Sidewalk, by letting Tile and Level devices tap into the Bluetooth networks created by millions of its Echo products. Tile will start working with Amazon’s network beginning June 14.
Sidewalk rolled out late last year and is billed as a free network sharing service throughout neighborhoods that uses Echo devices as “bridges” to share a small fraction of a users’ low-bandwidth Wi-Fi with devices like Echo devices and Ring cameras.
MacDailyNews Take: There are less than 200 million Amazon Echo devices in use today or fewer than 800 million than the well over 1 billion devices that make up Apple’s vast worldwide Find My network.
The bottom line: AirTag users will find their items significantly faster, more accurately, and more securely than will those who settle for Tile trackers.
