Apple in April 2021 introduced AirTag, a small and elegantly designed accessory that helps keep track of and find the items that matter most with Apple’s Find My app.
Whether attached to a handbag, keys, backpack, or other items, AirTag taps into the vast, global Find My network1 and can help locate a lost item, all while keeping location data private and anonymous with end-to-end encryption. AirTag can be purchased in one and four packs for just $29 and $99, respectively, and became available to the public on April 30, 2021.
Ming-Chi Kuo from TF International Securities estimates Apple shipped 20 million of them in 2021, the first year it was available. And the analyst predicts 35 million of them will ship by the end of 2022.
AirTag, which has not received much attention, has gradually grown in shipments since its release. Shipment estimations of AirTag reach about 20 mn & 35 mn units in 2021 & 2022, respectively. If AirTag shipments continue to grow, I believe Apple will develop the 2nd generation.
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) June 19, 2022
Suggestions from users [for a next-gen AirTag] include a built-in connector loop. Currently, AirTags require a case of some kind to attach the trackers to keys or other items.
MacDailyNews Take: 55 million units in the first 20 months guarantees that Apple is working on next-gen AirTag trackers alongside further enhancement of Apple’s already-formable Find My network.
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.
50 million at about 30$ USD per AirTag is 1.5 billion revenue in two years. For nearly every company that would be an incredible boost to the bottom line. For Apple it is closer to a rounding error. But for Apple and other behemoths part of the reason they become behemoths is taking advantage of even small revenue products if they fit into the overall plan.
I bought a pack of four AirTags for my mother and her husband, both in their mid-80s and increasingly forgetful. Soon Mom was expressing her appreciation. The AirTags were not “just in case” for them, but a great help in finding items that had frequently been set down in some arbitrary spot that was quickly forgotten. The items are a wallet, a checkbook, a remote, and her purse.
Word to the wise: if your elderly relative needs an airtag to locate a checkbook, then it’s past time to assign a fiduciary to manage finances.
Also, two forgetful people in a household isn’t much safer than one. Nobody should rely on airtags for daily life. Airtags are a crutch, not a cure. Don’t wait to get elderly the care and housing they need BEFORE a disastrous event makes the choices for them.
A good family friend, completely healthy and coherent, recently moved into a retirement home. It was significantly less grand than she anticipated because her late husband, the financial manager, had become so forgetful that he spent the last several years of his life writing multiple sizeable checks to charities regularly, forgetting he had done so. She thought he knew what he was doing because, other than an occasional forgetful moment, he seemed just as capable as she. Hugely disastrous mistake.