How to watch today’s Apple event
Perhaps the buzziest product in the rumor mill is the potential debut of AirTags, Apple’s long-rumored Bluetooth tracking device.
What are AirTags?
The Tile-like locator attaches to and helps you find items such as keys, wallets, laptops or even your car. AirTags have been reportedly in the works as far back as 2019, when pictures hidden within iOS 13 suggested small, flat, circular discs with built-in chips could allow someone to locate items when connected to Apple’s Find My app.
The rumored cost: $39 each.
AirTags are expected to include the same U1 ultra-wideband chip as the iPhone 12, which would make location tracking more accurate than competing devices from companies such as Tile, Samsung and Sony, according to MacRumors.
Why now?
The arrival of AirTags would allow the company to expand its offerings and lock users deeper into its ecosystem as it looks for more ways to combat an expected decline in its hardware revenues.
While accessories for an accessory might sound like a stretch, customers who are delaying costly smartphone and tablet upgrades may be willing to spend more on lower cost items. That said, it’s possible AirTags could emerge as a category unto its own, much like AirPods.
Either way, it would be a smart time for their launch as customers are finally emerging from over a year of lockdown — ready, perhaps, to find things people invariably lose when outside the house.
