Very aware of what is happening with Apple suppliers, Ming-Chi Kuo announces the sales figures for Bluetooth beacons marketed since 2021. According to him, faced with rather impressive figures, Apple could prepare a second generation.
Since their launch in the spring of 2021, AirTags have been discreet – behind a press that Apple will undoubtedly have done well without, namely the misuse of this product to spy on people, to steal them, kill them, etc.
Sold alone or in packs of four, for respectively 35 and 119 euros, these small Bluetooth and UWB beacons initially promise to help you find objects to which they are attached. To do this, they rely on an encrypted mesh network woven across the planet by all active Apple products, which will signal the presence of these beacons without keeping track of them elsewhere.
Impressive sales figures
Anyway, if they are practical on a daily basis so as not to misplace your keys, or a suitcase, for example, Apple has not officially communicated sales figures. Fortunately, we can count on Ming-Chi Kuo to correct this little lack.
AirTag, which has not received much attention, has gradually grown in shipments since its release. Shipment estimates 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
In a tweet, the analyst, always very informed about what Apple is preparing, declares that sales of AirTags would have reached 20 million units in 2021, while the first models were sold from May. Around 35 million units would have been sold for the year 2022, which, as you know, is far from over.
Impressive figures, even if we can always put things into perspective by remembering that the cloth at 25 euros, and signed by Apple, has long been out of stock… The products put on sale by the Cupertino company therefore tend to sell well .
Towards a new generation, but with what innovations?
Ming-Chi Kuo, who seems impressed by the sales figures, specifies that if the trend continues, “Apple will develop a second generation” of these tags. The question is what this new iteration would bring.
In the current state of things, it seems that the material formula proposed is good, even if it requires the use of a case to hang it on an object. We could consider that it is easier to attach it somewhere, or that the AirTag is thinner so that it can be slipped without deforming it in a wallet, for example.
Nevertheless, at present, and to use several of them on a daily basis, it is above all the software part that seems to us to have to evolve. Apple should refine the detection of AirTags that follow users – on iOS and Android, and strengthen the control of notified alerts. Similarly, it should be possible to define a list of AirTags in a family group for location sharing of objects, for example.
However, if Apple still wants to improve the autonomy of its beacon, integrate new functions or increase its precision, no one will find fault with it. It remains to be seen whether Apple will find it necessary to introduce a more efficient model. Such an arrival could have the advantage of lowering the price of the current generation, even if the AirTags are in the average price in this market.
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