Apple has a knack for solving problems that make other companies wish that they’d thought of it first. For instance, the watch industry has had decades to solve the problem of easily switching out watch bands. And yet, everyone seemed kind of complacent about coming up with a better way to do it. When Apple introduced their design which allowed for secure, quick, and easy band swaps, every one looked at it and said “Cool!” Apple had invented a solution that truly carried the industry forward.
Now I’m wondering if we’ll see another Apple-esque solution to the problem of finding your devices. And no, I’m not talking about the rumored external Tile-like trackers. I suspect those are simply a by-product to what they were really after.
I think the real problem that Apple wants to solve is looking for your Apple devices. You could make the case that losing your Apple device is the ultimate buzzkill to the user experience. Who hasn’t wished that they could ping their iPad, Apple TV remote, or AirPods from their Apple Watch?
Allowing the Apple Watch to ping your iPhone has been a great start. But what if Apple went one step further and allowed you to use your iPhone to lead you directly to any Apple device you owned? Without needing any kind of external tracker or foreplanning on the part of the user. From the minute you attach a new device to your icloud account, its findable. That’s the picture I’m forming the more that I hear about Apple’s new capabilities. Even now, it sounds like the iPhone 11 has the hardware to zero in on other hardware enabled device with minute precision. It just needs the software to be released.
It would be great if all future Apple devices had imbedded chips that allowed for them to be easily found in your house or in public. Not just our iPhones, but almost everything that Apple sells. And with the ubiquitous nature of the iPhone, even a non-cellular device dropped in public could be found as the devices of strangers could relay your device location.
Thus far, all the tracker discussion has centered around some kind of external add-on tracker similar to what the company Tile offers. That would be great too. But those can be awkward and unsightly when stuck on devices. I don’t think Apple would have ever taken the time and energy to bring something like that to market all on it’s own. As handy as they are, its not a real consequential market.
Instead, I think the external add-on tracker was simply low-hanging fruit. Once Apple had spent the research dollars to invent the whole imbedded chip tracker system for their own devices, it was then a cheap and easy proposition to consider offering an external version. After all, once customers get used to using their iPhones to find lost iPads or remote controls, it would seem natural to also use it to find car keys or wallets.
In the very near future, it may start to seem unthinkable that we can’t simply open our iPhone and see the exact location of every one of our Apple devices in our house. That has me a lot more excited than an external stick-on tracker.
I think the real problem that Apple wants to solve is looking for your Apple devices. You could make the case that losing your Apple device is the ultimate buzzkill to the user experience. Who hasn’t wished that they could ping their iPad, Apple TV remote, or AirPods from their Apple Watch?
Allowing the Apple Watch to ping your iPhone has been a great start. But what if Apple went one step further and allowed you to use your iPhone to lead you directly to any Apple device you owned? Without needing any kind of external tracker or foreplanning on the part of the user. From the minute you attach a new device to your icloud account, its findable. That’s the picture I’m forming the more that I hear about Apple’s new capabilities. Even now, it sounds like the iPhone 11 has the hardware to zero in on other hardware enabled device with minute precision. It just needs the software to be released.
It would be great if all future Apple devices had imbedded chips that allowed for them to be easily found in your house or in public. Not just our iPhones, but almost everything that Apple sells. And with the ubiquitous nature of the iPhone, even a non-cellular device dropped in public could be found as the devices of strangers could relay your device location.
Thus far, all the tracker discussion has centered around some kind of external add-on tracker similar to what the company Tile offers. That would be great too. But those can be awkward and unsightly when stuck on devices. I don’t think Apple would have ever taken the time and energy to bring something like that to market all on it’s own. As handy as they are, its not a real consequential market.
Instead, I think the external add-on tracker was simply low-hanging fruit. Once Apple had spent the research dollars to invent the whole imbedded chip tracker system for their own devices, it was then a cheap and easy proposition to consider offering an external version. After all, once customers get used to using their iPhones to find lost iPads or remote controls, it would seem natural to also use it to find car keys or wallets.
In the very near future, it may start to seem unthinkable that we can’t simply open our iPhone and see the exact location of every one of our Apple devices in our house. That has me a lot more excited than an external stick-on tracker.
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