Tracker maker Tile will testify against Apple in today's antitrust hearing

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Tile lifestyle
Tile lifestyle (Image credit: Tile)

What you need to know

  • Apple is before a House Judiciary Committee antitrust hearing.
  • Tile will be testifying.
  • Apple stopped selling Tile trackers as it prepares to release its competitor.

For years Apple sold Tile trackers in its stores, but no more. The iPhone maker is said to be getting ready to release a competitor to Tile – likely called AirTags – and it's even taken a Tile engineer to help. And now Tile is testifying against it at a House Judiciary Committee's antitrust hearing.

Since Apple stopped selling Tile trackers the company has tried to reach out to find out what's going on, according to Reuters. But it hasn't gotten anwhere.

"After thoughtful consideration and months of bringing our concerns to Apple through regular ... channels, Tile has made the decision to continue raising concerns over Apple's anti-competitive practices," Tile general counsel Kirsten Daru told Reuters in an interview.

Tile is just one of four companies testifying at the ongoing hearing of the House Judiciary Committee although it isn't clear whether they will all be pointing the finger squarely at Apple.

Apple has been rumored to have its AirTags ready to launch for months and was roundly expected to unveil them during last year's iPhone 11 event. But that didn't happen, and we're still waiting. Meanwhile, Tile's own trackers remain unavailable via Apple's online and phsyical stores. You can still order via Amazon just fine, of course.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.