While that likely saved them money up front, it caused some headaches for customers who wanted to extend the life of their products and as customers requested refunds or trade-ins to newer models. While this version of the Tile Mate has a replaceable battery, earlier versions made use of a non-replaceable soldered battery. Using the product is pretty simple with bluetooth connectivity, the product is easy to connect and pair to the Tile App whether you use an Android or iOS phone. The back of the product sports the removable battery door, an etched QR serial number, and 3 small speaker holes. The front also has the chromed name badge which doubles as a physical button. The keyring hole is made by bringing the gray plastic from the bottom housing to the front surface creating both a pleasing pop of color and reinforcement in the area that experiences the most wear and tear. A white front casing and a gray back case meet to create a uniform reveal midway up the sides. The Tile Mate is a thin rounded square with a simple 2 part plastic construction. Their trackers are designed with the bare minimum of major components while still achieving a small, tidy package and expanding and improving their product line over time. Tile needed to do all it could to reduce the number of parts and simplify their assemblies and they have followed this playbook to a tee. As a smaller company, they would not have received the preferential pricing that established companies get on electrical components or injection molding. Without multiple business lines that can support new development, the best way to get started is to build something quickly with as much profit margin as possible. Despite all these challenges, Tile has managed to not just survive but thrive in the hardware world first as a startup and now as one of the premier tracking devices and apps. From development costs to tooling to inventory, it takes a lot to just stay afloat let alone thrive. It is really hard to survive as a hardware startup. In this teardown blog, we dive deeper into how these products were designed and built and what we can learn about the companies that made them. However, after years of dominating this market segment and creating different form factors for their products, Tile is facing its first real competition as Apple has recently introduced their own product, the AirTag, in April 2021. ![]() Tile was one of the first companies to mass-produce a high-quality tracking device launching a crowdfunding campaign in mid-2013. Length: 35mm, Width: 35mm, Height: 6mm, Volume: 7350 mm^3 ![]() ![]() Yes: CR 2032 but a little difficult to removeÄiameter: 31.9mm, height: 8mm, volume: 6400 mm^3 Low: 6 main components, singlesided PCBA with 2 ICs, adhered Piezo speaker High: 9 main components, double-sided PCBA with >10 ICs, soldered voice coil and magnet assembly Chris Li What a teardown reveals about their respective companiesĬomparison Table summarizing the major differences between the AirTag and Tile Mate:
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