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A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

(www.elevationlab.com)
672 points dmd | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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jerlam ◴[] No.42456019[source]
Not a bad price, but it does require an existing Airtag.

Ten years is a very long time in tech. I wouldn't be confident that the Airtag protocol will be functioning in 2035, and there are already rumors of a new Airtag and possibly a newer protocol coming up.

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spiderfarmer ◴[] No.42459310[source]
If Apple kills existing Airtags any time soon they effectively kill the product line. So they won’t.
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tpetry ◴[] No.42464695[source]
Its really easy for them, and this also in line how they would operate:

Add a new Airtag v2 protocol to the next iPhone and sell new Airtags only using that protocol. Why should you buy them? They could have different improvements you would like.

Start deprecating Airtag v1 in 3-4 years - and only sell new ones. There are now 3-4 iPhone generations that can handle the new version.

The next iPhone in 6-7 years doesn't support Airtags v1 anymore as it is obsolete now for many years.

Voila, they killed Airtags v1 in less than 10 years without killing the entire product line by switching to a new version. Is that unrealistic? No, thats their normal way how they deprecate stuff. It still works but only with old hardware or by not getting new updates anymore (iOS, macOS).

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1. BudaDude ◴[] No.42464841{3}[source]
I would agree with you if this was a main line product (iPad, Macs, iPhone). You could argue the Apple Watch is a main line product as well.

But this is an accessory line. Apple is pretty good at keeping accessories working for as long as possible. AirPods v1 still work. A Magic Mouse bought 10 years ago still works as long as the battery isn't dead.

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2. withinboredom ◴[] No.42465417[source]
actually ... it doesn't. Well, you can't use them with a phone anymore because they did exactly as described. The new mice work fine though.