After what felt like forever, AirTag is here. Or AirTags are here, depending on whether you're a fan of Apple's use of the singular AirTag. And so are the accessories. Accessories for hanging an AirTag off your luggage. Accessories for putting an AirTag on your keychain. That kind of thing, which is cool. But the problem a ton of people have is that you need one of those accessories to really use an AirTag.
See, item trackers from the likes of Tile have a hole in one corner so you can attach them to keys and whatnot. AirTags, not so much. In fact, some people are so against the idea of picking up an AirTag accessory – some of which cost as little as $10 – that they've taken a drill to their little white puck to make their own hole. That, to me, just seems a bit much. But maybe I just don't want to bork my new $29 piece of tech. But I do understand the frustration with Apple's design and if we're being cynical, its decision to go for profits and attach rate over good design.
Things get more difficult to swallow when you consider some of the accessories Apple sells. Apple invites you to "shop AirTag Hermès" which includes a $450 AirTag Hermès Luggage Tag. That's A Lot Of Money no matter how you slice it.
Now, sure. Apple probably doesn't expect to sell many of those things and, hopefully, it won't. But it's difficult to think that there isn't some sort of disconnect between what Apple thinks AirTag buyers want, and what they actually want from their item tracker. Buyers do want to be able to put their AirTag onto their keys. They do not want to spend extra money to do it, whether that's $450 on a special leather whatsit or $5 on a cheap copy on eBay.
They just want to find their stuff. They don't want to buy accessories for their accessories.
