Despite leaks indicating the existence of AirTag, many Apple events ended without any mention of AirTag. In fact, seven months ago, leaker Jon Prosser claimed that AirTags were "finished and ready to go."

And there was not a peep about trackers in Apple's 2020 announcements of the M1 Mac, iPhone 12, AirPods Max, etc.

With Apple's Spring Loaded event, this finally came to an end, and Apple's answer to Tile is finally on its way to customers. And we have proof that Prosser was right and Apple left AirTags alone for a while, waiting for the right time to launch.

On Twitter, YouTuber @ZONEofTECH showed a photo of the AirTags packaging; the AirTags box says 2020, which matches what Prosser said. The leather keychain, on the other hand, says 2019, which is even earlier.

The latter is about the same time the AirTag rumor first surfaced, and MacRumors also found documents proving that Apple began regulatory testing of the tracker between July and November of that year.

So why the persistent delays? Both are speculative, but there are two possible answers: the first is simple: the 2019 launch will limit the usability of AirTags. The tracker uses ultra-wideband technology, which requires a compatible mobile device to detect it. Apple introduced a compatible U1 chip in the iPhone 11, but releasing AirTags at the same time would mean that only early adopters of the iPhone would be able to use it. releasing it when both the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 have gained a reasonable market share, mean that sales are likely to be much higher.

The second possibility is more complicated and stems from the anti-competitive accusations Apple faced at the time: back in 2020, companies including Tile were reportedly lobbying Congress to level the playing field of dominance by companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google.

Thus, Apple's opening of the Find My network to third-party accessory makers prior to the launch of AirTags was probably not a coincidence, but rather Apple simply needed extra time to make the necessary changes and delayed the originally anticipated launch date It may be that.

In any case, AirTags are now available and have made a strong initial impression. While we gave the tracker four stars in our review of the Apple AirTag, praising both its ease of use and accuracy, AirTags' privacy and stalking concerns are very real concerns.