Tianfeng International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently said that the Apple Electronics tracker may be launched at the Apple conference on March 31 and will not ship until Q2 or Q3. By the end of this year, there are expected to be tens of millions of ultra-wideband (UWB) electronic trackers with built-in U1 chips.
There have been various rumors about Apple's electronic tracker since last year: the name may be "AirTag" or "Apple Tags", and the product is a coin-sized pendant that can be hung on a key chain or a schoolbag. Through the integration with the "Find" function in iOS to remind people to track the location of vulnerable items ...
Unlike most trackers that connect to mobile phones via Bluetooth, Apple ’s electronic trackers may have built-in ultra-wideband U1 chips with the same spatial directivity as the iPhone 11 series phones.
Ultra Wideband, or UWB for short, is a radio frequency wireless communication technology similar to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It is named for the wide spectrum of signals it emits.
UWB is mainly used for precise positioning and auxiliary navigation between short-range devices. Compared with other communication transmission technologies, UWB can reduce the positioning accuracy to a range of less than 10 cm. In actual applications, the accuracy can be further reduced to the level of 5 mm.
At the same time, UWB also has the advantages of low system complexity, good security and privacy, low power consumption, and strong anti-interference ability. It can be used for positioning tracking between devices and between people, and between devices. , Vehicle, AR / VR and other IoT products gradually penetrate.
There are many UWB technology providers emerging around the world, including Ubisense, Time Domain, Zebra, DecaWave and other international industry giants, as well as domestic emerging technologies, Lian Rui Electronics, Qingyanxunke, Woxu Communications, Tang En Technology , Xinhua third-class enterprises.
The early UWB positioning technology did not achieve standardized chip products until Apple first launched the U1 chip with UWB ultra-wideband technology. UWB will be an important part of Apple's wireless strategy.
With the support of the ultra-wideband U1 chip, the iPhone 11 achieved more accurate and fast AirDrop transmission. This is the first step.
Apple's electronic tracker will be integrated with the "Find" that comes with iOS. See source for watermark.
Apple's forthcoming electronic tracker will achieve more accurate positioning than iBeacon, which is the second step.
Based on Apple's strong ecology, in the future, positioning and tracking between Apple devices, or even between Apple devices and other objects, may be gradually realized.
It is worth mentioning that iFixit has found some car-related patents in Apple's patent library, some of which are about using UWB to interact with cars. The other is about precise location tracking, which allows cars to know where people are.
Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that Shanghai Huanxu Electronics will start to be a supplier of Apple's electronic tracker from the second to the third quarter of 2020, and won about 60% of orders.
Prior to the iPhone 11's standard UWB module, Huanxu was also a major supplier, so the stock rose sharply in the third quarter of last year.
It is also reported that Samsung and Huawei are also actively promoting the development and application of UWB technology. Samsung has demonstrated fast data transmission on mobile phones through UWB technology as early as 2005. Last year, Huawei has launched the UWB mobile wireless anti-theft device project in some stores.
Undoubtedly, for mobile phone companies, UWB will become standard equipment like Bluetooth and GPS in the future.
