Apple’s Move to Squelch Rivals Is Bad Business

Hey y’all, it’s Austin. Have you ever set up Apple Inc.’s AirPods with your iPhone? The process is beautifully seamless, requiring the devices only to be close to each other for pairing to begin. In fact, the intuitive interaction is so slick that it’s now earning Apple criticism in Washington over perceived anticompetitive practices.

At a U.S. Senate antitrust hearing last week, Tile Inc. General Counsel Kirsten Daru said this “magic onboarding flow” gives Apple an unfair advantage over the competition. As with AirPods, Apple’s new AirTag device, a small location beacon that can clip onto household keys or purses to keep track of their whereabouts, will sync seamlessly with an iPhone, unlike Tile’s hardware, which require extra steps. “You just put them near [each other],” Daru said. “That magic flow isn’t available to third parties like Tile.”