AirTags 2 Might Be A Long Time Off, But The Wait Could Be Worth It

It's been over two years since Apple introduced AirTags to the world, and they've proven to be one of the company's most popular products, despite not being as flashy as the iPhone or MacBook Air. Over 55 million were sold in the first 18 months that AirTags were available, earning Apple over a billion dollars in revenue. 

It makes sense then that, at some point, Apple would release an updated version of the popular items. Considering the company's knack for numbering generations of its products (like the iPhone 14, AirPods 3, etc.), we could reasonably expect the next generation to be called the AirTag 2.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that the AirTag 2 won't begin production until 2024's fourth quarter, over a year after the time of writing. Kuo's predictions for current and upcoming strategies by Apple are generally considered reliable, because he uses both data and inside sources connected to Apple's supply chain in the Asia-Pacific region.

Kuo cites the success of the first generation as cause enough for Apple to develop a second iteration. As for the long time in between generations, Kuo has an interesting theory: the AirTag 2 will be part of a "new ecosystem" Apple plans to build. Even more interesting, Kuo predicts that the Vision Pro — the mixed-reality glasses Apple unveiled last June — will be at the center of this new ecosystem.

In the same tweet that Kuo predicts when the AirTag 2 will start production, they wrote, "spatial computing is a new ecosystem that Apple wants to build, using Vision Pro as the core to integrate other devices, including AirTag 2." If Apple is developing components used for spatial computing in both the Vision Pro and the next-generation AirTag, Kuo's prediction may turn out to be true.

Apple is making a big bet on the Vision Pro, offering it for a premium $3,500, and investing a lot of money into its development. That bet could pay off if, rather than a one-off niche product, the technology powering the Vision Pro becomes the centerpiece of an entire new ecosystem for Apple. Spatial computing could be a new way to interface with tech, the same way smartphones and wearables have changed many people's daily lives.

The AirTag 2 could move beyond just tracking keys and luggage, and be a vital part of that ecosystem. One application that isn't hard to imagine is using the Vision Pro to simply look around the room and "see" an AirTag that is buried under a couch cushion or behind a cabinet. If a feature like this is to be included in the AirTag 2, it makes sense that it'll take a little longer for the next-generation trackers to hit shelves, likely closer to the Vision Pro itself, which is expected to come out some time next year.