Ming-Chi Kuo: AirTag Shipments Big Enough to Warrant 2nd Generation

21 JUNE 2022 - A crazy fragment of a sentence over the weekend from TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. “AirTag,” began a Twitter post from the analyst, “which has not received much attention…”

And that, to me, is the crazy part. Between the difficulty getting them initially and around the holidays, early concerns over kids swallowing AirTag batteries, and the raft of security stories tied to Apple’s device tracker, how could he possibly say AirTag “has not received much attention”? Then I realize, he’s talking about business. Money. Do-re-mi. On that side, he’s probably correct, though he thinks that’s likely to change.

AirTag is small (both physically and from a business angle), but growing (from a business angle). And it’s likely big enough to get a second-generation, as the analyst sees it. By his reckoning, Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple shipped about 20-million AirTags last year and is on track to ship ~35-million through the end of 2022. “If AirTag shipments continue to grow,” the TF International analyst says he believes “Apple will develop the 2nd generation.”