The popular, Bluetooth-connected lost item finder Tile is today introducing a new product dubbed “Tile Slim” that’s designed to be kept in your wallet, so you can find it if it ever goes missing. The device – which the company claims is the world’s thinnest Bluetooth tracker – finally makes it possible to use Tile with not only your wallet without the bulk, but also with other thin items you want to track, like computers, tablets, passports, and more. Tile also announced an expansion into the enterprise with its first B2B offering, the Tile Smart Location Platform, which allows other companies to embed Tile’s location technology into their own products.
Among a sea of competing devices, Tile has become the one to beat. The company, which got its start on Kickstarter, now has users in 200 countries around the world and is locating over half a million items per day.
The device, a small, square-shaped dongle that can be attached to items like luggage, bikes, keychains and more, works in conjunction with a Tile mobile application to help track those items when they become lost. But technology alone is not why Tile is successful – it’s Tile’s community. When you’re out of Bluetooth range with your own Tile, another Tile user may be able to pick it up. That information is then shared back with you over Tile’s network. Because Tile has achieved scale, you actually have a better chance of finding your item via another Tile user – and this makes Tile more useful than other, similar devices.
The new Tile Slim is meant to address some of users’ complaints with the original Tile – that the device was too fat for many of the items they wanted to track. For instance, sticking a Tile to your notebook would have been unseemly; in your wallet, it would have stretched out the leather. Tile Slim changes that. The device is 54mm x 54mm x 2.4 mm in size, or “as slim as two credit cards,” says the company.
Slim is sold for $30 each, or $100 for a 4-pack. It’s available both online and will be offered by retailers including Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Best Buy, Sprint, T-Mobile, Target and Verizon starting Friday, September 2.
Meanwhile, in what’s perhaps bigger news for the company as a whole, Tile is today expanding into the B2B market. Its new platform makes its technology stack, mobile app, and network available to partners for use in their own products.
Initial partners include electric scooter makers EcoReco, which will use Tile’s location technology in its Model R EV scooters; smartphone and smartwatch accessories maker Nomad, which will incorporate Tile into its portable battery pack arriving this fall; and Zillion, a smart wallet that includes a built-in powerbank and cable.
Tile, which is fresh off of an $18 million round of funding, sold $43 million in inventory last year and is on target to at least double revenue in 2016. At the time of the announcement, the company said it would be working toward integrations with other consumer electronic devices, including e-readers, headphones, smartwatches and fitness trackers.
