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The value of trackers depends on the size of the “network” of other devices that detect your tag and report it’s location back to you.
The bigger your network, the more likely that one of those devices in your network will be close enough to your tag to detect it.
For AirTag, the network is all iPhones.
If you do a rough calculation by searching online, estimates say that there are between 1.3 and 1.5 billion iPhones worldwide.
For Tile, the network is the number of devices with the Tile app installed.
Again, searching online estimates around 300k total (iPhone and Android) devices with the Tile app installed.
For Samsung, I’m not personally familiar with the way that Samsung tags connect to phones but an online search estimates about 250 million Samsung phones worldwide.
Based only on these numbers, the Apple network would be six times larger than the Samsung network and 5000 times larger than the Tile network.
Again, these numbers are only from a quick search and I did not come up with them scientifically.
You could calculate your own estimates as you wish.
Also, I’m not trying to make any statements about which tags are better based on companies throwing their weight around, stomping on the little guy, Apple vs. Android, or any other subjective matters.
All I’m trying to estimate is the number of devices in the network that are looking for your tag.
Also, other factors that would affect the size of the network include devices that are too old to detect the tags, devices that are offline or have Bluetooth disabled, and the distribution of devices in the geographical regions where you travel (eg. brand popularity varies by country/region).
However, for “knockoffs” the size of the network is likely to be one (only you) and will have very little or even no benefit if your suitcase is lost on the other side of the world.
In that case, even if the knockoff is cheaper, the money that you did spend on it would probably be a complete waste.
Personally, I use both AirTag and Tile in my checked suitcase.
I was a Tile customer for years before AirTag existed and I think they are an innovative company.
I also like knowing that if one tracker doesn’t work then I can check the other one.