Samsung debuts SmartThings tracker with LTE for real-time location tracking, geofencing alerts, more; coming Sept. 14 for $99 with AT&T, $5/mo. after first year
Dami Lee / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
This tracker extends Samsung's SmartThings platform beyond the home: after building the ecosystem around hubs and the ADT-powered security bundle, the company is now attaching cellular-connected hardware to it, with AT&T supplying the network and the recurring fee. Real-time location and geofencing over LTE mean the tracker works where Bluetooth tags cannot — away from any paired phone.
The follow-on coverage shows how this product line resolved: Verizon shipped a nearly identical LTE locator within a year, while Samsung itself walked away from cellular tracking entirely, pivoting to $30 Bluetooth/UWB tags that only work with Galaxy devices.
First-order effects
- AT&T gains a new IoT device on its network plus a subscription annuity — $5/month after the first free year turns a one-time $99 sale into recurring carrier revenue.
- Buyers get real-time location and geofencing alerts that work independently of a nearby phone, something no short-range tag in Samsung's later lineup offered.
Second-order effects
- Verizon validated the model almost immediately with its $99.99 Smart Locator, matching the price point and sweetening it with a year of free service — carriers treating trackers as attach revenue rather than gadgets.
- Samsung's own next moves undercut the LTE tracker: the $29.99 SmartTag and its successors compete on price against the very subscription hardware Samsung launched here.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, item tracking splits structurally between carrier-billed LTE locators and cheap Bluetooth/UWB tags locked to a phone ecosystem — and Samsung chose the latter, with the SmartTag line still restricted to Galaxy devices years later (SmartTag 2 included).
- Subscription-after-free-year pricing becomes the template for connected hardware, shifting value from the device sale to whoever owns the network relationship.
The trend: Consumer object-tracking is splitting between carrier-subscription LTE locators and low-cost ecosystem-locked Bluetooth/UWB tags, with Samsung ultimately betting on the latter.