zlacker

Apple moving into Ads is a huge systemic risk for the company.

No one will trust them again if they make one major mistake, and Ads are a minefield for upcoming regulations.

They have so much money and financing available, instead of being greedy, they should focus on hardware.

>>menset+(OP)
>No one will trust them again if they make one major mistake

They have the advantage that all other competitors at that scale (FB, Google, etc.) are worse and even more desperate for ad revenue...

>>menset+(OP)
I wish I could upvote this 100 times. Seems short-sighted to the point of company malpractice.

Introducing a massive conflict of interest into their business model cannot possibly work out well in the long-term.

>>menset+(OP)
They already had an ad product before https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAd

>>menset+(OP)
>No one will trust them again.

As much as I want this to happen. It wont. Just look at the spin given out by either Apple's PR or Apple Apologist:

"Apple were never against Ads. Steve Jobs made iAds." Meanwhile completely forgetting Tim Cook, 2014-2015. "Apple is not in the Ads Business." - In the Context of why you should choose Apple.

"Apple Ads are privacy focused and they do not track you." Cough. They are only personalised.

"Apple is moving away from China." ( No they are not ). "And has been planning to do so for a while." ( No they didn't )

And literally all the Fans reading Appleinsider, Macrumors, 9to5Mac believes in it. As well as all the YouTube repeating "THE SAME" information over and over again.

>>menset+(OP)
The magic has left the building. No one at the top cares enough about the end user experience and what Apple represents to say "No, we make money selling great products not selling ads".

This company will be completely unrecognizable in 10 years, product people are no longer holding the reigns.

>>menset+(OP)
I don't think consumers will care or notice who is serving their ads. Google and Facebook have absorbed all the worst that regulators can throw at them, paid their fines and are still swimming in cash. Apple can navigate all the precedent they've set and utilize their dominating vertical integration to sell ads in the markets they own: AppleTV, iTunes/Podcasts, mobile apps. They'll add $10B to their revenue without breaking a sweat.

>>menset+(OP)
Not sure that masses of people will no longer trust Apple due to a move into advertising. Many people still use products from companies that have continually done things that are against the interests of their users.

Now, I do agree that it is a systemic risk to the company. Ultimately, businesses/people/organizations respond to incentives, and for businesses that is usually revenue. If your revenue comes from your customers, you're more likely to be aligned to the needs of your customers and try to meet their needs.

However, with advertising, your customer is the advertiser, not the end-user. Additionally, your end user probably doesn't want advertising, so your incentives are now significantly misaligned with your end-user. Maybe that is fine for the near term, but each small decision that's pro-advertiser and anti-user compounds over time and eventually, creates a more user-hostile product.

Also, as an aside, I expect the stock price drives decisions way more than how much money Apple has in reserve.

>>ksec+09
>And literally all the Fans reading Appleinsider, Macrumors, 9to5Mac believes in it.

It's a common belief even on this site. I see it parroted all the time.

>>menset+(OP)
Ads make any product shittier. So it is systemic risk - because degrading the experience means that they are turning into more expensive android.

>>menset+(OP)
Many people are locked into the eco-system with all their devices. You can't just "stop" using iPhone / iPad / Macbook / iCloud / loose all your AppStore purchases, etc. etc..

>>menset+(OP)
Apple lets you pay for so called premium content. So this is some sort of black mailing: ad free, if you pay more.

They took a look at YouTube premium, that’s all.

>>menset+(OP)
Out of curiosity, what upcoming regulations?

>>menset+(OP)
There is a single point of failure in their hardware stack (TSMC). It makes business sense to try to diversify their revenue a bit.

>>whywhy+Oc
I had a Pixel A-series phone last year. I was ambivalent at first, but was quickly surprised at how much easier it was to use. It also felt less intrusive and gave me more ability to control notifications.

This is coming from someone who hates Google products.

This year, I decided to go back to an iPhone. This has been my experience so far:

- When you disable notifications for an app, expect to be asked inside the app itself to enable notifications. Every. Single. Time.

- Expect some apps to hijack control. Spotify is the worst offender. I plug my phone into the car, will be in the middle of setting my course in Apple Maps, then get rudely interrupted as Spotify forces itself into the foreground after connecting.

- In general, everything takes multiple taps to complete in iOS. It's just such a time suck to have to tap tap tap tap away at something that should be just one or two taps, at most.

- Inability to customize apps. I use a third-party app to browse Reddit. The only way I can open Reddit links from the browser is to hold-tap, share, select 3rd party app. Just more tap swipe tap swipe tap...

- The built-in mail and calendar apps are garbage

- Safari is garbage and can't be replaced with a true 3rd party browser

- A buggy Do Not Disturb functionality that will randomly leave itself on outside scheduled hours

The first two points could arguably be blamed on the third-party apps themselves. But I would counter-argue that it's Apple's responsibility to punish companies that actively diminish the user experience by finding ways to skirt around iOS settings. If I turn off notifications, it should mean that the first time I'm asked. An app should not beg me over and over and over again to turn them on. I said no, don't ask again.

Apps should not be allowed to hijack control, either.

If Apple isn't going to focus on improving the user experience, and if they're going to start down the road of advertising, I guess I wonder what delineates them from anyone else in the mobile space. Now they're just a buggy, expensive interruption machine.

Ironically, I had more control over my Pixel (with stock Android) and the way it behaved than I've ever had with the iPhone.

>>p_j_w+dF
A lot of people are under the misconception that Apple cares about the hacker demographics. They don't. Apple's primary target demographic is Instagram influencer-types.