The narrative that it’s marketing or cult thinking that got Apple here always ignores this elephant in the room: what if consumers put a premium on their privacy? Privacy is itself valuable. Until SV can see this obvious, self-evident truth, the ad-driven models will rule and shrivel with a predictable boom-bust cadence.
I prefer most things Google, but stick with Apple for the privacy. I'll put up with lower quality services, buggy Apple TV, and an expensive phone that arguably not much better than a $200 cheaper Google alternative, just to know some creepy corporation isn't collecting mounds of data on me which will be used who knows how in the future.