Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple is building an ad empire as its iPhone privacy crackdown weakens rivals

axios.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 174 posts

Re: Apple is building an ad empire as its iPhone privacy crackdown weakens rivals

#101

Post by BbzzbB »

gammarator wrote: post #78
greenthrow wrote: post #5

This article does not support its clickbait headline with much in the way of facts. "Analysts estimate" that Apple's ad revenue could drastically increase. Insiders talk of a reorganization. There might be ads included in more apps. The headline makes a major assertion the body does not support.

Moreover, the chart of 2021 ad revenue shows Facebook at $114B, Apple at $4B. The article text says Facebook worries Apple’s changes could cost them $10B, less than 10% of their 2021 ad revenue and more than double Apple’s total . The narrative doesn’t match the numbers.

>The narrative doesn’t match the numbers.

Yet, just look at Amazon's if you want to see how fast it can grow. Or how the app tracking prompt popup compares for their own (pretty CTA for "Yes personalized ads please!") vs third parties ("Oh no I don't want spyware!").

Re: Apple is building an ad empire as its iPhone privacy crackdown weakens rivals

#102

Post by simion314 »

karaterobot wrote: post #82
justapassenger wrote: post #57

We sell you super expensive product, charge everyone 30% tax for anything you buy on it, put health monitoring devices on you (that you pay for), have directly your credit cards in the wallet (including custom one from us) and in the end capture more data that any other ads giant now. And we’ll use that for ads. But it’s fine. It’s locally so it’s fine and you are not a product. All because we convinced people using…

> We sell you super expensive product, charge everyone 30% tax for anything you buy on it, put health monitoring devices on you (that you pay for), have directly your credit cards in the wallet (including custom one from us) and in the end capture more data that any other ads giant now. I get what you're saying, but Apple didn't put a health monitoring device on you, or shove a credit card in your wallet. That was yo…

I would disagree with all the "you knew that Apple does this bad X,Y,W and Z before you bought the device". I am not an iOS user and for example I bought an Android Phone for my son and I had the surprise that it did not had Google Play on it and I could not install it (some Google shit was required for school).

The issue is that on the sell page or the produc box there is not a list like

1 this device does not support Google Pay or for Apple

WARNING , before you biu you MUST acknowledge

1 you can only use Safari with skins

2 you can't use apps we think are too mature, or too siple, or might use compete with us, or apps we just don't like

3 if you are in China we will send your data straight tot eh goverment

4 you will not be able to developer or install any app for your device unless we review and anyone your account.

5 apps that are on our store today might be removed tomorrow , or blocked to send you updates

6 ad blockers are more crippled then on other devices,

7 messaging with your Andoid friends will be crippled

8 we will scan your photos for bad images and report you to the police ------

100 ....

So it is FALSE that ALL users know ALL the downsides and ALL future downsides when buying a device.

If I am wrong and you can see this on the online electronic shops or real world shops I would like to see this , I never seen this warnings so far.

Re: Apple is building an ad empire as its iPhone privacy crackdown weakens rivals

#103

Post by bayindirh »

diminish wrote: post #79
justapassenger wrote: post #57

We sell you super expensive product, charge everyone 30% tax for anything you buy on it, put health monitoring devices on you (that you pay for), have directly your credit cards in the wallet (including custom one from us) and in the end capture more data that any other ads giant now. And we’ll use that for ads. But it’s fine. It’s locally so it’s fine and you are not a product. All because we convinced people using…

> Apple is planning to expand its advertising business significantly by placing more ads directly on users' devices directly, Bloomberg reports. The expansion would include bringing ads to more of Apple's own apps on iPhones and iPads, including Apple Maps. I smile remembering "if you don't pay you're the product" which apple lovers lobbied looking at G users, hinting they payment for extra margins will save them fro…

I think they're just getting ready to compensate for the new EU law (Digital Markets). Nothing more, nothing less.

Re: Apple is building an ad empire as its iPhone privacy crackdown weakens rivals

#104

Post by wiseowise »

koolba wrote: post #76
s1k3s wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no competitor to their super expensive product.

Putting aside the walled garden of iMessage, what’s so special about iPhones that you can’t do with any other expensive smartphone? The average person is just checking email, taking pictures of their food, reading garbage news sites, and watching mindless fad videos.

> Putting aside the walled garden of iMessage, what’s so special about iPhones that you can’t do with any other expensive smartphone?

Integration with Apple ecosystem, properly designed OS and not mishmash of dozens visual styles.

Re: Apple is building an ad empire as its iPhone privacy crackdown weakens rivals

#105

Post by metadat »

chii wrote: post #69
SaltyBackendGuy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> whereas Apple primarily makes money from selling devices I wonder if Apple is predicting that this wont be the case for much longer (lack of real innovation (excluding the M1) and market saturation), so they're being proactive to dominate another vertical. They will likely capitalize on their current image of being privacy kings.

Just because their primary revenue is from hardware, doesn't mean it isn't attractive to also add extra, uncorrelated revenue sources such as ads and data. Whether they have innovation or not is irrelevant to this.

It is relevant because transitioning from premium into an ad platform is a low-brow-caveman-bottom-of-the-bucket move, only the best one to make once you're out of better options.

Truly premium products respect your privacy.

It turns out truly premium goods aren't Google, Tesla, and soon won't be Apple, if Tim&co go down this path.

Re: Apple is building an ad empire as its iPhone privacy crackdown weakens rivals

#106

Post by tzs »

> Apple’s ad business began to boom following changes it made last year to its app tracking policies that made it easier for iPhone users to opt out of being tracked across other apps on their phones.

What's the mechanism here? Is it something like this? Before the change:

1. I use say a free (with ads) guitar tuner app.

2. That app usage gets shared with Facebook's app.

3. Facebook now knows I'm probably a guitar player, or at least probably play some instrument that is commonly tuned by the player.

4. Companies who want to reach guitar players buy ads on Facebook. A Facebook ad has a good chance of reaching me.

After the change:

1. I use a free (with ads) guitar tuner app, but opt out of cross app tracking.

2. Facebook is less likely to find out I'm a guitar player. This reduces the value of Facebook ads to the companies that want to reach guitar players.

3. They shift some of their ad budget from Facebook ads to ads in guitar tuner apps.

Re: Apple is building an ad empire as its iPhone privacy crackdown weakens rivals

#108

Post by zaroth »

pixl97 wrote: post #58
TakeBlaster16 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After the first sentence I thought this was parody, but after reading the rest I guess you're being genuine. Why is selling billions of thousand-dollar devices not enough? Can't they be satisfied with a successful business selling hardware at high markups to repeat customers? Why do they also need to expand into ads and destroy their hard-won reputation of being a premium brand, to milk those few extra cents per user…

Do markets not demand continual growth forever? New phones are no longer a growth market. Everyone has one, and buying a $1200 phone every year is something less and less people are doing. If Apple totally trashes their reputation, who are they going to flock to... Google? That is just jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

Markets do not demand continual growth forever. Simply being the most reliably profitable company quarter and quarter is perfectly fine. But the revenue streams of a company must evolve with the changing tides.

For example, I like the idea that Apple remaining insanely profitable doesn’t necessarily mean I need to keep buying new iPhones every 2 years.

It’s much better for consumers (and our planet by the way) if these devices continue to have increasing average lifespan.

Obviously it would need to be in Apple’s best self-interest to invest literally billions of dollars of R&D in order to get these devices closer to a 10 year lifespan than a 2 year lifespan, it’s not going to happen in a capitalist system if it halves their revenue.

For that equation to work out, factoring in increased market share for making a phone so robust and software so un-bloated, I’d say they would need to earn roughly 3-4x the revenue of selling a new device from each user over that 10 year period from higher-margin services instead.

Re: Apple is building an ad empire as its iPhone privacy crackdown weakens rivals

#109

Post by matt123456789 »

croes wrote: post #74
s1k3s wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no competitor to their super expensive product.

Of course there is. Apple advantage is it's closed system not the iPhone. If you only need to maintain compatibility to your own products it's easy. If it wear MS not Apple they would already be fined for anti competitive behavior. Where is the difference between MS bundling IE with Windows and Apple forcing Webkit in all iOS browsers?

iOS doesn’t have 95% market share. Edit to clarify: Windows had a monopoly on the desktop market in a way that is different to regulators (I guess) from the Google-Apple duopoly of today’s mobile market.

Re: Apple is building an ad empire as its iPhone privacy crackdown weakens rivals

#110

Post by politelemon »

ftyhbhyjnjk wrote: post #3

Apple is a hypocrite. Have been saying this for years now. A deeply corrupted, arrogant and empathyless organization.

I was pointing out this very possibility when their 'privacy' controls started kicking in and I would get heavily downvoted for it. Their privacy measures are not privacy measures at all, they are simply a userbase lockout.
Post reply on HN