Pffft, Apple never respected your privacy. Same as the walled garden was never about your security. The only thing little Timmy cares about is profits and the size of his bonus.
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Gurman: Apple Planning to Show Ads in Maps App Starting Next Year
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Besides it’s hard to vote against Apple because the only way is by buying an Android, because that’s what every single hardware manufacturer other than Apple uses for software, and not everyone who dislikes Apple actually likes Android (personally I like neither one and I’m screwed because there is nothing else to choose from).
It leaves the door open though.
All it will take is one single nerdy billionaire's kid to get annoyed enough to bother to throw a huge chunk of cash at creating a competitor. One that is Apple-esque in hardware quality, has a similar beautiful OS sitting on top of *nix, and yet the kid is bored with money, and doesn't have any interest in hamstringing it by locking it down with profit-first compromises.
(not directed at you specifically) Did anybody read this before commenting? It appears to be along the lines as "Where can I get a good cup of coffee?", and Starbucks gets to the top of the list because they invested advertising money to be the number 1 (but not the ONLY) search result.
You missed the point. If they lost 10% of iPhone sales, how would they know it's over the maps thing rather than any other choice? Obviously they do surveys, but the majority of surveys are garbage and don't give super-conclusive results (source: a good chunk of my job is informed by survey data from various companies). I don't use Apple Maps anyway because it's garbage where I live, I just find it hilarious that you think a few pissed off nerds not buying a phone will make Apple give up their sweet ad revenue (because I assure you, it will not).
Didn't miss it at all. I get it. You believe Apple isn't sophisticated enough to judge customer satisfaction over product decisions and how that drives sales. And the company lucked out getting where they are not paying attention to customers. I can't help you there.
"I just find it hilarious that you think a few pissed off nerds not buying a phone will make Apple give up their sweet ad revenue (because I assure you, it will not)."
Laugh all you want, but -10% is not a few. Either in sales or profit.
But again, it's tough for many people on tech forums to muster up the drive to take a stand and vote with their wallets. Far easier to complain and do nothing.
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You really have no sense of nuance, huh? Apple can be a smart company and still not have the sort of refined decision making process or detailed user data to understand that people may not like a certain thing they implemented. I'm sure it makes things easier to think about that way but that's not how the world works.
And also, yes, Apple got incredibly lucky a number of times to get to where they are despite still being a smart company full of smart people. Even the smarted people in the world can make mistakes. Look at the 2016-2019 keyboards if you need proof. Or the Safari design on desktop and iPad from last year. Or the many, many other ways Apple screws up regularly.
Also, this 10% number you've pulled out of thin air - is that the threshold for how many users it will take voting with their wallets before the maps thing is reversed? What if their maps ad deal offsets that loss? How much of movement should an individual user be expected to mobilize to signify to the corporate giants that they don't want ads in their maps? This isn't a bogus surcharge at your local corner store, voting with your individual wallet means basically nothing here.
This is a great quote because it proves a point I've been making about how Apple have been fairly precise with their language so they can give you a similar experience as Google (and give advertisers a similar experience to Google Ads...) but with a gloss of privacy jargon to make you feel safe.
They've never said ads and paid promotional content throughout the OS are bad, but rather *mass data collection of personally identifying information* is bad. Your quote doesn't contradict Apple's plans here because they'll say "well none of our methods compromise a user's privacy since we anonymize the data" just like they said about Maps traffic data (albeit, that's not the same context but the rhetoric is what we should pay attention to).
I would reckon most Apple customers like myself and others in this thread aren't just interested in data privacy and limiting data collection but also ensuring their OS experience is built around the end user's experience first, not the advertiser's. I.e, my App and Map suggestions should be 'meritocratic' in a sense because they're based on variables I care about as a potential customer (user reviews, download count, restaurant popularity, guides from local experts instead of pay-for-promotion magazines, etc.)
Apple should be, for example, seriously fleshing out their native Maps reviewing system and finding ways to enable highly active reviewers to leave curated guides that are mostly guaranteed to be genuine. Instead they're implementing Google style disgusting ads in maps and integrating 'guides' which are just ports of SF Eater paid promotion articles anyway.
All part of the Tim Cook Master Plan: accelerate the hell out of the ads and services department because that's what any profit maxxing CEO would do meanwhile take gingerly swings of a rubber sledgehammer at Facebook to gain user trust (which has the convenient byproduct of attaching a rocket booster to your own ad platform). Oh, and make sure nobody finds out you had a secret meeting with Zuck beforehand to discuss "revenue sharing ideas" because at the end of the day your privacy principles are actually marketing slogans and not something you're willing to die on the hill of.
It's all one big joke and we're the punchline.
At this point I might as well switch to Android because if all this data collection and ad plugging is going to happen anyway I'd like the significantly better algorithms and suggestions from Google instead of the privacy facade of Apple. Even Google are starting to 'anonymize' data in more places because they know it's mostly horse manure that can be deanonymized in two button clicks. Not to mention both companies do very little in circumventing government spyware (in fact, they'll happily collaborate with them!).
Who OK’d this and why did they think this represents Apple’s core DNA of delivering good design simplicity? 🤨
I’m not going to use Apple Maps to find local food: I’ll use Yelp.
I’m not going to use Apple Maps to find “cool spots”: I’m going to web search and read articles/blogs/travel sites.
I’m not going to use Apple Maps to find a retail store for things I need/want: I’m going to do my OWN research on the internet and word of mouth.
APPLE MAPS IS A TOOL TO GET ROUTES TO DESTINATIONS, and GET EQUAL SEARCH RESULTS FOR ALL BUSINESSES/DESTINATIONS USING THE PARAMETERS SET IN THE SEARCH FIELD!
WE DO NOT NEED PRIORITIZED RESULTS SCREWING UP THE INFORMATION THAT IS DELIVERED!
Apple would have never taken off the way it did if there were advertisements in all the stock apps.
What’s next? Ads in Reminders and calendar when you have appointments? (“Ah, I see you are going to doctor, here’s a paid advertisement for a local doctor that is highly rated. You don’t need to see the one you’re going to. Oh, and I see a reminder for feeding your cat: here is a video ad that is unskippable for Meow Mix”)
Whatever, I’m not mad at all… 🙄
I’m not going to use Apple Maps to find local food: I’ll use Yelp.
I’m not going to use Apple Maps to find “cool spots”: I’m going to web search and read articles/blogs/travel sites.
I’m not going to use Apple Maps to find a retail store for things I need/want: I’m going to do my OWN research on the internet and word of mouth.
APPLE MAPS IS A TOOL TO GET ROUTES TO DESTINATIONS, and GET EQUAL SEARCH RESULTS FOR ALL BUSINESSES/DESTINATIONS USING THE PARAMETERS SET IN THE SEARCH FIELD!
WE DO NOT NEED PRIORITIZED RESULTS SCREWING UP THE INFORMATION THAT IS DELIVERED!
Apple would have never taken off the way it did if there were advertisements in all the stock apps.
What’s next? Ads in Reminders and calendar when you have appointments? (“Ah, I see you are going to doctor, here’s a paid advertisement for a local doctor that is highly rated. You don’t need to see the one you’re going to. Oh, and I see a reminder for feeding your cat: here is a video ad that is unskippable for Meow Mix”)
Whatever, I’m not mad at all… 🙄
If you want Apple to keep growing and driving forward with more innovation in its products and services, we need to understand and appreciate their need for financial success. Investors buy on future earning potential. If Apple starts making less money and less profit, it could quickly run into economic catastrophe. None of us want that. Apple is a huge part of all our lives.
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Apple already gets $1,000 from me when I buy an iPhone Pro Max.
So the extra $50 they might get from me seeing ads is insignificant.
But fun fact... I don't use Apple Maps. So I will be making them zero dollars from ads.
All they're really doing is pissing off their customers with this action.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯