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Steve Jobs' Idea for Ad-Supported Operating Systems Was Nearly a Reality

Gross. Just... yuck. Ugh. No thank you. We get bombarded by enough ads as it is...

whooleytoo said:
Yuck. Although if it were released today, the ad mechanism would probably be hacked and disabled within weeks if not days, so it wouldn't make much difference.
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Not if Apple really wanted it there.. they could integrate it into the rest of the OS in proprietary code so that if it was taken out, the OS didn't work...

By comparison now, we get a hell of a better OS for under 30 euros, without adverts. I know which one I'd pick.
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iOS Lion isn't > than Mac OS 9 :p

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summitRun said:
Great minds often come up with non-sensical ideas because their brains never fully shut off...
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This is just a ridiculous and baseless statement. :rolleyes:
 
the8thark said:
How do we know this was just patented so other companies could not do the exact same thing without paying Apple a fee?
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Even worse, if that's why they did it.

The only good reason to patent this is to prevent anyone from doing it, period.

Luckybobby said:
If they were to sell a free iPod touch, and show a minute ad on it after an hour of use. Guess who would get it everyone.
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No, not everyone. I wouldn't, if there were a choice for an ad-free product.
 
Eric S. said:
Even worse, if that's why they did it.

The only good reason to patent this is to prevent anyone from doing it, period.



No, not everyone. I wouldn't, if there were a choice for an ad-free product.
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If I could get a Mac at a significant discount, I would consider it. For a free iPod, I'd rather just purchase it, and not have the ads.
 
You guys may not like the idea, but for the peeps who want a Mac and can't afford the high price tag this could be an option for them.
 
B777Forevar said:
You guys may not like the idea, but for the peeps who want a Mac and can't afford the high price tag this could be an option for them.
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Agreed.

As long as there is an ad-free full price option (which, according to the article, there would be/have been), this really shouldn't bother anyone.
 
Next

This is so obviously only an IP strategy/tactic. There are clearly many other companies that would be much more likely to implement such a business plan than Apple. And that's precisely why Apple did this. As soon as one of them launches such a scheme, Apple can wade in with an IP claim.

Is this IP squatting? Who cares? If Steve, or anyone else came up with this idea before anyone, it was Apple's right to register it.
 
This... would have been really gross... But, it could have been a good way to let people "test drive" new OS's.... as long as they could revert back I guess...
 
B777Forevar said:
You guys may not like the idea, but for the peeps who want a Mac and can't afford the high price tag this could be an option for them.
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I think it would have been too disruptive. The article doesn't mention subsidizing hardware anyway. It mentions subsidizing the cost of the OS license, which is beyond stupid. It's just a really disruptive way of doing anything.
 
Flood123 said:
I would much rather pay $99 for an operating system than be faced with advertisements all the time. Thank you for not implementing this apple. It would have been supremely annoying.


In the spirit of 100% transparency I did gloss over this part (my bad):
"And any time an owner of the free version wanted to get rid of the advertising, he or she could simply pay for the ad-free version."
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Free cant last forever.
Get them hooked with the product then charge premium for upgrades and patches.
May be ML will be the start of this model.

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mrsir2009 said:
Mac OSX is cheap as to upgrade these days anyway...
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Cheap today but tomorrow can bring price increases.
If you have a Mac and need the new OSX, who else are you going to go to for the upgrade?
 
If I wanted ads in my OS I'd buy an OEM PC with Windows and bloatware.

No, thanks.

I'd have bought whatever version came without ads no matter the price.
 
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