[HN Gopher] Apple Finds Its Next Big Business: Showing Ads on Yo...
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       Apple Finds Its Next Big Business: Showing Ads on Your iPhone
        
       Author : miles
       Score  : 68 points
       Date   : 2022-08-14 18:36 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com)
        
       | A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
       | Well, it was bound to happen eventually. Apple is a public
       | company and if there is one thing that is clear, it is that
       | shareholders demand constant growth and new revenue sources.
       | Monetizing users is cheap and easy way to do it. Users barely
       | understand privacy anyway ( I am not joking; when I talk about
       | this stuff with my wife or her family, the impression I have is
       | that they do not even understand the impact ).
        
       | nbzso wrote:
       | After CSAM, I switched the main office machines to Manjaro. A lot
       | of my colleagues sold their beloved iPhones and moved to De-
       | Googled Android.
       | 
       | Luckily, the fiasco with Little Snitch was resolved, and I can
       | enjoy a mac for occasional design work, but Figma is running well
       | in the Browser and if I see any attempt to push me into Ad Hell,
       | it is totally over.
       | 
       | Vertical integration is important for Apple, but as an old Apple
       | user, this will be "no-fly zone" for me.
       | 
       | Actually, CSAM had a positive in my life. Since then, I am using
       | my smartphone less and with basic apps, some banking, calls and
       | chatting.
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | What does CSAM have to do with this story on how Apple might
         | grow their ad business?
        
         | nikodunk wrote:
         | Same here - the constant iCloud upgrade prompts in macOS pushed
         | me to Fedora Linux, and I've been a happy camper ever since
         | (performance on the same mac hardware increased significantly
         | too).
         | 
         | If this ad stuff is true, I've been eyeing a switch from iPhone
         | to postmarketOS on the Oneplus 6 - the mobile phosh Linux
         | experience is really starting to look pretty daily drivable for
         | my simpler phone use cases.
        
       | sieabahlpark wrote:
        
       | simonh wrote:
       | The article is very thin on actual new information. It forms a
       | lot of time talking about how ads currently work. The only new
       | thing is the advertising head saying he wants to grow as revenue,
       | but there's no concrete info on how they actually intend to do
       | that, just a lot of 'maybe' about maps.
        
         | cognomano wrote:
         | The only bit I found is this unsourced text:
         | 
         | > On the App Store, display ads are currently shown in the
         | search tab in the Suggested panel. Apple will also soon expand
         | ads to the main Today tab and within third-party app download
         | pages.
        
           | simonh wrote:
           | I suppose an article titled "Apple to advertise apps in the
           | store you got to to buy apps" probably wouldn't be as grabby.
        
         | joegahona wrote:
         | My reaction too. The writer didn't even do the homework to know
         | the publisher revenue split for Apple News. I believe it's
         | 70/30 publisher/Apple if Apple sells the ads (in which case the
         | end user gets shockingly awful ads, borderline bellyfat ads),
         | and it's 100% to the publisher if the publisher can navigate
         | and set up ads through Apple's tools, which is time-consuming
         | and resource-intensive.
        
       | tailspin2019 wrote:
       | Apple needs to be very careful that they don't erode the things
       | that most differentiate them from their competition.
        
         | JKCalhoun wrote:
         | Agree. But I believe Apple thinks they also need to move harder
         | into "services" and, I suppose, now ads. I think Apple
         | recognizes that the high-margin hardware business is not not
         | sustainable. Especially as everyone who would want an iPhone
         | already owns one. Apple needs to grow somewhere.
        
         | random314 wrote:
         | You are very mistaken if you think Apples recent "privacy" push
         | wasn't about taking over advertising revenue from Facebook,
         | Google, snap and tiktok
        
           | rising-sky wrote:
           | They could have done that without a so called "privacy push",
           | they "own" the device and if they chose to, could provide
           | advertisers a level of targeting that the mentioned entities
           | cannot match without resorting to privacy as a red herring
        
             | random314 wrote:
             | No, they can't provide better targeting than Google/fb.
             | Taking out competitors makes it a lot easier to seek rent.
        
             | fyzix wrote:
             | They are very tactical. They want to be praised as the good
             | guys while killing their competition.
        
         | izacus wrote:
         | Why? With their loyal fandom, they could put ads into every
         | part of iPhone and there would still be millions running around
         | telling everyone how those Ads are improving their lives and
         | Apple helped them live their life.
         | 
         | Ads are coming to iOS (heck, my iPad and Mac already have quite
         | a bit peppered around) and Apple will earn even more money in
         | the future from them.
        
           | kmbfjr wrote:
           | Not on my phone or computer, and I am all in on their
           | ecosystem. I was prepared to bail over their CSAM scanning
           | plans and I can easily move forward with it for ads. The
           | Pixel with Calyx is still quite functional.
           | 
           | I have an ethical line and it is my phone and computer are
           | for my convenience, not a way to toss advertising toward me.
           | 
           | Go ahead Apple, test me. Ya almost lost me a year ago. And I
           | am not alone in this, I think most of Apple's user base would
           | be quite intolerant of such a plan.
        
             | threeseed wrote:
             | > And I am not alone in this
             | 
             | But you are probably one of a handful of people who would
             | switch ecosystems over an ad for a business in Apple Maps.
             | 
             | Most people have significant amounts of lock-in impeding
             | such a move.
        
               | majormajor wrote:
               | Before almost every startup dev in the world was on Macs,
               | only a handful of people were using anything but Windows
               | on the pro desktop... Macs were widely derided for well
               | over a decade, even after OS X and the eventual Intel
               | switch. And then suddenly there was critical mass and
               | they kinda weren't anymore. Nobody in 1997 would've seen
               | that coming, but mistakes that push a handful of people
               | there and a handful of people there to new things have a
               | way of compounding over time.
               | 
               | (Look at how people talk about Google today vs 10 years
               | ago, too, for instance.)
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | tinus_hn wrote:
         | The differentiation is not in having no ads but in not tracking
         | the user for targeted advertisements. Which is why of course
         | next up people are going to complain about the bad quality of
         | the ads.
        
         | Krasnol wrote:
         | I doubt they'll lower their prices anytime soon.
        
       | pid_0 wrote:
        
       | testmasterflex wrote:
       | Perhaps the decline of Apple finally starts. And a startup will
       | take their place eventually.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | c7DJTLrn wrote:
         | Sadly it's not the 80s anymore. A startup building their own
         | hardware without VCs getting involved is basically impossible.
         | Of course, I'm not talking about taking something like a
         | Raspberry Pi off the shelf and making something with that.
         | Wozniak was building something from scratch that could be sold
         | as an actual product - no chance of that now.
        
           | KajMagnus wrote:
           | There's Framework and Librem laptops, I'd rather buy those
           | than a Mac (I didn't downvote)
        
             | zapdrive wrote:
             | I wanted to buy a framework, but they don't accept crypto
             | payments. So I bought apple gift cards with Bitcoin and
             | bought a MacBook pro instead.
        
           | mch82 wrote:
           | It could possibly happen in robotics or home automation.
           | SparkFun could get there, or Adafruit.
        
             | lnsru wrote:
             | Robotics - super expensive just to start. Think about 3
             | developers for mechanical, electrical and software parts
             | plus expensive hardware. Timeframe at least 2 years. So $1M
             | just for shy start.
             | 
             | Home automation topic goes for decades. However I don't see
             | wide adoption anywhere. Most tech savvy buddy is playing
             | often with new products and stated, that the best thing is
             | Philips Hue lights in home automation area. Other things
             | barely work.
        
           | lnsru wrote:
           | VCs aren't that interested in hardware. Nobody bets on a
           | crippled horse. The same with hardware startup. Why invest in
           | something with tons of embedded software, connectivity
           | software and all the problems with moving physical objects
           | when one could invest just in software venture that has at
           | least 10x higher chance to succeed?
        
         | obert wrote:
         | if only Microsoft was not trying to sneak ads everywhere, this
         | could be a moment for MS Phone
        
           | ThalesX wrote:
           | I am so confused when people say this. Microsoft Windows
           | Professional allows you to configure any such things. I have
           | almost all telemetry off, all permissions off, all
           | notifications off, all ads off. I don't see this ad riddled
           | Windows that people speak about.
           | 
           | I am not surprised when I hear 'normies' complain about this,
           | because they mostly run OEM Windows Home which the vendors of
           | their devices decided is OK, but on a forum such as this one,
           | I am surprised to hear these kind of complaints.
           | 
           | * Everything is configurable from the Privacy Settings with
           | an on / off toggle
           | 
           | * Whenever a new invasive option gets pushed with an update,
           | there's an update screen which allows you to disable it and
           | is disabled by default, so by skipping, you don't enable it
           | 
           | At least this is how I perceive my machine.
        
             | sph wrote:
             | Hey Cortana, define confirmation bias. You say you have to
             | disable ads manually and then go on saying "I don't see
             | this ad riddled Windows". Are you being serious?
             | 
             | Good for you for buying Windows Pro, what about everybody
             | and their grandma else stuck on Home? I guess they don't
             | count. Fucking normies.
        
       | bumblebritches5 wrote:
        
       | netsharc wrote:
       | There's a comment voted to death about phones showing ads.
       | Remember when Google's selling point was that their home page
       | just had a search interface and not like e.g Yahoo, a homepage
       | "portal" full of celebrity, etc, news? I got a new Android phone
       | recently, you can swipe left from the home screen to get the
       | Google search, and there "Google Discover" is active, and it has
       | celebrity, etc, news. Even the search suggestion drop down is to
       | show what searches are trending. I share the dead comment's
       | sentiment of needing curse words.
       | 
       | It feels like everything is so user hostile nowadays, even the
       | Google keyboard nag you to give them a Play Store star-rating and
       | review. Or they interrupt you with a spammy notification that
       | asks you to tell your friends about them... (Insert more curse
       | words here).
       | 
       | Maybe I should start a SaaS that will offer IoT device
       | manufacturers a way to spam their owners to rate them on the
       | appropriate store. You touch the fridge door, it doesn't budge,
       | and the screen lights up: "Before you get your milk, do you like
       | your fridge? Please rate us 5 stars on the Walmart store!"
        
         | BLKNSLVR wrote:
         | Unauthorised Bread:
         | https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-...
        
         | z9znz wrote:
         | The story continues:
         | 
         | You open the door, and immediately a banner slowly slides up
         | asking if you'll accept a virtual cookie. Obviously you want
         | that cookie, so you agree. The banner slowly descends back into
         | its slot.
         | 
         | Now you identify the location of the milk and begin reaching
         | for it.
         | 
         | Suddenly a banner unfurls from above, blocking your reach
         | suggesting, "Subscribe to the Samsmug Smartfridge Newsletter!"
         | Somewhere on the edge of the inside of the fridge is a button
         | to make the newsletter banner retract. You find it and press
         | it, and the banner retracts.
         | 
         | Now you reach for the milk... But! The shelves suddenly move up
         | and down to make room for a flip-out screen which starts
         | playing a video ad of the new weekly butter delivery service.
         | Somewhere else on the edge of the interior of the fridge is a
         | button to hide the screen, but fortunately you can still see
         | the top of the milk container down near the bottom of the
         | accessible opening.
         | 
         | So you squeeze the jug out the narrow space, turn around, and
         | slam the door as you turn. D'oh!
         | 
         | Now you debate just drinking as much of the milk as you can and
         | then throwing the rest out rather than go through the whole
         | process again just to return the milk to its place.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | tradertef wrote:
       | TL-DR: iOS becoming Android.
        
         | Barrin92 wrote:
         | if they're embedding ads in the news app itself it's worse than
         | Android, because Google does not put ads in that app. I
         | honestly don't think any of the Google apps on android phones
         | show ads.
        
           | ccouzens wrote:
           | They do.
           | 
           | There are ads in the play store (labelled), ads in the Google
           | news feed (labelled), ads in Gmail (labelled and similar to
           | the ads in the web version).
           | 
           | But no ads in what I would consider the daily experience
           | (home screen, lock screen, apps menu, settings).
        
             | Barrin92 wrote:
             | is that a regional thing? I do see promoted apps in the
             | play store but I have never seen a single ad in either the
             | android Gmail app or the news app.
        
       | newaccount2021 wrote:
        
       | clouddrover wrote:
       | It's just a little advertisement:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_IaVMsCbf8
       | 
       | They didn't post one in Ops.
        
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       (page generated 2022-08-14 23:01 UTC)