More on Apple's Trust-Eroding 'F1 the Movie' Wallet Ad

They did loads of tacky things back in the day, we’ve just forgotten about them.

You‘re holding it wrong

You almost need (not going to be definitive because some big companies just need to execute the same operations for hundreds of years) a Jobs or Gates or someone who doesn't believe their own bullshit and is willing to say "this sucks, we're shitcanning it."

Otherwise you get generic slop, eventually.

Jobs created iAd. He hated bad ads.

Here’s him announcing and talking about ads in WWDC: https://youtu.be/eY3BZzzLaaM?si=Dttc5eJJ1B7Zf3sB

Cook is an operations person. He makes the logistics work. He's no visionary. Jobs is a visionary, but is not a logistics person. Apple struck lightning when both existed, to provide complimentary ideas and counterbalances.

Lighting doesnt strike twice imho.

The point is, when Jobs was around, there was an overarching (unstated?) policy at Apple of “nobody do anything to make us look like cheap tasteless shits”. Whereas now, Tim Cook is very happy to sell out for a quick buck. He's a logistics guy, not a product guy, and at his core is a bean counter; he neither has taste nor appreciates that it has value unto itself.

The entire reason Apple made devices that were a level above competitors is because the design wasn’t just the aesthetic. Ive was chief designer and so obviously had a key impact.

> I know Ive had nothing to do with

Ok you haven’t but what about Ive?

The App Store Search and iCloud Ads are relatively recent thing. The focus on tracking and invasion of privacy is also a refined version of it. Their whole PR campaign from 2017 to 2020 against ads. ( And it was more targeting Facebook Ads without saying it. Which Apple plan to destroy ) Somewhere between 2019 - 2022 They literally have to come out and said to say they are not against ads but only against tracking because the whole Ad industry was furious so they have calm things down.

Here is another angle. If Apple could successfully destroy the In App Ads industry, which they earn nothing from, and force those value into subscription, who will benefit most? Remember Apple tried iAds and earn a percentage of it but failed.

People should at least read PG's Submarine [1] to understand how modern PR and media works. Once you have that understanding the lens of reading anything about Apple becomes a little different.

[1] https://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Apple is absolutely fine with tracking and privacy invasion, as long as they're the ones doing it.

I’ve said several times before that notifications should be reportable as spam directly to Google/Apple, just like email spam reporting.

Google tried to tackle this with notification channels, but the onus falls on the developer to actually use them honestly. No company trying to draw attention back to their app with advertisement notifications will willingly name a notification channel “advertisements” or “user re-engagement” or similar — they’ll just interleave spam with all the non-spam. This API from G hasn’t worked.

I love these choices, yes or yes later.

They do the same on my windows computer, ever time I open edge and every time I open a new tab !

This is the kind of behavior I wouldn’t even tolerate in real life, they are really taking us for sheeps.

Have you tried going to "App Info" and "Disable" for Wallet?

To be fair, the “Yes, Maybe Later” pattern can be seen throughout Silicon Valley. Tech companies, by and large, cannot accept “No” from users.

Was it an ad or an easter egg, like the "google.com" logo animations you get on new years and other holidays?

Did it send a push notification or bother the user? Got a screenshot or reference, since a quick google doesn't uncover it?

They have been doing that for years for all sorts of things usually seasonal but sometimes other stuff

Completely disagree, for many people it was the only track in iTunes. And when things triggered iTunes to play it played that.

I was in an older man’s car last year. It started playing the album. He remarked “oh that always plays, I don’t know why” as I reached for the volume.

A decade later that album is still annoying people. Bluetooth triggered play or something like that and the only music on the old iPhone started playing.

This damn U2 album still appears in my smart playlists in Apple Music from time to time - it is insane that I can’t delete it completely so many years later.

Most of the top management from that time is the same people today.

U2 stunt was Jobs' idea. He was a life-long fan of them.

Edit - it wasn't, my bad, see below.

My maps widget randomly took me to some BS Apple movie scene location with a bunch of movie branding right in the maps UI. There was nothing nearby about it. It was like two continents away from me.

so, they're not and you can remove the thing that doesn't exist?

> And because it has positioned itself as the single most prominent privacy-conscious champion in big tech through repeated actions over the course of many years.

I just want to highlight this because Hacker News can be incredibly dismissive about this.

Apple’s focus on privacy is a competitive advantage. Consumers value it, and Apple’s competitors have business models that undermine it.

Even if you think Tim Cook is the literal devil and Apple will do absolutely anything for a buck, Apple’s focus on privacy is still relevant.

Privacy is valuable to Apple. It’s a wedge they can use against their competitors. Google doesn’t make their fortune selling hardware, they make it selling ads. Privacy is something that gets in the way of Google’s profits.

Because Apple are in this position, it’s profitable to them to champion privacy. It’s something they can do that’s valuable to customers that their competitors are at a disadvantage with.

You don’t have to be a fan of Apple, and you don’t have to trust Apple. All you have to do is believe they want to make money. Being pro-privacy is profitable to Apple, and so they act accordingly.

The fact that they make money doing something doesn't stop hungry PMs and VPs from pushing other revenue sources.

Amazon used to sell us items, now ad sales are a big part of their storefront's revenue. Cable used to not have ads.

If you aren't paying, you are the product doesn't also imply that if you paying you are definitely not the product. To the modern exec, everything and everyone is the product. I an surprised that gig economy apps aren't also selling the eyeballs of their workers, making them watch ads to work.

Apple needs to show revenue growth every single year. Their hardware and services businesses will eventually tap out, and then they'll start mining their users for data and advertising. It's a miracle they've managed to avoid it for so long, but they will eventually be forced to. It will probably coincide with Tim Cook's retirement, unfortunately.

Privacy and advertising are not mutually exclusive.

> lack of openness

Lack of openness means lack of privacy. If we can't install apps on the side that have proper adblock filtering, then all the promises in the world are hollow.

That's true until it isn't, just like "Don't be evil" was for Google.

From industry analysis:

"Apple does have a traditional advertising business, and it does appear to be growing: The folks at Business Insider's sister company EMarketer think it will hit $6.3 billion this year, up from $5.4 billion last year.

And that's not nothing. For context: That's more than the $4.5 billion in ad sales Twitter generated in 2021, its last full year before Elon Musk bought the company; it's also more than the $4.6 billion Snap generated in 2023."

The article goes on to specify it's only 6% of Apple revenue. But 20% comes from Google and looking at how the antitrust trials are going, that source may soon dry up. The logical conclusion is Apple will aggressively move to make up for the loss by exploiting their captive audience.

https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-advertising-google-sea...

"advertises" is the key word here