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> the most innovative area in tech today seems to be consumer-hostile but potentially more profitable business models: privacy-invasive and ad-driven systems G

by scholia 11y ago

> the most innovative area in tech today seems to be consumer-hostile but potentially more profitable business models: privacy-invasive and ad-driven systems Google, Facebook and Android seem to be quite popular with consumers. It certainly seems that consumers don't want to pay for either software or content. In fact, the old idea of paying programmers to write good software is evil, isn't it? Everything must be free ;-)

Silhouette 11y ago
Google, Facebook and Android seem to be quite popular with consumers. While undeniably true, it's not clear how much of that is because they produce inherently good or desirable products, and how much is because they are the default choice or consumers are otherwise pushed to them for reasons not related to actually wanting their product. For example, it's getting harder and harder to walk into a phone shop and buy a regular feature phone so you can speak to your friend who is somewhere else, so you're getting a smartphone by default. If you don't want an Apple one for whatever reason, there is a good chance you're going to get an Android device, even if you had no particular interest in the Android part of it. There's also a good chance that you're actually paying a huge amount of money for that device even though you're not going to use it for very long, but that you don't know how much because it's disguised within some broader contract for access to a mobile network.
- scholia 11y ago
  Sad but true ;-) However, you can still get cheap feature phones in the UK. My wife recently bought a Nokia Series 40 to replace one that was stolen. She preferred that to using one of the Android phones or an old iPhone 5 that I no longer use... The real problem is that surveillance-based advertising generates much higher returns than software sales. Google can easily make $10 to $50 a month from a device where even a Windows PC only makes Microsoft $1 a month, or less.

by scholia 11y ago

Silhouette 11y ago

Google, Facebook and Android seem to be quite popular with consumers. While undeniably true, it's not clear how much of that is because they produce inherently good or desirable products, and how much is because they are the default choice or consumers are otherwise pushed to them for reasons not related to actually wanting their product. For example, it's getting harder and harder to walk into a phone shop and buy a regular feature phone so you can speak to your friend who is somewhere else, so you're getting a smartphone by default. If you don't want an Apple one for whatever reason, there is a good chance you're going to get an Android device, even if you had no particular interest in the Android part of it. There's also a good chance that you're actually paying a huge amount of money for that device even though you're not going to use it for very long, but that you don't know how much because it's disguised within some broader contract for access to a mobile network.

scholia 11y ago
Sad but true ;-) However, you can still get cheap feature phones in the UK. My wife recently bought a Nokia Series 40 to replace one that was stolen. She preferred that to using one of the Android phones or an old iPhone 5 that I no longer use... The real problem is that surveillance-based advertising generates much higher returns than software sales. Google can easily make $10 to $50 a month from a device where even a Windows PC only makes Microsoft $1 a month, or less.