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Sure. As long as the flip side of that argument is equally appreciated - ad revenue pays for the apps, so less revenue will necessarily lead to fewer "free" app

Sure. As long as the flip side of that argument is equally appreciated - ad revenue pays for the apps, so less revenue will necessarily lead to fewer "free" apps and/or fewer "free" features and/or worse quality. It's a rational response of the intermediary (i.e. app makers) to the customers (i.e. advertisers) having less access to the product (i.e. us).

daralthus 6y ago
free != quality ads == worse quality
trasz 6y ago
Ad-funded apps are usually garbage. Prime example is the Facebook app, or Messenger.
baddox 6y ago
> less revenue will necessarily lead to fewer "free" apps and/or fewer "free" features and/or worse quality I agree with "fewer" and strongly disagree with "worse quality."
- kspacewalk2 6y ago
  What's the incentive to spend money to constantly improve, fix bugs and update the features on every OS release? If you consider the entire development lifecycle, quality costs developer money every bit just as much as new features.
IggleSniggle 6y ago
Is it wrong that I’ve consistently had better experiences with paid apps than advertising supported apps? Perhaps it has something to do with the alignment of incentives. Anyway, I don’t begrudge anyone who has worked in the ad business, but I do wonder if folks might be happier optimizing for something of real lasting value in comparison to the gambling business.
amluto 6y ago
Newspapers had plenty of ad revenue before tracking. Apps could be monetized by ads that are targeted based on the in-app content only.
- gowld 6y ago
  Then why did they almost all go bankrupt?
  - squarefoot 6y ago
    Some went bankrupt because one can't store a forest into a memory card. It's all about costs. A physical newspaper costs a lot more to produce than a blog, and doesn't scale like one as well: even printing a handful of copies would cost a lot more than serving millions of people through a blog.
  - samatman 6y ago
    Craigslist, basically. Classified ads were the difference between profit and loss for a lot of local newspapers. Craigslist devastated that market in a matter of years. Commercial ads were doing fine, and I bet there are a lot of local businesses who wish there was still a local newspaper they could advertise in. But it wasn't enough.
tomc1985 6y ago
Good, the app market is flooded with crap anyway

daralthus 6y ago

free != quality ads == worse quality

trasz 6y ago

Ad-funded apps are usually garbage. Prime example is the Facebook app, or Messenger.

baddox 6y ago

> less revenue will necessarily lead to fewer "free" apps and/or fewer "free" features and/or worse quality I agree with "fewer" and strongly disagree with "worse quality."

kspacewalk2 6y ago
What's the incentive to spend money to constantly improve, fix bugs and update the features on every OS release? If you consider the entire development lifecycle, quality costs developer money every bit just as much as new features.

IggleSniggle 6y ago

Is it wrong that I’ve consistently had better experiences with paid apps than advertising supported apps? Perhaps it has something to do with the alignment of incentives. Anyway, I don’t begrudge anyone who has worked in the ad business, but I do wonder if folks might be happier optimizing for something of real lasting value in comparison to the gambling business.

amluto 6y ago

Newspapers had plenty of ad revenue before tracking. Apps could be monetized by ads that are targeted based on the in-app content only.

gowld 6y ago
Then why did they almost all go bankrupt?
- squarefoot 6y ago
  Some went bankrupt because one can't store a forest into a memory card. It's all about costs. A physical newspaper costs a lot more to produce than a blog, and doesn't scale like one as well: even printing a handful of copies would cost a lot more than serving millions of people through a blog.
- samatman 6y ago
  Craigslist, basically. Classified ads were the difference between profit and loss for a lot of local newspapers. Craigslist devastated that market in a matter of years. Commercial ads were doing fine, and I bet there are a lot of local businesses who wish there was still a local newspaper they could advertise in. But it wasn't enough.

tomc1985 6y ago

Good, the app market is flooded with crap anyway