6 ms·
They have consciously chosen to give up dozens of billions in potential revenue, because it would be against their customer's interests. That's got to count for
by simonh 4y ago
They have consciously chosen to give up dozens of billions in potential revenue, because it would be against their customer's interests. That's got to count for something.
- philjohn 4y agoNot recalling AirTags until the privacy implications are fixed, says otherwise.
- simonh 4y agoIt can be both true that they have potential privacy problems with a product, and that they have given up dozens of billions in potential revenue due to privacy concerns.
- micromacrofoot 4y agoTile predated AirTags for nearly a decade and is still worse on privacy today. If you want to argue that consumer-level trackers shouldn't exist, that's fine, but it's not at all unique to Apple. Personally I don't think it's a solvable problem, and they shouldn't exist at all.
- philjohn 4y agoTile never became ubiquitous though - but yes, I agree, if it can't be done in a way that can be abused, it shouldn't be a product. But money talks, and Apple have decided they're comfortable with the risks because it's another brick in their ecosystem wall, and makes them money.
- Firmwarrior 4y agoAny half-competent EE can throw together the equivalent of a Tile or AirTag with off the shelf parts nowadays. That genie is out of the bottle and has been for years and years
- philjohn 4y agoThey can - but that's a higher barrier than "Pay $35".
- Firmwarrior 4y agoyou can go to AliExpress and pay less than $35 if you just want to creepily track people
- philjohn 4y agoAnd now you don't have to - and don't have to wait 30 days for it to be shipped to you from China.
- yazaddaruvala 4y ago> yes, I agree, if it can't be done in a way that can be abused, it shouldn't be a product. What about knives, alcohol, cars, escooters, power tools, rope, bleach? These are all products that can be abused. Should they also not exist? There will always be a new product that can be abused. Education and threat of punishment keep a lot of people from abusing them. The same can be true for AirTags.
- fezfight 4y agoThe article is literally about them successfully locking out their competitors and moving in on those billions for themselves.
- ArtofIndirect 4y agoThe article posted by a business entity with an agenda of its own, you mean? It’s but one of many subjective takes by someone who earns through clicks, grabbing attention, instigating circular discourse online. I have no obligation to support this author’s position, OR Apple’s rhetoric. I judge on the technical implementation; Apple earns through hardware sales and fees for services charged directly to service users. Whether you agree with the price they set for those things is irrelevant; technically speaking the bulk of their revenue comes from hardware sales and direct charges for services. Their competitors could do that too. They could charge for a phone and take a cut for app distribution, sell storage services. They don’t, because they don’t want to compete with Apple; they want the public and courts to force Apple to change. That they went a different way of generating revenue and it bit them in the ass is not Apple's problem. Those businesses made their choices. That’s how it’s supposed to work. All this rhetoric about those “poor” wealthy businesses being screwed by Apple are actually mad they picked the wrong path to revenue.
- fezfight 4y agoApple and Google held back generations of children who got phones instead of computers. They did this for profit. They should be fined for contributing to the delinquency of minors. All the whining about whose sports team is best belittles the tremendous disservice these profit seeking monsters have done throughout the advent of true portable computing.
- CharlesW 4y agoExcept that Apple not only hasn't done that, but has created ad network APIs and processes to support "competitors". https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwork/ https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwo... https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwork/registering_an_ad_network https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwo...