3 ms·

Ads are only 2-3% of Apple's revenue, while Google is ~75%.

Brian_K_White 10mo ago
The comment about the ad wasn't about the ad istelf. It was an apple ad for an apple service, so they didn't make any money at all on the ad. The remark was about the service Apple was pushing, and just how intrusively.
- b112 10mo ago
  Oh but they did achieve a financial good. They saved having to pay another company to place that ad. Therefore, they made more money, eg more profit.
  - therealpygon 10mo ago
    Correct, and didn’t sell your data to do it. I’m okay with that. If I trust Apple with basically my life stored on their phone and in their cloud, and processing payments for me, and filtering my email, and spoofing my mac address on networks (and,and,and), it seems foolish to be worried about them knowing what tv shows I like to watch at night too. At least to me. It’s gonna be a sad day when Tim leaves and user privacy isn’t a company focus anymore.
- tomnipotent 10mo ago
  But the comment OP was replying to was about their ad services and what incentive the company has to operate in good faith or risk impacting sales to the majority of their business.
rafaelmn 10mo ago
Services are 25% and are the only one growing/they can grow - that means all focus is going to be on expanding that revenue = enshitification. Hardware is now purely a way to get you on to the app store - which is why iOS is so locked down and iPad has a MacBook level processor with toy OS. If you stop looking at the marketing speak and look at it from a stock owner perspective all the user hostile moves Apple is double speaking into security and UX actually make a lot more sense.
- tomnipotent 10mo ago
  Hardware is still 3x the revenue of services, and though it has a lower margin is the bulk of the companies profit. Apple was 3% of the PC market in 2010 and is 10% today, while Android is 75% of the global cellphone market - there's plenty of room for growth in hardware... if you stop looking at the marketing speak, whatever that means.
mdhb 10mo ago
I don’t see how this really changes the underlying problem of the device pays on you and then they sell that information to the highest bidder? I’m not reaching for a financial report to fix that.
- tomnipotent 10mo ago
  Apple doesn't sell information, they sell access to eyeballs. Quite a big difference. The whole point of first OPs point was that ad revenues to Apple are not worth hurting the other parts of their business built around privacy. Pointing out that Apple shows ads for owned services within their own OS isn't a case otherwise.
  - mdhb 10mo ago
    Apple absolutely does allow wholesale data harvesting by turning a blind eye to apps that straight up embed spyware SDKs. This isn’t some hypothetical or abstract scenario, it’s a real life multi billion dollar a year industry that Apple allows on their devices. You can argue that this is not the same thing as the native ad platform that they run and I’d agree but it’s also a distinction without a meaningful difference.
    - tomnipotent 10mo ago
      All you've done is move the goal posts, and it's not even ads related. I'm not entirely certain what you're arguing, other than having some feelings about Apple.

The comment about the ad wasn't about the ad istelf. It was an apple ad for an apple service, so they didn't make any money at all on the ad. The remark was about the service Apple was pushing, and just how intrusively.

b112 10mo ago
Oh but they did achieve a financial good. They saved having to pay another company to place that ad. Therefore, they made more money, eg more profit.
- therealpygon 10mo ago
  Correct, and didn’t sell your data to do it. I’m okay with that. If I trust Apple with basically my life stored on their phone and in their cloud, and processing payments for me, and filtering my email, and spoofing my mac address on networks (and,and,and), it seems foolish to be worried about them knowing what tv shows I like to watch at night too. At least to me. It’s gonna be a sad day when Tim leaves and user privacy isn’t a company focus anymore.
tomnipotent 10mo ago
But the comment OP was replying to was about their ad services and what incentive the company has to operate in good faith or risk impacting sales to the majority of their business.

rafaelmn 10mo ago

Services are 25% and are the only one growing/they can grow - that means all focus is going to be on expanding that revenue = enshitification. Hardware is now purely a way to get you on to the app store - which is why iOS is so locked down and iPad has a MacBook level processor with toy OS. If you stop looking at the marketing speak and look at it from a stock owner perspective all the user hostile moves Apple is double speaking into security and UX actually make a lot more sense.

tomnipotent 10mo ago
Hardware is still 3x the revenue of services, and though it has a lower margin is the bulk of the companies profit. Apple was 3% of the PC market in 2010 and is 10% today, while Android is 75% of the global cellphone market - there's plenty of room for growth in hardware... if you stop looking at the marketing speak, whatever that means.

mdhb 10mo ago

I don’t see how this really changes the underlying problem of the device pays on you and then they sell that information to the highest bidder? I’m not reaching for a financial report to fix that.

tomnipotent 10mo ago
Apple doesn't sell information, they sell access to eyeballs. Quite a big difference. The whole point of first OPs point was that ad revenues to Apple are not worth hurting the other parts of their business built around privacy. Pointing out that Apple shows ads for owned services within their own OS isn't a case otherwise.
- mdhb 10mo ago
  Apple absolutely does allow wholesale data harvesting by turning a blind eye to apps that straight up embed spyware SDKs. This isn’t some hypothetical or abstract scenario, it’s a real life multi billion dollar a year industry that Apple allows on their devices. You can argue that this is not the same thing as the native ad platform that they run and I’d agree but it’s also a distinction without a meaningful difference.
  - tomnipotent 10mo ago
    All you've done is move the goal posts, and it's not even ads related. I'm not entirely certain what you're arguing, other than having some feelings about Apple.