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If there was anything else they could do that was profitable then they would. Do you have any suggestions? The only reason Apple has as much money as it does i

by dm2 12y ago

If there was anything else they could do that was profitable then they would. Do you have any suggestions? The only reason Apple has as much money as it does is because it greatly overcharges customers, doesn't participate in research that benefits society, and takes advantage of it's customers psychological need to have the latest model (even if the improvements are minimal).

api 12y ago
I wasn't even really dissing Google, just pointing out the reality of the world we live in. The fact is that very very few people really care about visionary things. There has to be a way to make it pay, and unfortunately surveillance-based marketing is the only big meal ticket in town for services like Google.
- dm2 12y ago
  It is true about the ads being their primary source of revenue, I've thought long and hard about the concept but eventually accepted the ads as being necessary to fund the other projects they work on. Their research isn't solely focused on gathering data for ads. If these technologies can be applied to ads then it helps justify large costs because it'll increase revenue, but that is not the sole driving motivator for their moonshots and research. Hopefully the percentage of people who are passionate about futuristic concepts and visionary ideas will rise in the near future. The faster we get to a post-scarcity society the greater chance we, as an intelligent species, will have to survive long-term. Just my 2 cents. I love them as a company and have a huge amount of respect for what they've done and for sticking to their founding principals of transparency and "do no evil" (for the most part, within reason for a company of their size). I know it's pretty subjective and irreverent to bring Apple into any Google debate, the amount of people who put them on a pedestal drives me crazy. Anything I can do to redirect money from going to Apple is a positive thing in my opinion.

by dm2 12y ago

api 12y ago

I wasn't even really dissing Google, just pointing out the reality of the world we live in. The fact is that very very few people really care about visionary things. There has to be a way to make it pay, and unfortunately surveillance-based marketing is the only big meal ticket in town for services like Google.

dm2 12y ago
It is true about the ads being their primary source of revenue, I've thought long and hard about the concept but eventually accepted the ads as being necessary to fund the other projects they work on. Their research isn't solely focused on gathering data for ads. If these technologies can be applied to ads then it helps justify large costs because it'll increase revenue, but that is not the sole driving motivator for their moonshots and research. Hopefully the percentage of people who are passionate about futuristic concepts and visionary ideas will rise in the near future. The faster we get to a post-scarcity society the greater chance we, as an intelligent species, will have to survive long-term. Just my 2 cents. I love them as a company and have a huge amount of respect for what they've done and for sticking to their founding principals of transparency and "do no evil" (for the most part, within reason for a company of their size). I know it's pretty subjective and irreverent to bring Apple into any Google debate, the amount of people who put them on a pedestal drives me crazy. Anything I can do to redirect money from going to Apple is a positive thing in my opinion.