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"Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to adve

"Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t “monetize” the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you. Our software and services are designed to make our devices better. Plain and simple." Shots fired. (At Google, obviously.)

cargo8 12y ago
Tim Cook has been uncharacteristically (well, for Apple, not for himself) direct in stating that Google is their top competitor and making implicit jabs at their business model. On the other hand, what this also says (to people who like awesome cloud services) is :: "Unfortunately this also means that our predictive keyboard, Siri, and other predictive services will never be that good."
- jonahx 12y ago
  well, seeing that every time i enter my own address into google maps, i am first given a result in another state and have to manually type the zip code (and i do have cookies enabled) i don't think they have much to worry about yet....
  - markmark 12y ago
    If you were "in" the Google ecosystem you would just need to type "Home".
- jameswilsterman 12y ago
  "We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t “monetize” the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you." I don't think this precludes Apple from ever building better predictive services. Tim Cook is specifically saying that Apple does not sell or give away your data to third-parties for advertising purposes. He is NOT saying that Apple would never ask permission to read your e-mail if it meant that they could offer a compelling Apple-created product and user experience as a result. For example, with Apple Pay, Apple is technically using and storing my private information (my credit card data) to offer me a compelling service. They are not going to then figure out which credit card I own and/or how much I spend, and sell that info to banks so that they can target me with specific credit offers.
  - zaroth 12y ago
    Apple Pay is actually designed specifically so that Apple does not see your individual credit card data, purchase history, etc. Apparently they will know total aggregate spending through Apple Pay since it's been reported that they get a cut. But that's completely different from, "Hey we noticed you just bought X, why don't you also buy Y, or maybe next time get a better price at store Z"... which is more like the Google approach, and my personal preference is to avoid such 'features' like the plague.
  - llamataboot 12y ago
    I think he is explicitly saying that. They're not in the business of using your personal data, they're in another business.
  - interpol_p 12y ago
    Apple does not store your credit card data. They generate some sort of tokenised account information with your card issuer when you first add your credit card. They do not store the tokenised account information, it is only ever stored within the secure area of the SoC on the device. From that point, Apple is completely out of the payment equation. The tokenised data is used to generate a once-off payment authorisation with your bank when you pay for a product using Apple Pay. But I agree with the point of your post: if Apple thought collecting data would result in a significantly better product, they would probably do it.
- saurik 12y ago
  Apple was very clear in the 80s that IBM was their main competitor, and was very clear in the 90s that Microsoft was their main competitor: in both cases the competition was not just argued against, but ridiculed with unflattering characterizations (IBM as Big Brother and their users as peons, Microsoft's users as not just awkward but physically unattractive businessmen). Steve Jobs himself took shots at Android, including my "favorite": """You know, there’s a porn store for Android. You can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go – so we’re not going to go there."""... can you say more about how this is "uncharacteristic for Apple"? Is it just that the jabs are specifically at business models? If so I bet I can dig up some examples of that from the Mac vs. PC as series, if not from an earlier Steve Jobs iPhone keynote ;P.
  - cargo8 12y ago
    I see your point, but Steve always seemed to think Android never stood a chance anyway. He didn't have to say WHY Apple was better than Android, he just pointed out some major (philosophical, not product) negatives, as you say the porn store, etc.
- philwelch 12y ago
  How exactly would it make predictive typing and Siri better if Apple decided to invest engineering resources in new and clever ways to sell your private information to advertisers?
swartkrans 12y ago
I bought a year's worth of fastmail I haven't set up yet. I should probably get going with that.
127001brewer 12y ago
During the Charlie Rose interview, Tim Cook says that Google is a direct competitor. And that: "I think everyone has to ask: how do companies make their money. Follow the money."[1] [1] http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-privacy-follow-the-money http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on...
pookieinc 12y ago
Interesting you mark this section of it, this part also stood out to me. As a longtime Apple iPhone lover, I switched over to Google Nexus 5 around 6-8 months ago and with it, I decided to try and be as open as possible with my data. This means that I opted into allowing Google to read my mail, save my Chrome searches (and start using Chrome), saving my notes in Google Keep, and then regurgitate all that information back to me on my Google dashboard. I thought to myself: "Once the next iPhone comes, I'll determine if I should go back." At first, it was striking that one day I booked a flight and then about two weeks later, my dashboard mentioned to me that I should leave 40 minutes early for my flight because of a traffic accident. It knew my flight information, when I should leave, and routes to the airport. I followed Google's suggestion and made it to the airport on time, taking an alternate route Google displayed for me. Once I landed, Google updated my dashboard about the currency exchange, surrounding events, restaurant reviews, foreign news, and more... it "knew" I wasn't home anymore, but across the world. It was initially strange, but with more trips and more experiences, I grew to like that Google could give me handy data. Another strange thing, when reading my mail, it would point out words like "... On Saturday, Sept. 4...", then ask me if I wanted to save it to my calendar. Small touches like this grew on me and kept my life in sync. Now, having spent many months with the phone and with the release of iPhone 6, I've come at a crossroads in trying to find out how "okay" I am with giving Google my data. I wonder to myself, "how can Google use this data against me" and come up short. There are things I wish to be private and for those things, they are rare and I use the appropriate channels (Incognito Mode, other email accounts, etc.), but those are much more rare than the typical. It does sometimes bother me that ads show my interests, but other times, I've actually found it surprisingly useful and it has led me to learning about other products available. I suppose for Apple to release this comment, I agree on the one hand and can see their point, but I wonder... Sometimes it's nice to have certain services available to you, if that means giving some information out.
- cperciva 12y ago
  I grew to like that Google could give me handy data. I agree that this is useful; but sometimes I think Google tries a bit too hard to be helpful. For a few months, I visited my girlfriend every Thursday evening (and at other times as well, of course, but Thursday evenings were consistent). After we broke up, my phone would helpfully let me know every Thursday evening how long it would take to drive to her apartment.
nobbyclark 12y ago
... but if Apple Pay ( https://www.apple.com/apple-pay/ https://www.apple.com/apple-pay/ ) turns into a big success, it could have the potential to unbalance the relationship Apple has with it's customers.
- arrrg 12y ago
  Not if you look at how it actually works. Apple is involved in the process in a way where they don’t have to do or know much. It seems it’s deliberately set up that way.
MarkMc 12y ago
And that business model explains why Apple shares have a price-to-earnings ratio of 16 while Google has a P/E of 30. It's very tough to keep designing great products decade after decade - just ask Sony. It will be much easier for Google to keep collecting more personal information than anyone else, decade after decade.
- gress 12y ago
  Nope. The price to earnings ratio is based on investors understanding of the technology business. It's very hard to maintain an advertising based search business for decades. Just ask Yahoo.
Xixi 12y ago
There are a bazillion of social startups out there without even a beginning of business model. What will they do with my data? It might very well be a shot at Google, but it can also be a form of dismissal of an entire segment of the software industry perceived as "less noble" by Apple.

cargo8 12y ago

Tim Cook has been uncharacteristically (well, for Apple, not for himself) direct in stating that Google is their top competitor and making implicit jabs at their business model. On the other hand, what this also says (to people who like awesome cloud services) is :: "Unfortunately this also means that our predictive keyboard, Siri, and other predictive services will never be that good."

jonahx 12y ago
well, seeing that every time i enter my own address into google maps, i am first given a result in another state and have to manually type the zip code (and i do have cookies enabled) i don't think they have much to worry about yet....
- markmark 12y ago
  If you were "in" the Google ecosystem you would just need to type "Home".
jameswilsterman 12y ago
"We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t “monetize” the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you." I don't think this precludes Apple from ever building better predictive services. Tim Cook is specifically saying that Apple does not sell or give away your data to third-parties for advertising purposes. He is NOT saying that Apple would never ask permission to read your e-mail if it meant that they could offer a compelling Apple-created product and user experience as a result. For example, with Apple Pay, Apple is technically using and storing my private information (my credit card data) to offer me a compelling service. They are not going to then figure out which credit card I own and/or how much I spend, and sell that info to banks so that they can target me with specific credit offers.
- zaroth 12y ago
  Apple Pay is actually designed specifically so that Apple does not see your individual credit card data, purchase history, etc. Apparently they will know total aggregate spending through Apple Pay since it's been reported that they get a cut. But that's completely different from, "Hey we noticed you just bought X, why don't you also buy Y, or maybe next time get a better price at store Z"... which is more like the Google approach, and my personal preference is to avoid such 'features' like the plague.
- llamataboot 12y ago
  I think he is explicitly saying that. They're not in the business of using your personal data, they're in another business.
- interpol_p 12y ago
  Apple does not store your credit card data. They generate some sort of tokenised account information with your card issuer when you first add your credit card. They do not store the tokenised account information, it is only ever stored within the secure area of the SoC on the device. From that point, Apple is completely out of the payment equation. The tokenised data is used to generate a once-off payment authorisation with your bank when you pay for a product using Apple Pay. But I agree with the point of your post: if Apple thought collecting data would result in a significantly better product, they would probably do it.
saurik 12y ago
Apple was very clear in the 80s that IBM was their main competitor, and was very clear in the 90s that Microsoft was their main competitor: in both cases the competition was not just argued against, but ridiculed with unflattering characterizations (IBM as Big Brother and their users as peons, Microsoft's users as not just awkward but physically unattractive businessmen). Steve Jobs himself took shots at Android, including my "favorite": """You know, there’s a porn store for Android. You can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go – so we’re not going to go there."""... can you say more about how this is "uncharacteristic for Apple"? Is it just that the jabs are specifically at business models? If so I bet I can dig up some examples of that from the Mac vs. PC as series, if not from an earlier Steve Jobs iPhone keynote ;P.
- cargo8 12y ago
  I see your point, but Steve always seemed to think Android never stood a chance anyway. He didn't have to say WHY Apple was better than Android, he just pointed out some major (philosophical, not product) negatives, as you say the porn store, etc.
philwelch 12y ago
How exactly would it make predictive typing and Siri better if Apple decided to invest engineering resources in new and clever ways to sell your private information to advertisers?

swartkrans 12y ago

I bought a year's worth of fastmail I haven't set up yet. I should probably get going with that.

127001brewer 12y ago

During the Charlie Rose interview, Tim Cook says that Google is a direct competitor. And that: "I think everyone has to ask: how do companies make their money. Follow the money."[1] [1] http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-privacy-follow-the-money http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on...

pookieinc 12y ago

Interesting you mark this section of it, this part also stood out to me. As a longtime Apple iPhone lover, I switched over to Google Nexus 5 around 6-8 months ago and with it, I decided to try and be as open as possible with my data. This means that I opted into allowing Google to read my mail, save my Chrome searches (and start using Chrome), saving my notes in Google Keep, and then regurgitate all that information back to me on my Google dashboard. I thought to myself: "Once the next iPhone comes, I'll determine if I should go back." At first, it was striking that one day I booked a flight and then about two weeks later, my dashboard mentioned to me that I should leave 40 minutes early for my flight because of a traffic accident. It knew my flight information, when I should leave, and routes to the airport. I followed Google's suggestion and made it to the airport on time, taking an alternate route Google displayed for me. Once I landed, Google updated my dashboard about the currency exchange, surrounding events, restaurant reviews, foreign news, and more... it "knew" I wasn't home anymore, but across the world. It was initially strange, but with more trips and more experiences, I grew to like that Google could give me handy data. Another strange thing, when reading my mail, it would point out words like "... On Saturday, Sept. 4...", then ask me if I wanted to save it to my calendar. Small touches like this grew on me and kept my life in sync. Now, having spent many months with the phone and with the release of iPhone 6, I've come at a crossroads in trying to find out how "okay" I am with giving Google my data. I wonder to myself, "how can Google use this data against me" and come up short. There are things I wish to be private and for those things, they are rare and I use the appropriate channels (Incognito Mode, other email accounts, etc.), but those are much more rare than the typical. It does sometimes bother me that ads show my interests, but other times, I've actually found it surprisingly useful and it has led me to learning about other products available. I suppose for Apple to release this comment, I agree on the one hand and can see their point, but I wonder... Sometimes it's nice to have certain services available to you, if that means giving some information out.

cperciva 12y ago
I grew to like that Google could give me handy data. I agree that this is useful; but sometimes I think Google tries a bit too hard to be helpful. For a few months, I visited my girlfriend every Thursday evening (and at other times as well, of course, but Thursday evenings were consistent). After we broke up, my phone would helpfully let me know every Thursday evening how long it would take to drive to her apartment.

nobbyclark 12y ago

... but if Apple Pay ( https://www.apple.com/apple-pay/ https://www.apple.com/apple-pay/ ) turns into a big success, it could have the potential to unbalance the relationship Apple has with it's customers.

arrrg 12y ago
Not if you look at how it actually works. Apple is involved in the process in a way where they don’t have to do or know much. It seems it’s deliberately set up that way.

MarkMc 12y ago

And that business model explains why Apple shares have a price-to-earnings ratio of 16 while Google has a P/E of 30. It's very tough to keep designing great products decade after decade - just ask Sony. It will be much easier for Google to keep collecting more personal information than anyone else, decade after decade.

gress 12y ago
Nope. The price to earnings ratio is based on investors understanding of the technology business. It's very hard to maintain an advertising based search business for decades. Just ask Yahoo.

Xixi 12y ago

There are a bazillion of social startups out there without even a beginning of business model. What will they do with my data? It might very well be a shot at Google, but it can also be a form of dismissal of an entire segment of the software industry perceived as "less noble" by Apple.