RIP, Steve.
I wonder if there will be fewer ads in countries they know that Apple Maps is worse than Google Maps?
Somehow I doubt ads are going to improve the quality of their data. Very discouraging to see Apple (allegedly) headed down this road.
I literally wrote the name of the bank + "bank" in the search field.
I got an ad for fucking backgammon at the top.
How long before they outright start selling our data along with all the exact bio-patterns gathered on the millions of Apple Watches out there?
Even if Tim Cook personally believes in privacy, there's no guarantee the next CEO after him will.
This is called "enshittification": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41277484
Do we all jump on Bing maps?
Open street map is a second but still...
https://x.com/charliebilello/status/1953643549435527320
Apple has bought back $704 billion in stock over the past 10 years, which is greater than the market cap of 488 companies in the S&P 500.The idea that "poor little Apple is struggling without enshittifying to microptimize profit opportunities" is an utter joke.
A lot has changed in the tech industry, but the rapidity of hiring and expansion of headcount just seems to have engendered a broad homogenization of business strategies, design conventions, and product vision. I think they started hiring people based on narrow defined ideas about skills and resumes to fit certain roles and they all end up shuffling the same bunch of people around across the same incestuous company hiring pipelines until they’re all doing stints at every company and driving them in the same broad direction.
This would just be more ads.
The frogs don’t have to wait and see if the pot is boiling, they have a pot named Android right next to them for a direct temperature comparison and other Maps apps available. If I lose screen space to ads in my native Apple apps then I’m out. How is the money they are getting from hardware sales and their developer fees not enough? I don’t see how the execs can’t tell how damaging this is to their brand image.
Apple used to be something you accepted because you were filled with rage at Microsoft. Then Apple was something that cost extra money but it had good software and cross device integration. Then Apple’s software quality went down noticeably, but I stuck with them because at least I figured my data was slightly safer on an Apple device. But now if they’re using my data to sell ads they don’t even have a privacy angle. Apple now lags Android flagships in features, costs at least as much, and also sells my data.
I’m out.
Where are you going? See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26639261
The article says "The project will apparently give restaurants and other businesses the option to pay to have their details featured more prominently in search."
It doesn't sound like it will affect screen space of the map view in any way.
And software needs to make money. Their map data is hugely expensive to purchase and produce -- Maps isn't just a little app like Notes, it costs $$$$$ to develop and keep current. Apple isn't a charity. If you're out, who are you going to switch to? Are there OSM apps that are free without ads with the same level of functionality?
The main killer would be lack of real time traffic data. I don't think there's any open source maps that provides this.
A business needs to make money. Apple, as a business, makes money. They might want to make more money by increasing advertising, but surely they, of all businesses, don’t need to.
But Maps is orders of magnitude more expensive than other apps because of the data. Maps isn't just a feature, it's an ongoing service. It's not unreasonable that they recoup some of the money with more prominence given to paid search results.
I don't hear people complaining much about the advertising that has been on Google Maps since forever. So I don't understand what's working people up here. These aren't banner ads. Apple is a business. And you can use Apple Maps over the web, without paying Apple a cent. You really think Apple should be a charity and do this stuff entirely for free?
It’s not even a little reasonable for them to have ads. Especially since I also pay them a monthly fee for services.
Because it's never enough.
Even with 180b USD in profit last year.
We badly need a good open phone with an open source OS. Choosing a more open phone shouldn't mean having to settle for five year old hardware.
Ahahaha. Endless growth, babyyyy
Apple is not stupid, so I guess their research shows that this is not a common enough sentiment that adding ads will measurably hamper sales.
To someone who loathes ads (like me), this is a tragedy.
I'd say this is testing waters, seeing how big backlash will be. The sad part may be they may be right and limited loss with power users will be outweighed by ads income. After all, ads are the sole revenue stream for giants like Google or Meta, too juicy to ignore where no other breakthrough is in sight.
Until now Apple has been relatively decent about prioritizing user experience; and if not that then about respecting privacy. Ads are aligned with neither.
This is the kind of thing some jackass worked out in a spreadsheet and then decided the profit outweighs whatever customer backlash.
Stuff like this is a huge red flag for the future direction of Apple.
Of course Tim is only concerned whether you bought an iPhone to your mom.
Apple Further Expanding into Ads, Now Directly Selling Ads in News App (macrumors.com)
4 points by ksec 11 months ago | 1 comment
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34299433
Apple's collection of user data hard to stop says report (appleinsider.com)'
44 points by janandonly on April 11, 2024 1 comment
(I’ll simply keep using the superior Google Maps anyway. I’m sure it has has ads but it hasn’t bothered me.)
Let me be clear: ads for Apple products and non Apple products have existed as a part of the default user experience in Apple products. Whether you noticed or not is merely whether you paid attention.
Apple does this, they destroy the only differentiator they had.
When I buy Apple, I pay a premium price for a premium product.
I would rather you simple charge me more for my product.
The ways ads work, is that the ad revenue shows up in the company’s revenue, and very quickly the company has to increase ad load across every surface to meet earnings expectations. The user experience deteriorates, getting worse each year.
When I buy Apple, it’s based on my expectation that Apple will remain a premium, ad-free experience for the life of the device. When, after my purchase, Apple make the product worse, like with the recent iOS update that rolled back usability, it destroys a lot of trust.
I will leave the ecosystem.
This is not in Apple’s long term best interests.
Ok so not only will it be unpleasant it will also be terrible at actually being relevant
When I buy Apple, I pay a premium price for a premium product.
The ways ads work, is that the ad revenue shows up in the company’s quarterly earnings, and very quickly the company has to increase ad load across every surface to meet earnings expectations. The user experience deteriorates, getting worse each year.
When I buy Apple, it’s based on my expectation that Apple will remain a premium, mostly ad-free experience for the life of the device. When, after my purchase, they make the product worse, like with the recent iOS update that rolled back usability, it destroys a lot of trust.
I will leave the ecosystem.
This is not in Apple’s long term best interests.
Due to some misguided loyalty, I usually search for places in AM fist, then switch to Google. I still don't see viable alternatives to their operating systems, but it's clearly time to de-apple wherever you can.
And we think you're gonna love it!
It has NEVER given me directions. I live in a non-EU country and not in the US. Small island. It shows all the roads, shops and everything but for some arbitrary reason it won’t do navigation here.
Never touched it again since Google maps is perfect. (Aside from the occasional off-road routing).
Ads have no place in a map app.
As for ads on Apple Maps itself, it may generate some revenue in the US and a few other countries. Elsewhere (like in India and many other countries), Apple has practically neglected Apple Maps and it sucks terribly even in large cities. Google, with all its tracking and other issues (including map accuracy issues), keeps moving at breakneck speed on Google Maps.
Apple’s single minded focus on the US with severe lethargy in other countries is why in most countries people use Apple devices, but Google’s services. Both Eddy Cue and Tim Cook are squarely to be blamed for this greed, laziness and lack of vision or strategy.
kylehotchkiss•2h ago
gdulli•2h ago
Again, I have no idea if they have this relationship with Yelp, I'm just speculating if it's like the Google deal.
drewda•2h ago
windexh8er•2h ago
I mean they already do this with preferred apps in the App Store (e.g. preferred revenue sharing for apps like Uber), so why wouldn't they do this in maps? The Apple "privacy" brand has been a sales pitch of questionable validity since it started. Apple only cares about privacy enough to keep its users from being a front page headline, nothing more.
ezfe•2h ago
abirch•2h ago
morshu9001•1h ago
maelito•1h ago