[georgyo]

For many many years, the number one reason people told me why they used apple products was privacy and that with apple I'm not a product. It's how they could justify paying the high premium for apple products.

It would be very interesting if they get into the advertising business. Harvesting data about my usage it and using that data to charge more for ads that are well targeted.

It would mean that in addition to apple selling a product at a premium, the users would also become a product.

Combine this with things like the disappearing head phone jack, and apple is becoming actively hostile towards its users.

[downandout]

This isn't general advertising. It's only on the App Store and is based on the keywords you enter into a search in the store. They rolled this out because it's basically impossible for an unknown developer to get noticed anymore on there. Apple haters will use any new product to criticize the company, but this seems fairly benign and fills a need among developers.

[jest3r1]

Ahh yes, more fees for developers.

> it's basically impossible for an unknown developer to get noticed

They could improve the search algorithm to solve this. Perhaps redesign the app store UI to better accommodate new apps. Or they could stagnate for years and then solve the problem by charging developers more.

I'm not a hater though.

[downandout]

>Ahh yes, more fees for developers.

Developers (including myself) are already paying these fees to Google, Facebook and Bing in the form of app install ads. We'll likely get more more bang for the buck directly on the App Store though, so IMO it's a win for developers.

[jsonne]

Your media mix will likely shift, but you'll still be paying Facebook, Google etc. as well. Btw take a look at Twitter if you aren't already. I've had good results there.

[downandout]

Thanks, I will. I had always heard that Twitter sucked for most stuff...glad to hear someone is having a good experience.

[jsonne]

Absolutely. Feel free to reach out if you want any in depth advice. (Email is in my profile.)

[dismantlethesun]

> They could improve the search algorithm to solve this.

How? If there are 1000s of new apps coming out per day, how do you better accommodate all of them?

[dzhiurgis]

Currently it's easier to find apps BY NAME on Google. There are tons of improvements. Filter out paid apps, in-app purchase ones. Filter by category, ratings. Do not destroy ratings after each update.

[blahi]

>Perhaps redesign the app store UI to better accommodate new apps.

Do you have any ideas on how to do it?

[iaskwhy]

They could check Hacker News way of handling relevant new entries, seems to work fine for this kind of problem.

[aub3bhat]

>> They rolled this out because it's basically impossible for an unknown developer to get noticed anymore on there.

Lol This is what will happen in reality an unknown developer starts trending with the next Meerkat, only for a Twitter to push 10M$ worth of Ads for its Periscope (Development cost 5M$ ~ half the marketing budget) on App Store and bury the "unknown developer"

Think about it this way, All app installs must go through the app store, and by introducing ads at the second last stage, the entire "word of mouth" funnel is now under threat. So unless the the user has a "direct deep link" (E.g. via the app website, or ahem FB Ads) to the app store page, That user is much more likely to be lost to a competitor.

To expand my example: Earlier someone would have their friend mention "Meerkat", leading them to search for Meerkat and they would be guaranteed to find Meerkat un-distracted by any other well funded competitor. Now Apple has essentially exploited its "Walled garden" monopoly on installs, by introducing Ads in the second last steps used in 65% of cases.

If you think this is a "good thing" for developers you are gravely mistaken and iOS devs are being taken for a ride.

[thirdsun]

If their answer to lacking discoverability is ads, I very much doubt it's a good one.

[madeofpalk]

> They rolled this out because it's basically impossible for an unknown developer to get noticed anymore on there.

I feel like this is kinda missing the point. The solution for app discovery (not that I really think there is one) isn't "sell ads". Organic discovery is always going to be far superior.

[forgetsusername]

>They rolled this out because it's basically impossible for an unknown developer to get noticed anymore on there.

How does the unknown developer go about buying ads with unknown revenue?

This seems to me like it will give an advantage to the bigger players, and that Apple will reap most of the benefits.

[taf2]

Before they can do that they need to implement a search that actually works... I've never understood why the app stores are not just websites similar to amazon. The goal is to make it easy to locate an app whether you have the device or not- limiting access to the knowledge of the existence of an app seems like a fail in brand awareness.

[palakchokshi]

True that Apple's App Store search sucks. I'll give an example: search for Get@ and see the results. Now search for GetAt and you'll see an app called Get@. If you allow @ symbol in the app name then your search should return that app when searched for it.

[zitterbewegung]

Anyone remember iAds ? They have tried to get into the ad business and failed. Since this is more limited in scope and you can figure out intent better maybe this will be more successful .

[nixos]

Common mistake.

If the service is free, you could be the product (on not, like Linux), but you could be the product even if you paid.

Many physical newspapers cost money and had ads (even the reputable newspapers such as the NYT), and likely sold your information (whatever they had, that is) to the highest bidder.

If they had a way to track you, they would in a heartbeat.

[nerdponx]

I suspect they're doing it now because they realize they're the last company to _not_ abuse their users' privacy. Now that users have absolutely nowhere else to turn, Apple has no reason not to play that game.

Edit: how do i italics

[matt4077]

(a) This matches Searches to Apps, not users.

(b) The situations you're describing hasn't really changed since Facebook added ads, so they could've had that "realization" much earlier.

(c) Apple is positioning itself as a privacy-focused company with (for example) their lawsuit regarding iPhone unlocking and their implementation of differential privacy for their machine learning algorithms. It'd be stupid to give that up and risk a triple-digit-billion-business (iPhone) for what's bound to be a small fraction of that (ads in the App Store).

[nixos]

> It'd be stupid to give that up and risk a triple-digit-billion-business (iPhone) for what's bound to be a small fraction of that (ads in the App Store).

You don't have to outrun the bear, just your friend.

[matt4077]

Yeah, but running doesn't just mean "have better privacy" than the competition (i. e. Samsung/Google). Privacy is only one of many dimensions Apple is competing on, and running up the score there may still help them when the competition is better along other dimensions, like those cool self-igniting firework-phones I keep hearing about.

[ljk]

    *like this*

https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc

[baddox]

I won't try to claim that Apple is or isn't abusing their users' privacy, but they're definitely not new to advertising. They ran iAd for years until they shut it down recently.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAd

[z3t4]

I had the same feeling about Microsoft and I'm currently moving away from that platform. Most users seem OK with being tracked and identified so I doubt they will lose business because of it. At least until the new third reich comes by and exterminate those they don't like.

[esotericsean]

It's extremely difficult to get noticed on the app store because it's so huge now. I think this was a necessary move.

Apple does harvest your data, but they don't sell it. You're not a product.

The headphone jack is an entirely different situation. It was a necessary move on Apple's part in order to push industry standards towards wireless. I'm sure in a few years, we're all going to laugh about all the wires and cables we used to have everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually Apple got rid of all ports on all their devices.

[imh]

Do any of the big ad companies sell your data? Google? Facebook? It's the same thing. I don't want them to need to learn everything about me. What they want to do with that info is secondary.

[brian-armstrong]

Wired headphones aren't going anywhere, Apple or no.

[jgalt212]

in the sense that Lightning did not kill USB, you are correct, sir.

[roryisok]

Android / iPhone are becoming completely incompatible at a hardware level. Lightning instead of USB. No headphones. No SD card. Next it'll be some proprietary SIM card standard. It's almost like their afraid someone is going to crack iOS to run on and Android handset the way macOS can run on a PC

[obtino]

> No SD card.

To be fair, the SD card has been abandoned by the Google Nexus line as well. It caused a lot more problems than solved. Now that storage is relatively cheap, more manufacturers are removing it.

[sdegutis]

But how is this different than selling your data? They're using your data to help developers make money from you, and they get a cut of that money.