[legitster]

The privacy is more of a market position thing than it is a political thing.

Apple has led the industry on hardware but is woefully behind on the software and services front. Focusing on device-level privacy controls turns what would be a gap into a moat, and it helps deprive Google and other services from monetizing their customer base.

Not to say that it's not something the company is passionate about - but it's also good for their business. Especially when you compare it to things like human rights, transparency, and security research where Apple could take a stronger stand but don't.

[nicoburns]

> The privacy is more of a market position thing than it is a political thing.

It is a market position, but companies do have some choice in which market positions they choose to take. And I wouldn't underestimate the effect of the personal views of the CEO in that.

[lostlogin]

> and it helps deprive Google and other services from monetizing their customer base.

The payment Apple gets from Google for being the default search might help explain this. It would be hard to turn down the sums Apple gets.

https://9to5mac.com/2025/09/03/just-one-word-in-the-google-a...

[greggsy]

If you’re referring to their AI services being ‘woefully behind’, that’s just a market sector that they’ve chosen not to focus too much effort on. That was a sensible gamble too, given how unpredictable that sector is five years after it was released.

I’m not sure what else they are behind on frankly, as their current offerings have been extremely stable from day dot.

How many products has Google released and killed in the past 20 years? Apple managed to land on a good thing with Apple iTunes and iPhotos in the early oughts, and managed to transition those core services into Apple Music and iCloud with little to no disruption to users. iCloud is generally a pretty predictable service that delivers on a core set of user requirements very well.

Also, thief productivity suite isn’t meant to completely replace Office, and for a free package, it meets many users needs perfectly fine.

[bigyabai]

> That was a sensible gamble too, given how unpredictable that sector is five years after it was released.

Define sensible. Apple's B2C margins are peanuts compared to what Nvidia's commanding right now, and they're both ARM retailers competing for the same cutting-edge fab space.

[charcircuit]

>but is woefully behind on the software

iOS is ahead on software security compared to Android, Windows, Desktop Linux, etc.

[bigyabai]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/apple-admits-to-...

[charcircuit]

I am referring to things like an app being able to escape the sandbox and potentially further escalate privileges.

[bigyabai]

Are you referring to any security features in particular? There's a new zero-click exploit every 6 months for iOS, and NSO Group is showing no signs of slowing.

[mrexcess]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43003230

[charcircuit]

A hardware vulnerability is separate from how good Apple has been at hardening the Os against attackers.