logoalt Hacker News

DetectDefectyesterday at 11:47 PM6 repliesview on HN

> I don't pretend that Apple is saintly, but their profit model is currently to make money through premium prices on premium products

Is this statement based on anything other than Apple marketing materials, perhaps a meaningful qualification from an independent third party? I worry this falsehood is being repeated so much it has become "truth".


Replies

drnick1today at 2:45 AM

For some reason, some people have this inexplicable rose-tinted vision of Apple. Until they release the source code of their products, the only rational stance is to treat their software as malware.

If further evidence is necessary, any Apple device that I have owned pings multiple Apple domains several times per minute, despite disabling every cloud dependency that can be disabled. The roles of the domains are partially documented, but traffic is encrypted and it is impossible to know for sure what information Apple is exfiltrating. It is certainly a lot more than a periodic software update check. It certainly seems that Apple is documenting how people interact with the devices they own very closely. That's an insane amount of oversight over people's lives considering that some (most?) people use their phones as their primary computer.

show 1 reply
kstrausertoday at 12:02 AM

Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, but it certainly rhymes. Is there proof that Apple is monetizing our data with third parties? It's very clear how almost every other major company is, but Apple's been reasonably respectful about it.

show 3 replies
tracerbulletxtoday at 4:27 AM

What falsehood? That apple's profit mix is much less advertising than its competitors is just a fact about their incentives in the moment. He didn't really go all that far in claiming anything beyond that being better than the alternative of being mostly an advertising company.

coldteatoday at 12:37 PM

It's based on their balance of ad vs produce revenue thus far.

akimbostrawmantoday at 7:41 AM

its a proprietary black box with a billion dollar marketing budget like all apple devices

daveguyyesterday at 11:50 PM

Repeating "this falsehood" doesn't make it a falsehood either.

show 1 reply