Steve Streza, developer and all-around good guy, writing about Apple turning iOS into adware:
Over the years, Apple has built up a portfolio of services and add-ons that you pay for. Starting with AppleCare extended warranties and iCloud data subscriptions, they expanded to Apple Music a few years ago, only to dramatically ramp up their offerings last year with TV+, News+, Arcade, and Card. Their services business, taken as a whole, is quickly becoming massive; Apple reported $12.7 billion in Q1 2020 alone, nearly a sixth of its already gigantic quarterly revenue.
All that money comes from the wallets of 480 million subscribers, and their goal is to grow that number to 600 million this year. But to do that, Apple has resorted to insidious tactics to get those people: ads. Lots and lots of ads, on devices that you pay for. iOS 13 has an abundance of ads from Apple marketing Apple services, from the moment you set it up and all throughout the experience. These ads cannot be hidden through the iOS content blocker extension system. Some can be dismissed or hidden, but most cannot, and are purposefully designed into core apps like Music and the App Store. There’s a term to describe software that has lots of unremovable ads: adware, which what iOS has sadly become.
Apple, decidedly not an ad company, puts tons of ads into iOS, while Google, decidedly very much an ad company, puts basically zero ads in Android. Yet, this is something we rarely talk about because for some reason, we seem to just accept platform owners treating users like garbage and negatively impacting the user experience to try and get them to subscribe to “services”.
Apple is undertaking a massive push to get iOS users to subscribe to more and more services, and the company has clearly shown it has no qualms about degrading the user experience to get there. And of course, while you can block every other company’s ads on iOS – you can’t block Apple’s ads, since the rules Apple sets for third parties don’t apply to Apple itself, and you can’t change your default applications either.
Now that you’re locked into their ecosystem, Apple is going to try every sleazy tactic under the sun to try and get you to subscribe to their services. Have fun.
> while Google, decidedly very much an ad company, puts basically zero ads in Android.
The android platform, from its default browser with search engine right to the play store apps, is optimized for serving its users on a platter to advertisers whose ads are sluiced right back to the users, including right into the notification bar. I’d dispute that this qualifies for the definition of “zero ads”.
You can easily change every default application in Android, and never see a single advertisement through a variety of means.
Apple’s ads in iOS are 100% unremovable and unblockable.
I’ve got a pixel 4XL and basically never see ads. Sure the google default search is er google and google chrome is the default browser. But it’s trivial to install firefox and use whatever search engine you want. Android gives you pretty complete control over tracking, GPS, notifications, and permissions.
So sure maybe the default is not zero ads, but it’s trivial to setup, no hacking needed.
I’ve never seen an ad in the notification area. I’ve hardly seen any ads anywhere for that matter, basically only in a free version of an app or something.
I have and I can’t work out which app is spamming me. The notification just throws me into the Play app with no clue where the invite came from.
This story is the irony that everyone who has ever switched from any other phone OS to Apple understands intricately!
The linked article doens’t really support the headline. There are only ads within specific Apple apps that front-end Apple services. There’s no ads in the operating system itself, just specific applications that are specifically subscription based services from Apple. I’ve never used any of those apps and, so of course, have never seen those ads on my iPhone.
Every time I use any Google service I see ads. Google Search, Youtube, Gmail, etc.
Um, isn’t that the point?
You can’t open the App Store without potentially seeing an Ad, even before you have installed an App.
I pay good money for my iTunes content, if they want to run ads then give me the content free like FTA TV!
Instead I have to buy my content and still put up with a barrage of “Just For Me” recommendations, usually at the most inconvenient moment!
Then I have to watch or listen to ads for Apple telling how it’s ad and virus free, that it will never bother me and it just works, are they taking the piss? Is this some sort of IT Developer joke I don’t get?
What’s Apple for Altruism?
Some ads are useful.
Some regular users may not know of the existence of certain products/services without those ads. We should make the distinction of ads which disrupt your normal workflow, ads that are complementary to your task at hand, and ads which are merely “product placements”.
Some of the ads I agree are disruptive, in particular the popup ad for Apple Music.
Some of the ads are complimentary, in particular ads to their iCloud backup service. People may not know such a service exists and it is conveniently placed in the “Storage” screen so it complements the user experience without being disruptive.
Some are product placements, in particular the Apple TV app icon.
I know plenty of Apple users, and I think most of them would be happy to see these kinds of ads. Buying Apple hardware involves buying into the ecosystem and as long as that’s understood, people seem to be happy.
Personally I wouldn’t be happy with this and that’s one of the many reasons Apple products aren’t for me. It’s a shame though, because Apple’s stance on privacy is otherwise very appealing (as Apple moves towards services, I think it will be increasingly hard for it to maintain this differentiation from Google).
Having said all that, I think Apple have to tread carefully. This sort of behaviour could be seen as anti-competitive: using dominance in one market to gain an advantage in another. It seems to me they’re definitely using their position to gain advantage, but I’m sure there’s plenty of argument to be had over whether they’re dominant.
I use Macs and iPhones every day and I rarely see an Apple ad. Or Microsoft ones in Windows 10, for that matter.
Google instead harasses me every day, there’s even a Verge article on that: https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/23/20946114/google-youtube-premium-subscription-ads-pop-ups-spam-rant
I stay as far away as possible to anything made by Apple. Using LineageOS with Blokada & Firefox. I never see any ads.
Well, the Android apps for Google Play Music, Google Drive and YouTube have ads pushing paid Google services.
I like how when comparing ad content, Android is just AOSP, but when comparing user experience Android includes the Google apps.
Yet, IOS is still a million times better (and bugfree) experience than android
I switched to android because my old 6S broke and I don’t like faceID phones, but the experience is terrible and ridden with bugs (and, btw, I’m using android one) I still prefer apple own ads than the inconsistent experience that is using android daily
I’ve had about the opposite experience. IOS was total trash. Multiple forced IOS updates that made usability worse and with no “downgrade” method to restore a prior better-working version. IOS got so annoying and horrible I feel like Apple forced me to Android. Ever since the switch its been smooth sailing. I’m glad to be rid of Apple and IOS. My only complaint with Android is not being able to update the OS directly without depending on the vendor or carrier, and the certain inclusion of their crapware.
Does anyone know if IOS updates are still degrading CPU performance artificially?
Obviously they got caught out for this in 2017. Their excuse didn’t completely hold water and they were guilty of planned obsolescence, but after they offered battery discounts the media’s interest faded. I’d like to know if they are still using this practice on IOS users today? We need to have a followup study! Has apple succeeded in making this the norm?
Funny, it was my iPhone 5 that constantly froze and crashed. I’ve been on Android since and haven’t looked back. My Nokia 7.1 Android One phone is a joy to use.
This is why jailbreaking/cracking/hacking is still relevant and needed – whether is be iOS, Android or Windows. After a long time of user complacency and a myopic focus on security – peddling fear, “for our own good” agenda – we have crapware, adware, forced telemetry, forced surveillance – not only by third parties, mind you – but by the actual OS manufacturers themselves. This is corporate totalitarianism. We live in a time with only few competitive offerings in this space leading to de facto monopolies. While these offerings are way better than anything that came before, their market dominance has for a decade or two been stifling what comes next. It is always going to be a tug of war between users/customers and business. How do we fight it? With our wallet? That just doesn’t cut it anymore. We need to fight it any which way we can.
I can’t say I’ve noticed nagging adware in iOS. There are certainly some pain-in-the-ass things on the Mac, but in iOS, I don’t recall seeing ads. There are prompts, at times, for extensions of services like TV+, News+, Apple Music, etc. but only within the apps themselves. And yes, there’s an annoying prompt for Apple Pay setup.
I think a mobile OS *should* nag users to upgrade. I wish Android forced upgrades so we didn’t still have users bopping around running Kit Kat and Lollipop.
That’s to be expected when you place a bean-counter at the head of a company. Apple truly has gone to shit since Steve died. It was also shit between the time Scully ousted him and when he finally returned in ’96.
I’m not anti-Apple as such, I think Apple hardware is still extraordinarily good, or at least up to this point has been. But I suspect the problem is that the iPhone has become a noose around their neck, or an anchor. Perhaps the iPad was supposed to set them free, and it’s withered and died becoming a parody of itself, even the watch falls in this category now. Trinkets not trends.
It looks to me like the current Apple thinking is that it will become the new Hollywood/Youtube media hybrid, is this an inevitability for any hardware company obsessed with growth over improvement?
The release of the new Mac Pro seems to be an attempt to capture and power the content creators, which just reinforces my opinion. Long term they see no future in hardware because it’s heading towards the LCD.
sydbarrett74,
Nah, steve jobs had had the reality distortion field going for him, but really he was full of crap too. A big factor for these advertising shifts in the industry comes down to market saturation and business models.
…I meant *dying* business models.
The truth is these shifts are happening simply because these companies are outgrowing their original markets. Apple, microsoft, and google are all too big. Computers, phones, and operating systems are not sufficient to produce future growth. There isn’t much commercial value in selling operating systems anymore, rather the commercial value lies in impeding free markets to become middlemen who monopolize access to consumers. Apple did this successfully with IOS and is moving macos in this direction too. Microsoft is trying to replicate this with windows. Fans of both companies point at google over it’s scummy business model (ie “users” are the product and not the customer), yet both apple and microsoft are headed this way too. This is the future, not because consumers are asking for it, but because wall street demands it.
Most Apple users I know understand that they’re buying into an integrated ecosystem. In fact it’s one of the benefits they cite for using Apple products.
So I think your sympathies are misdirected. It’s not Apple users who suffer because of this, it’s all of the music, game, video, file sharing and other companies who are locked out and can’t compete as a result. Arguably it’s users outside the Apple ecosystem who suffer most, because they’re more affected by the success of these other companies.