In a blog post that has attracted a pretty sizable amount of attention today, Tumblr software engineer Steve Streza called out Apple pretty harshly for what he sees as the iPhone maker shoving way too many ads in its users\u2019 faces. Those ads generally market new Apple services and subscriptions like Apple TV+ and Apple News+, and because the company\u2019s services business that encompasses those offerings is such a focus for Apple right now, Streza\u2019s argument is that Apple is going way overboard in advertising those products.<\/p>\n
Taken as a whole, Streza writes, Apple\u2019s services business raked in $12.7 billion in Q1 2020, almost a sixth of Apple\u2019s overall revenue for the quarter. \u201cAll that money comes from the wallets of 480 million subscribers, and their goal is to grow that number to 600 million this year,\u201d Streza\u2019s post reads. \u201cBut to do that, Apple has resorted to insidious tactics to get those people: Ads. Lots and lots<\/em> of ads, on devices that you pay for.\u201d Here are examples of the kind of thing he\u2019s talking about.<\/p>\n If you open the Apple News app for the first time, you may be greeted with a full-screen display that looks like this before you ever dive into the aggregated news content this app serves up:<\/p>\n The app has a free tier, as well as a $9.99\/month subscription offering. That\u2019s what Apple hits you up to pay for straight away, and with little reminders here and there as you go about using the free tier.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another example. Apple\u2019s TV app is where you go to watch episodes of TV shows you\u2019ve rented or bought, as well as movies. It\u2019s also your entry point into Apple\u2019s still relatively new subscription TV offering, Apple TV+. When I open the app, click \u201cWatch Now\u201d and then scroll down a bit, same thing \u2014 I\u2019m hit up by Apple to subscribe to its paid TV product. After I scroll down a little, this is the marketing message I see:<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know about you, but I don\u2019t mind Apple advertising me a paid tier of a product whose app I\u2019ve just opened up. I believe I may also have seen a bit of cross-pollination, such as Apple TV+ ads as I scroll through Apple News+, but \u201cbelieve\u201d is the operative word. It certainly wasn\u2019t to a level that annoyed me and that I made a point of remembering. This, though, is at the heart of Streza\u2019s beef: \u201cIf you don\u2019t subscribe to these services,\u201d he writes, \u201cyou\u2019ll be forced to look at these ads constantly, either in the apps you use or the push notifications they have turned on by default.\u201d<\/p>\n Again, I can\u2019t sympathize with the latter half of that sentence, because I adjust the default push notifications for each app on my phone. If you don\u2019t do that, and I know most of you don\u2019t, why would you then complain about getting too many push notifications? Makes no sense! (In my best Larry David-as-Bernie Sanders voice.)<\/p>\n One example Streza uses is Apple Music, which he seems to have gotten this notification for after unsubscribing:<\/p>\n \u201cIf you subscribe and then cancel, Apple sends invasive push notifications asking you to re-subscribe,\u201d he writes. \u201cThese are on by default without a permission request. This is, of course, against the rules they lay out for other developers\u201d which he then includes a portion of:<\/p>\n Push Notifications must not be required for the app to function, and should not be used for advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes or to send sensitive personal or confidential information<\/em>.<\/p>\n He theorizes that one reason these practices from Apple aren\u2019t talked about as much is that Apple loyalists likely subscribe to some or all of these services, eliminating the need for those people to be advertised to. Still, he concludes, \u201cit\u2019s time for the tech community to recognize that Apple is no longer designing their products for a great experience, but as upsells to get you into the paywalled garden.\u201d<\/p>\n Ok, but why then aren\u2019t we including Samsung in this discussion?<\/p>\n Behold, one of the most annoying places imaginable to include personalized ads on a smartphone:<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry, but you can\u2019t convince me that that isn\u2019t worse than the ads above that Apple is showing. It\u2019s the difference between paying almost $1,400 for a phone and getting shown ads for things you might be interested in every time you dial a number to call, compared to opening a free app and being shown an ad for that app when you\u2019re already inside it. Thankfully, these ads on Samsung phones which are tied to its Places tab can be disabled.<\/p>\n If I\u2019m already in an app, I\u2019ve made a conscious decision to open it. That\u2019s a point at which I can be reasonably okay with a nudge to pay for it. Samsung\u2019s approach is the equivalent of forcing me to sit through the ads that run before you even get to the trailers before your feature film in a cinema these days. Nobody likes those. A captive audience is not the same thing as a receptive one.<\/p>\n \n\tImage Source: Samsung<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n\t\tAndy is a reporter in Memphis who also contributes to outlets like Fast Company and The Guardian. When he\u2019s not writing about technology, he can be found hunched protectively over his burgeoning collection of vinyl, as well as nursing his Whovianism and bingeing on a variety of TV shows you probably don\u2019t like.\t<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ww-vb.mine.nu\/w108\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Samsung-shows-third-party-ads-in-the-phone-app-on-its.jpg\")
Image Source: Apple<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ww-vb.mine.nu\/w108\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/1582069797_898_Samsung-shows-third-party-ads-in-the-phone-app-on-its.jpg\")
Image Source: Apple<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ww-vb.mine.nu\/w108\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Samsung-shows-third-party-ads-in-the-phone-app-on-its.png\")
Image Source: Apple<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/ww-vb.mine.nu\/w108\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/1580530133_630_All-four-major-US-wireless-carriers-are-suffering-outages-right.png\")
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