Hacker News Reader

Comment by spankalee | Hacker News Reader

I don't know... ads in maps is very, very different from ads in the OS.

Users buy the OS with the computer, and Apple doesn't incur any extra cost from users using it (maybe cloud-based AI will change this though?), and it doesn't require additional payments. Meanwhile, services like iCloud+ do require payment.

Maps is a service, like iCloud, but users have been trained to expect it for free, with basically every other maps provider using ads to fund it. I suspect that most users think that ads are a better user experience than not using it at all because they won't pay $9.99/month for maps.

Maps is also a search engine, and ads are the primary way to fund search engines. I guarantee that if Apple every launches iSearch they will eventually fund it with ads.

View on HN

I just hope they won't change Calculator as a service app.

Eventually it could get there if that's the direction Apple stays on.

> basically every other maps provider using ads to fund it.

> iSearch they will eventually fund it with ads.

See, I disagree with your entire premise here. Apple, unlike Google, has a very very profitable hardware business which provides so much to the bottom line that they don't have to operate Apple Maps or Apple Search or Calculator as a self-sustaining business with its own P&L. It's stupid to operate as though they must.

The correct thinking (in my not so humble opinion) for a long-term-minded company is to recognize:

1. That massive firehose of money allows them to make Maps markedly better than what Google can afford to do. Since Apple gave up on UI/UX design excellence, this ability to not rely on ads is arguably their only remaining differentiated advantage.

2. Part of what allows Apple to command such monster-sized margins is that (usually... so far... outside of the App Stores at least) their product is not packed full of sleazy ads that significantly detract from the experience. You don't just get to fully enshittify the product and still command the same high prices as you did when you were offering a premium product. A Porsche covered in wraps advertising porn sites and penis pills, which plays loud AI-generated ads on every screen all day long would not sell at the price a normal one does.

> You don't just get to fully enshittify the product and still command the same high prices as you did when you were offering a premium product

"Challenge accepted" - Tim Apple.

I'd pay $10/m for ad-free Apple/Google maps.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com