Thread

Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy

822 points · 601 comments · MC995

AnonC · 1790088825 · focus · HN ↗
I doubt John Ternus will change direction anytime soon, since it will look like he’s reversing the plethora of eyesore ads that Tim Cook added over his tenure.
But the Apple with ads is not the Apple that had some taste and discernment in the past. For a long time I’ve visited the App Store’s app update page directly (tap and hold on App Store icon to see the context menu option). Anytime I inadvertently go to the App Store home page or the few times I search, it’s an ad filled disaster!
From this article
> repeatedly attempting to prod customers towards even more of the company’s products might seem cheap, even distasteful.
From a recent post by John Gruber:
> Steve Jobs in 2011: 'We Build Products That We Want for Ourselves, Too, and We Just Don't Want Ads' [1]
Looks like Tim Cook, John Ternus and Eddy Cue really enjoy being swamped with ads in their products. Will there soon be a time when Apple executives start carrying some other brand’s devices with them to avoid having a rotten experience?
[1]: We don’t want ads <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/07/28/jobs-we-dont-want-ads" rel="nofollow">https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/07/28/jobs-we-dont-wa...
1. rapind · 1790089281 · focus · HN ↗
  Imagine spending $2k on a phone only to be presented with ads. Quick way to lose your luxury and loyal customers IMO.
  On the flip side, imagine having another product made for people who can afford $2k phones... Well you'd probably pay a lot to advertise to that market.
  I think trying to balance between these 2 is going to be tough, and your luxury market could evaporate if a significant competitor came along. And by competitor, we're probably just talking about AI in your pocket or on your face that replaces the traditional phone interface. I also think it's a real slippery slope to short term profits once you start taking ad revenue.
  1. TheDong · 1790090519 · focus · HN ↗
    They could do what Amazon did for the kindles: pay extra to remove the ads (for the Kindle it was $20 one-time).
    For iOS, they could simply charge an extra $600/mo as a "iCloud ad-free premium" fee to remove the ads, and I think that would make everyone happy.
    rapind · 1790090745 · focus · HN ↗
    Maybe. How are the seat heater subscription services going for BMW? I thought the market had clearly rejected it, but maybe they powered through and people have begrudgingly accepted it now?
    I don't think people want to pay a large sticker price and then an additional monthly fee on top of it to enable features or disable ads... but I honestly don't know. I just know I sure af won't lol.
    TheDong · 1790091340 · focus · HN ↗
    I think the more comparable thing would be youtube premium (paying to not have as many ads there), and I certainly pay for that.
    I have no clue how popular it is though overall, presumably not super popular.
    I also don't think the $300-$2000/mo "ad-free iOS subscription" would be super popular if it existed, but idk, I know at least a few people that would go for it.
    rapind · 1790091631 · focus · HN ↗
    > I think the more comparable thing would be youtube premium (paying to not have as many ads there), and I certainly pay for that.
    This isn't comparable, because the base product is free. We're talking about paying an upfront fee for a premium product (like $2k for a phone) and then being shown ads. Youtube would be a vastly different product if everyone had to pay a one time $2k to use it (and then purchase premium to unlock ad-free). It's also noticeable that a lot of the "premium" media services go from being ad-free to ad-light... so we're back to cable... but that's a different discussion.
    gloosx · 1790093268 · focus · HN ↗
    >I have no clue how popular it is though overall, presumably not super popular.
    It's not very popular because you can remove ALL ads from youtube using a free browser extension
    SoftTalker · 1790094407 · focus · HN ↗
    That doesn't help you if you use the YouTube app on your phone, which I'm guessing is what a huge fraction of the viewership does.
    gloosx · 1790096328 · focus · HN ↗
    But you can just use the browser with an adblocker for Youtube on the phone, which also allows you to play audio in the background for free e.g. for playing music, what's the point in using the app at all?
    SoftTalker · 1790096976 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm speculating about what most mobile YouTube viewers actually do, not what makes the most sense.
    delta_p_delta_x · 1790092638 · focus · HN ↗
    > seat heater subscription services going for BMW?
    Own a recent-ish BMW. Haven't had to pay for heated seats; I have a button on my climate control to switch it on/off/change the heat levels.
    autoexec · 1790094154 · focus · HN ↗
    > They could do what Amazon did for the kindles: pay extra to remove the ads (
    It's a bad idea to pay someone to remove a problem they created for you. That's literally racketeering. They make you pay them to solve a problem that only exists because they put it there to make you pay them to solve it. They can increase the amount of ads at any time to punish holdouts and can increase how much "protection money" they extract from you whenever they want as well. "Nice $2,000 phone you just got buddy, it'd sure be a shame if it was filled with ads wouldn't it?"
    rapind · 1790174774 · focus · HN ↗
    > t's a bad idea to pay someone to remove a problem they created for you.
    Worth noting that this is what most of the live service gaming industry is doing.

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