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. avazhi · 1790092669 · focus · HN ↗
  Jobs would truly lose his shit if he saw what Apple has become.
  Source - worked at Apple ~2010.
  1. jimt1234 · 1790093343 · focus · HN ↗
    Jobs has long been vocal about protecting the user experience. Not 100% sure if it's true, but I heard Jobs was originally opposed to custom apps running on the iPhone (the App Store), because he 'didn't want to turn iPhone in Windows'.
    asdff · 1790095839 · focus · HN ↗
    Jobs was right. Apps are so shitty now I don't even bother. Everything has a subscription now and there's so much noise its hard to actually find signal on the appstore.
    qzw · 1790097862 · focus · HN ↗
    Imagine if he had stuck to his guns on native apps. iPhone would’ve either died or we’d all be living in a web apps paradise right now.
    benoau · 1790098268 · focus · HN ↗
    It wouldn't have died - most apps are still just a thin UI over a corresponding online service, and most of the data and services proprietary APIs provide ended up achievable in a browser too. It is really just the internet that makes apps and smartphones useful.
    All apps really offered was a way to gatekeep payments in games that groom impulsive spending habits, they just happened to start making very serious money on Facebook right about the moment Jobs changed his mind.
    asdff · 1790099682 · focus · HN ↗
    Early on it was different with a lot more stuff actually running locally vs cloud service era. App store predated that for a little bit actually. There weren't microtransactions initially either. What you'd call a AAA game for that platform back then would actually be $9.99 one time payment.
    mahboi · 1790137096 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah, there were a lot of really good early iPhone games
    idiotsecant · 1790104043 · focus · HN ↗
    OK...but basically everyone uses custom apps because they are tremendously useful. You'd just ban all of them?
    [deleted] · 1790137117 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]
    vor_ · 1790115606 · focus · HN ↗
    Of course he wasn't right. Apps instantly became a signature part of the iPhone experience and a huge success story for the platform.
    mahboi · 1790137020 · focus · HN ↗
    Or the app is fine, but I don't want to bother downloading it for some random thing that should just be a website.
    [deleted] · 1790099341 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]
    vor_ · 1790115548 · focus · HN ↗
    Jobs wasn't always correct about things. There are a large number of examples where he wasn't.

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