Trying to sell something to privacy obsessed tech segment is a futile effort. They are never happy and don’t want to pay for anything anyway.
But that is not their target market anyway. It is the general public and these comments are just noise.
But that is not their target market anyway. It is the general public and these comments are just noise.
https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/
But yes, these comments are likely just noise.
First it was both:
> Trying to sell something to privacy obsessed tech segment is a futile effort. They are never happy and don’t want to pay for anything anyway. But that is not their target market anyway.
Now just
> But that is not their target market anyway.
Those listed companies exist in an entirely different universe to apple and talking about them is entirely irrelevant here. Their existence proves nothing.
edit (for clarity): Saying that Apples mass-market approach spares them from catering to privacy concerned, somewhat still niche interests would've been a completely valid comment.
The message would not have needed the false part.
"Trying to sell something to privacy obsessed tech segment is a futile effort. They are never happy and don’t want to pay for anything anyway."
And you're off here being like "BUT THEY DO EXIST (even if they are so trivially small that they wouldn't even make a rounded-up single line on Apple's financial disclosures)".
From Apple and his perspective, these tiny businesses are irrelevant.
puri.sm may yet execute well and take-off but privacy remains a seriously hard problem to tackle (due to govt, ad-net, big-tech) yet easily a problem to get passionate about.
Librem 5 raised over $2.1 million
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/10/purism-librem-5-crowdfun...
The VPN market is measured in the billions.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/542817/worldwide-virtual...
People spend money in this area. The privacy orientated crowd is willing to put their money where their mouth is.
Please keep orientating products towards it.
edit: sorry, for some reason I'm unable to reply to the comment below. Purism raised 2.1 million pre-selling their the librem 5, not in shares or anything.
As far as the “VPN market” according to the link, they are mostly referring to businesses using VPNs in the enterprise not individual users.
The other products and services mentioned don’t seem to be prospering the same way.
There's also lots of businesses that use them for accessing internal networks externally.
I've never met anyone in real life that is using one for privacy reasons.
I learned about the reply button because I too was once wondering why it sometimes doesn't appear, and I Googled it.
Yes. I hate this attitude that its not enough to be profitable you have to make literally all the money or your business is a failure.
Are they profitable
To
you have to make literally all the money or your business is a failure
I spend quite a bit of money per month to maintain some semblance of privacy and none of the companies I support are raking in millions in profit every quarter.
See Onova....
I'm only too happy to pay a premium if that gives me some control over my own privacy.
I value privacy more than a robust and fair market. I can understand why others wouldn't, but I'm not the one spending their money, nor are they the ones spending mine.
Going with Cyanogenmod (now LineageOS) helped a lot but did not resolve the need to restart often. Then my device which is primarily a phone that absolutely must work reliably and must be secure and updated, is at the whims of a rather lackadaisical volunteer effort.
Irregardless of arguing merits, the bottom line is that it's clear to me that Android's quality does not match what Apple is doing with iOS. Ultimately, I need calls and texts to guarantee to not be laggy and be reliable. It doesn't just need to be reliable, it also needs to feel reliable. I can't remember a single time an iOS app crashed on me. Android failed me in both of those regards in favor of being a mini-PC, with all the positive and negative connotations that includes.
I moved over with the iPhone5S, loved it, still usable as a backup phone unlike all of my old Android devices which are useless today and not even supported by LineageOS builds that aren't years old. I'm using an iPhone SE today, 3 years on with zero issues, still secure, private, fast and stable. It'll be getting iOS 13 in the fall, which looks better than ever.
If Apple releases an iPhone XE, I'll be buying it at launch at any stated price. I would hand Apple $1,000 for the rumored XE. Even if I only used it 3 years, which is on the minimum end of an iPhone's lifespan, per month cost is $28 at that price for 3 years. Considering the support, build quality and reliable utility, it's an absolute no brainer. A bargain. Anyone ever use the 'Apple Support' app? If you have an issue, they help you, really help you, for $0.0. I'm speaking from my own personal experience alone. I don't work for Apple, and only buy index funds. They're simply doing business right, and making everyone else look like fools. They've built their own value through reliable, hard work. Even if the iPhone costs $50 to manufacture.
Apple is one of the very few companies that from what I've seen, gave me the impression that they actually give a damn or two about their own products. I'm actually a .Net developer, a Thinkpad fan (and Macbook, because of the copious service locations), and if it's not clear yet.. love my iPhone.
Apple products have had plenty of bugs leading to security issues, and I'd rather make it easier for researchers to discover these.
Possibly compromising security for everybody just so 0.05% of the users can be happy is not a realistic expectation.
The only way to make companies fix bugs which may be difficult to find, expensive to fix, and potentially embarrassing is to make it easy to locate exploits on real hardware. Otherwise the only people with the resources to do this are government-backed entities like NSO Group, Vupen, etc, who somehow always ensure that exploits get into the hands of repressive governments.
For the vast majority of users this isn't a concern or even a good idea.
So security isn’t a concern to you at all, huh? Or are you just really bad at understanding security?
Honest question, because I have absolutely no idea.
Everyone values features differently. If my valuations aren't in line with yours, what makes yours more major?
Firewalling traffic and tunneling also requires root. I believe it is a popular way to block ads and analytics, either with a hosts file or iptables.
As a member of one segment of the cellphone user population, I'll say none, really.
The ability to root your phone, IMHO, simply makes it yet another device that sucks up admin time.
Life is too short. This is the major reason I'm a participant in Apple's walled garden. I don't want to mess about more than necessary with a device that I regard as a tool. If my hammer required admin time, I'd dump it.
They aren't quite orthogonal because if you have root on your device, then you limit the security guarantees Apple can make about their privacy measures.
This is a fairly deep problem in the sense that there is a tradeoff between having a secure enclave to support interesting security protocols on the one hand, and the fact that a secure enclave almost by definition means you don't fully own the machine on the other.
I had a work iPhone and it felt like 4 years outdated.
Apple gives you less control over your privacy. Do you want to open map links in an offline maps app? Impossible on the iPhone. Do you want to develop apps for your own device without handing over card details? Also impossible. Do you want to install apps at all without telling Apple you installed them? Too bad. Would you rather not tell Apple your location every time you use GPS? There's no way to opt out (this is opt-in on even Google-flavored Android devices). The list goes on.
> Do you want to open map links in an offline maps app? Impossible on the iPhone.
Yes and no. The app launcher defaults to Maps. You can copy and paste addresses into any offline maps app.
> Do you want to develop apps for your own device without handing over card details? Also impossible.
Blatantly false. You can compile and sideload direct from Xcode to any iOS device without the need for a paid dev account. The paid dev account is only for putting your app on the App Store, or using Test Flight, etc.
> Do you want to install apps at all without telling Apple you installed them? Too bad.
I currently have a Nintendo DS and GameBoy Advance emulator on my unjailbroken phone. I installed direct from a website. I had to 'trust' the developer's certificate first.
> Would you rather not tell Apple your location every time you use GPS?
Citation needed. This information is stored locally and not (afaik) sent to the cloud.
Are you serious? Do you normally copy and paste links instead of clicking on them? You think it's reasonable for somebody to do this with every map link? How about map links inside native applications that aren't even copyable at all?
> Blatantly false. You can compile and sideload direct from Xcode to any iOS device without the need for a paid dev account.
But you will have to reinstall it weekly, which makes this method unworkable.
> I had to 'trust' the developer's certificate first.
When you did that, you also had to tap a "Verify App" button, which phones home to Apple. Ultimately, Apple may revoke the enterprise certificate used to sign your emulator apps, and then you won't even be able to install them.
> Citation needed.
"By enabling Location Services for your devices, you agree and consent to the transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of your location data and location search queries by Apple and its partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based and road traffic-based products and services."
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207056
You cannot get your GPS location without Location Services enabled.
> More hyperbole...
You've bought into Apple's marketing so completely that you don't believe the evidence right in front of your face.
I'm probably not obsessed with privacy, but I put it fairly high on my priority list, and I'm sure as hell I can and will pay for it, if it's not just an illusion. I can see value when there's value. It remains to be seen whether Apple can provide it, though.
We can argue (somebody here will) as to the actual level of privacy conferred, but the segment is far from miniscule: