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Comment by galenko | Hacker News Reader

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galenko·

We are a dying breed.

A whole new generation has never known an App Store without ads.

To them this is the norm.

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The time that an “App Store” existed and didn’t have adverts was very minimal. Like OP I haven’t browsed the iPhone App Store for over a decade. Occasionally a web page will send me to their app directly and if I want it (very rare) I’ll get it, same with installing specific apps - Spotify, YouTube, WhatsApp etc.

Apple used to charge money for a premium product where the customers were customers and not the product. It’s moving away from that.

> The time that an “App Store” existed and didn’t have adverts was very minimal.

The iOS App Store was introduced in 2008. Ads in it began in 2016. We’re in 2026. The App Store has had ads for longer than it didn’t, but the early period was not “very minimal”, it was almost half its current life time.

Did ads on search appear in 2016? I vaguely remember the change to the “curated” pages with ads but I thought searching for a specific app and getting an ad for it (or something else) before the first search result was even newer.

> Did ads on search appear in 2016?

Yes.

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/06/ads-appearing-app-store...

https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/6/13184346/apple-app-store-...

Wow, last decade went by fast.

But the time from smart phones becoming more popular than normal phones was about 2012, so that would be 75% of the time for most users.

That cutoff doesn’t matter at all for the reality of the situation, and your math is off. The moment smart phone use becomes a majority does not mean the majority of people have only started experiencing something at that point. And we’re talking specifically about the iOS App Store ads, and you’re ignoring the iPod Touch and iPad…

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