What evidence is there that it's hurting their brand?

Outside of HN I see zero complaints. And the situation has been going on for a while. I might not like it, but it seems perfectly fine for their brand as far as I can tell.

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latexr 6 hours ago | parent [-]

I see a lot of complaints outside of HN. For starters, not every nerd, and not even every Apple nerd, is on HN. Outside of that, even my non-tech-savvy acquaintances have been complaining as of late.

Is it enough of a damaged brand to hurt their profits as of now? Clearly not. But cracks are forming. Apple’s brand isn’t damaged when they’re seen as bad, but when they’re seen as the same as everyone else.

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crazygringo 5 hours ago | parent [-]

> Outside of that, even my non-tech-savvy acquaintances have been complaining as of late.

What do they say? I'm genuinely curious.

Because e.g. I don't have the slightest idea what percentage Microsoft takes on Xbox games, nor would it ever occur to me to complain about it. I know there's a business model there, but it's not something I think about. And I feel like that's the way people outside of tech feel about whatever percentage Apple takes out of its App Store. But what am I missing?

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latexr 4 hours ago | parent [-]

The important bit is “trading net profits for user happiness”. Non-tech-savvy users aren’t complaining about Apple’s margins for apps, but about the things Apple is doing to degrade their experience in the name of profit. Namely excessive ads on the App Store, on System Settings, and on Apple Apps themselves such as Music and Wallet (F1).

	▲	malshe 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah but again that’s all here on HN. I have plenty of friends who are not on HN and I haven’t heard anyone ever complain about these things.