12 votes

Apple's audacity, and what yesterday's WWDC announcements demonstrate about their future plans

Posted by Deimos
Tags: apple, privacy, business, wwdc.2019, event, announcements, future, author.ben thompson, source.stratechery
https://stratechery.com/2019/apples-audacity/

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Title
Apple's Audacity
Authors
Ben Thompson
Published
Jun 4 2019
Word count
2188 words

3 comments

  1. [3]
    NaraVara
    Link
    I was only half paying attention to WWDC yesterday and this article addressed a bunch of the questions I had, particularly the sign in with Apple bit. I thought it was great, but then I figured...

    I was only half paying attention to WWDC yesterday and this article addressed a bunch of the questions I had, particularly the sign in with Apple bit. I thought it was great, but then I figured nobody would use it because it directly interferes with all the invasive ad tech and tracking that web developers put on until he mentioned this:

    Then came the bombshell in Apple’s Updates to the App Store Guidelines:

    Sign In with Apple will be available for beta testing this summer. It will be required as an option for users in apps that support third-party sign-in when it is commercially available later this year.

    It's heartening to see monopoly power being used for good instead of evil! Maybe Apple is just trying to get on Elizabeth Warren's good side?

    I wonder if this goes further. Will they allow people who don't own any Apple hardware to register iCloud accounts so they can sign-in with Apple? If the Apple ID is going to become a thing with utility, I'd like it to start bundling in some nice freebies the way Amazon does with Prime. But I expect that's not the Apple way.

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      cptcobalt
      Link Parent
      Yes. You can already do this today—you can get an Apple ID to use Apple Music on Android, and iTunes Movies on (select) smart TVs, all without owning an Apple Device.

      I wonder if this goes further. Will they allow people who don't own any Apple hardware to register iCloud accounts so they can sign-in with Apple?

      Yes. You can already do this today—you can get an Apple ID to use Apple Music on Android, and iTunes Movies on (select) smart TVs, all without owning an Apple Device.

      5 votes
      1. NaraVara
        Link Parent
        I had totally forgotten that they recently released an Apple Music app for Android. This starts to put the new stuff like TV+ and News+ in perspective. I guess since they can't be...

        I had totally forgotten that they recently released an Apple Music app for Android. This starts to put the new stuff like TV+ and News+ in perspective. I guess since they can't be all-things-to-all-people on the hardware front, they're going to try to capture those folks through subscription services and hope the "halo effect" of nice design earns them some loyal customers in the future. That's basically what the iPod did for them even though iTunes on Windows was, by all accounts, dogshit (even back when it was good on Macs).

        4 votes