Joanna Stern writes for The Wall Street Journal, in part:
Dear Mr. Cook… See, I have this folder called Apple Apps. It used to be full of the undeletable apps I had no use for—Compass, Tips, Contacts. I mean, does anyone, even at Apple, use Find Friends?
But lately the folder has been growing as I add once-essential apps, including Photos, Music and Mail. Your competitors — Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others — have been releasing superior services that have taken their spots. And while Siri is still at thumb’s reach, I find myself talking far more to Amazon’s Alexa these days.
What makes Google better at this, of course, is its cloud-based data collection. It has records of what I search for in its search engine or in its Maps service, and also knows the contents of my email. By crunching all of that, Google has a pretty good picture of me.
You, on the other hand, have said Apple doesn’t want my data. You do most of the processing on the phone itself, away from the eyes of advertisers or hackers. While I applaud and appreciate your assurance of privacy, my worry is that you simply can’t afford to maintain that mentality when the competition has such a great advantage—and users haven’t shied away from their services.
At what point do you admit you need more user data? Your users trust you, but I don’t envy your position.
Tons more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully, after acquisitions like Perceptio and VocalIQ, Apple has a way forward where they can compete and even surpass others’ offerings while maintaining iOS’ vaunted security and privacy.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Omor” for the heads up.]