Comment by encom

5 years ago

You already know the answer. Shoveling billions of dollars into a pit that doesn't help Apple make even more money, is never going to happen.

4 comments

encom

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insta_anon  5 years ago

I am actually not convinced about your assumption that it wouldn’t make them any money in the long-term.

My theory is: people that are quite tech savvy (like the HN crowd) would look at such an effort quite favourably and these folks are often micro-influencers when it comes to buying decisions of their direct peers.

Just an anecdote, but my entire family uses Apple devices, because I am the go-to computer guy in that circle and I advised them to buy Apple. The company that I co-founded used Apple hardware and so on.

Maybe that is just wishful thinking and it is hard to quantify, but I’d like to believe that increasing your reputation with developers (who in itself are a niche) helps you grow revenue in the long-term nevertheless.

  • albntomat0  5 years ago

    I mostly agree with you. I'd like to point out this seems to be the first project zero post on HN that hasn't had a handful of posts suggesting project zero is a hit squad going after Apple.

  • Leherenn  5 years ago

    Well your anecdote doesn't seem to support your argument.

    Google is the one paying all those researchers at Project Zero, Apple doesn't seem to have that kind of security group, and yet you still buy/recommend Apple instead of Android.

    I am sure it can move some people, but the reality is that this kind of effort is so down the list of priorities when buying for most people that it is certainly not worth $1B per year.