iPhone customers upset by Apple Wallet ad pushing F1 movie

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Scope of the F1 Wallet Ad and Immediate Reactions

  • Ad appeared both as a push notification and a banner at the top of Apple Wallet.
  • Many saw this as crossing a line: Wallet and notifications are considered “infrastructure” features, not marketing channels.
  • Several users disabled Wallet notifications entirely; some are considering canceling Apple Card or other Apple services to avoid future ads.
  • A few commenters note the ad “worked” in the sense that it made them consider buying tickets—while still calling it unacceptable.

Expectations of the “Apple Premium” vs Reality

  • Strong sentiment that people pay high prices specifically to avoid being treated like an ad target.
  • Others argue Apple only needs to be “less bad” than Windows/Android OEMs, not ad‑free, to justify its premium.
  • Comparisons to Windows, Xiaomi, Samsung, and Ubuntu show that intrusive ads are increasingly common across platforms; some say only niche OSes (e.g., BSD) remain ad‑free.

Push Notification Abuse and Desired Controls

  • Widespread frustration with apps (Uber, Amazon, food delivery, etc.) using push for marketing instead of critical events.
  • Users want system‑level separation of “offers” vs important alerts (payments, deliveries, emergencies), and per‑category blocking.
  • Android’s notification channels and iOS features like Live Activities/Time Sensitive notifications are cited, but many say apps misuse or ignore them.
  • Some adopt a zero‑tolerance policy: any promotional push → all notifications off or app deleted.

Apple’s Own Rules and Enforcement Double Standards

  • Commenters quote App Store guideline 4.5.4, which forbids promotional push notifications without explicit opt‑in and an in‑app opt‑out.
  • Multiple people assert that big apps routinely violate this and Apple mostly looks the other way.
  • Apple pushing its own F1 promo through Wallet is seen as especially hypocritical given those rules.

Privacy, Trust, and Monetization Pressure

  • Debate over whether Apple truly offers “industry‑leading privacy” given closed source, push metadata sharing with governments, and remote control over apps.
  • Some suggest Apple is compensating for losing high‑margin revenue (search deal, 30% fees) by ramping up ads and services promotion.
  • Overall fear: this is one more step in the “enshittification” of even high‑end devices and will erode long‑term customer trust.