Will Apple’s iAds Kill Mobile Search Advertising?
By Anna Johnson on April 14th, 2010Last week, Apple Inc. revealed iAds, a new advertising platform built into the company’s upcoming iPhone operating system, iPhone OS 4. According to Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, iAds will be much more effective than mobile search advertising and, with its revenue sharing potential, may displace search advertising altogether.
Whether or not he’s right, you’ll want to know about iAds… ESPECIALLY if you plan to build an ad-supported iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad application…
Essentially, iAds lets app developers who build applications for iPhone OS 4 (which will power Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices) to embed interactive ads into their apps. Apple will sell and serve up the ads and give developers 60 percent of the revenue earned from running such ads in their applications.
According to Steve Jobs, iAds will be more user-friendly and therefore more effective than conventional search-based mobile ads. Unlike mobile search ads, users won’t have to leave an app (with little hope of returning to where they left off) in order to view or interact with an ad.
On the contrary, because Apple will serve up the ad within the app – and a full-screen, video based, interactive ad at that – users will be able to return to their app (at the spot they left it) any time. What’s more, according to Mr Jobs, the ads will be entertaining rather than distracting. (Not sure how Steve can guarantee that, but anyway…)
It looks like iAds will only apply to Apple’s products. This will no doubt appeal to developers building apps for Apple’s mobile devices, but be less appealing for developers wishing to diversify and build apps for non-Apple mobile devices.
I guess that’s all part of Apple’s plan to keep developers focusing on ITS devices and not those of any other company…
Source: Brad Stone, “Apple Edges Into Selling of App Ads,” The New York Times, April 8, 2010
