Apple's mobile ad platform due April 7?
updated 11:10 am EDT, Sat March 27, 2010
Apple iAd due to challenge Google soon
Apple's mobile ad platform could be ready just days after the iPad reaches shops, a leak late Friday might have confirmed. The technology firm would unveil the platform, possibly named "iAd," to major advertising executives on April 7th. Company head Steve Jobs has already celebrated the plans and is now calling them "revolutionary," according to the MediaPost sources involved.
How the ad system would work wasn't known, but it would be heavily based on the approaches acquired with Quattro Wireless in January. Apple is implementing a formal advertising SDK that would give app and mobile site developers a ready-made way to plug ads into their content. Geolocation for ads has been a subject of speculation, but the iPhone maker has previously rejected apps where GPS and triangulation are used primarily to target ads to users.
While potentially lucrative, the ad system could stoke tensions between Apple and Google even as their respective CEOs are openly discussing issues after seemingly being isolated in recent months. iAd isn't expected to be the exclusive advertising method for future iPhone apps, but as an officially blessed method it could eat significantly into the market share of Google's recent buyout target AdMob.
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Apple is going to pay Google back for Android...
I'll bet Google is not going to be very happy at all with Apple going into the ad click business. Apple's mobile platform is going to be made up of a lot of big spenders and I doubt if Google wants to see that revenue get away. I'm sure Google will make a lot of money from ad revenue from its Android platform, but now Google is going to have to depend quantity instead of quality for its ad audience.