At WDDC Apple announced the new terms in section 3.3.9 of the iphone OS developer agreement , Apple has tweaked its terms and conditions to explicitly lock out in-app advertising to Ad networks run by companies that make a mobile OS or hardware and gather user data on how people interact with their ads known as tracking .
Tracking is an important aspect in any form of digital advertising, which offers various advantages over paper advertisements. The various aspects tracking deals with are – how long someone views an ad , which part of ad they tap on , what were they actually in to while they tapped the ad and many more such vital statistics are gathered . Without them digital advertising would not had been so appealing to advertisers.
Apple even stated it won’t allow the collection of any demographic information for any purpose that isn’t directly relevant to the use of the Application, even if users consent is obtained.
These new terms effectively block Nokia , Microsoft and other companies but the main aim was Google , which recently acquired AdMob , the leading provider of ads in apps .Microsoft doesn’t have a mobile advertising platform like AdMob or AdMarvel owned by Opera. Like Apple , Google owns a mobile ad network as well as develops a mobile OS (Android) . After AdMob was allowed within the iPhone apps it turned to a bigger part of ad business for Google than the Ads in Android apps. Apple couldn’t see Google’s AdMob being a huge success on its own platform. Apple’s answer to Google is its new terms which clearly say – Hey Google use you AdMob on your own OS, I have my iAds . The chart below from AdMob shows the ad’s served and clicked on iPhone OS vs. Android OS ,and the numbers are almost three times on the iPhone and about four times on iPhone OS (iPod +iPad +iPhone) . Here’s where Google was making a lot of business from the iPhone users, Apple didn’t like it and kicked off Google out of in-app advertising on iPhone.
“ This change is not in the best interests of users or iPhone app developers, “ wrote Hamoui , AdMob chief in a blog post two days back. “In the history of technology and innovation, it’s clear that competition delivers the best outcome. Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and app developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress.”
Google is left out in the cold , and this in turn gives a big blow in competition in the mobile ad space . It is also a payback for Google, which bought the AdMob just when Apple was about to purchase it .
But just think about it the other way round , if Apple permits Google to track user data within ads on iPhone , Google gets the stats how people interact with advertising elements on the iOS apps. This could benefit Google on implementing the information acquired from iOS on its own Android OS .Both the companies are approved by FTC for advertising. Apple shouldn’t be able to wield control overits OS and app store to create an unfair advertising advantage, neither should it be compelled to allow a competitor to gather valuable usage information from its products.
Apple wants to build a world where it can make sure everything from apps to ads work in a way Apple thinks it should while its competitor Google doesn’t feel so , Google wants to use a open and more friendly approach and overtake Apple , by allowing variety of hardware manufacturers to run Android OS , allowing everyone to the Android store , allowing other mobileOS companies to run ad networks over each other’s device .
Google still has no restrictions on Apple’s Quattro Wireless, which advertises on Android platform even after these new terms.
“Android is an open platform,” Google spokesman Rob Shilkin told Wired on Thursday. “Android developers can choose which ad network or ad company they use to make money, as we believe that competition and openness deliver the best outcome for developers, which in turn leads to the best apps for users.
“Apple, through Quattro Wireless, already serves ads to app developers on Android, and we have no plans to change that — in fact, we’d welcome improved Apple ad products on Android.”
To judge who is right and who goes wrong is not the point, because both are competitors and acting in their best interests using strategies they see fit for business. But now what next, Apple got their own ad network, which sets limited competition in mobile ad market, which in turn limits iPhone application developers options and also harms user choice as Google says . But Google shall have no anger for what Apple did. Because the root cause of the situation is the same FTC policy which allowed Google to acquire AdMob from Apple for $750 million.
Now when Advertising networks cant gather any stats , digital advertisement goes crappy just like paper ads , it’s a huge loss for many Advertising networks which track ads on the iPhone OS (iPhone , iPod , iPad ), so in such a case Advertisers are going to pay comparatively less and thus the in-app advertising is going to be less worthy for most of the iPhone application developers who generally meet the iphone Application development cost by means of in-app advertising .
IPhone application developers are really unhappy with the new terms and this is also going to affect the productivity from iPhone development point of view. Over 60% of paid apps also have a lighter or in-app ads version which can only be provided for trial use with the support of in-app advertising, on how appealing the app is to the users, they go for a paid/ Ad-free version, but most of the Apps which sell a million mark are free, so why not benefit the users by providing free or low priced app as well as the developers by integrating Ads with advanced tracking.
What do you iPhone application developers feel about this , how critical are these tweaked terms for you and iPhone application development .
