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U.S. Federal Trade Commission Looking Into Apple's iAd?

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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In a report covering a potential antitrust inquiry for Apple regarding its exclusion of cross-platform compilers for applications submitted to the App Store, The Wall Street Journal notes that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also been looking into iAd mobile advertising platform. The investigations come as the FTC is scrutinizing Google's attempt to acquire mobile ad firm AdMob, with rumors suggesting that the agency may formally oppose the deal.

Separate from its much-publicized change to its developer agreement regarding cross-compilers that has seen a flare-up in the Apple-Adobe relationship, Apple made another change that appears to be designed to prevent other ad agencies from gathering the analytics necessary to offer viable ad platforms on the iPhone OS.
One wireless-advertising executive said he was contacted a few weeks ago by an official from the FTC who wanted to talk about how the mobile-ad industry works, the Apple developer agreement and how it could affect the executive's business.

The FTC has also taken an interest in iAd in the context of the agency's investigation of Google Inc.'s $750 million purchase of mobile-ad company AdMob Inc. Several developers said they have been contacted by the FTC about the Google-AdMob probe, with two saying they were told that the agency was also looking into the iAd service.
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For their part, Google and AdMob have been drawing attention to Apple's moves in the mobile advertising space as they work to convince regulators that the industry offers sufficient competition that should permit Google's acquisition of AdMob to proceed.



Article Link: U.S. Federal Trade Commission Looking Into Apple's iAd?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/05/04/u-s-federal-trade-commission-looking-into-apples-iad/
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hundleton1

macrumors 6502
Jul 29, 2008
266
6
Wales UK
For god sake let them fight it out, Adobe is the monkey on Apples back, if they not like what apple do then move on, its like MS crying because intel introduce a new CPU that does not support current windows.

as for Apple and Google, let them buy who they want that the fight it out. one, both or neither will survive in the end but hay thats business
 
Chaszmyr

Chaszmyr

macrumors 601
Aug 9, 2002
4,267
86
The FTC probably won't be so concerned when they realize advertisers aren't going to want to pay $2 per person that taps on their stupid banners.

Maybe I'm just wrong, but I can't imagine how iAd is going to be successful with the prices Apple plans to charge.


bushido said:
the customer friendly apple image is really going down the toilet ... understandably so
Click to expand...

It's not really the customers that Apple has been unfriendly towards lately.
 
S

SimonTheSoundMa

macrumors 65816
Aug 6, 2006
1,033
213
Birmingham, UK
Are we all failing to realise that iAd is optional, and people can use another ad service if they want.

The only other problem is Apple have filed a patent application for iAd. It's a bloody design. Please America, you need patent reform!
 
e-coli

e-coli

macrumors 68000
Jul 27, 2002
1,935
1,149
So Apple is basically the new Viacom / ClearChannel. That didn't take a whole lot of foresight. But what's the big deal? We're talking about in-app advertising, not web advertising. The user chooses to buy and use an app, developers choose to create it, then choose to add iAd to their app. Then it comes down to who's willing to put media in that space. This is no different from what's already happening in the market. People are constantly innovating in the media market with nary a lawsuit. This is a witch hunt.
 
X

-=XX=-Nephilim

macrumors 6502a
Feb 1, 2009
674
0
Chaszmyr said:
It's not really the customers that Apple has been unfriendly towards lately.
Click to expand...

Excuse me!?

First of all they charged me double for exactly the same hardware, made in exactly the same country (China) as what other manufactures would do.

Then they gave me only 1 year guaranty on it while all other manufactures (at least here in Europe) are giving me 3 years instead.

Then equipment started to fall apart as soon as it got out of guaranty brackets (my MBP power adaptor failed after 14 months - had to buy new one, my MBP so called SuperDrive doesn't read disks anymore, my MBP logic board died, admittedly due to NVidia issue but still - and my 20" Cinema Display is dead after only 15 months of use)

Then they lock me into their crap iDevice eco system literally forcing me to JAIL BREAK out of it (what a appropriate name for it!)

Then they limit my experience by not allowing Flash and therefore full internet experience...

Then they lie into my face with some crap "open letters" that kid of 10 could see through and rip apart (yes, I am referring to recent SJ letter)...

Then they impose recent draconian licence agreement rules...

Then they stage open attack on freedom of press by Raiding Gizmo office and taking their computers...


And this is just scratching the surface...


Being unfriendly to customers!?!?!

LOL :D


Indeed!

And I am not surprised if we see more court cases and similar investigations coming our way in near future...

Apple's been acting like a real cock - towards industry as a whole, towards partners, towards press, towards users and customers... and they deserve everything that came and is coming their way...
 
W

wlh99

macrumors 6502
Feb 7, 2008
272
0
hundleton1 said:
For god sake let them fight it out, Adobe is the monkey on Apples back, if they not like what apple do then move on, its like MS crying because intel introduce a new CPU that does not support current windows.

as for Apple and Google, let them buy who they want that the fight it out. one, both or neither will survive in the end but hay thats business
Click to expand...

A closer analogy would be Microsoft pushing Internet Explorer and trying to kill Netscape.
 
M

mdatwood

macrumors 6502a
Mar 14, 2010
914
889
East Coast, USA
SimonTheSoundMa said:
Are we all failing to realise that iAd is optional, and people can use another ad service if they want.

The only other problem is Apple have filed a patent application for iAd. It's a bloody design. Please America, you need patent reform!
Click to expand...

iAd may be optional, but Apple is making changes in the developer agreement that give iAd advantages over other ad solutions. This can be seen as anti-competitive.

Chaszmyr said:
The FTC probably won't be so concerned when they realize advertisers aren't going to want to pay $2 per person that taps on their stupid banners.

Maybe I'm just wrong, but I can't imagine how iAd is going to be successful with the prices Apple plans to charge.
Click to expand...

All depends on conversion rate. I'll happily pay $2/click as long as I'm making $2+X/click. The harder part of the equation is figuring out if I could have gotten the same person to buy through a less expensive ad. That's where the analytics come into play that Apple is trying to prevent everyone but them from gathering.
 
S

supmango

macrumors 6502
Feb 17, 2008
413
0
We all need to remember that the FTC is a government agency. As a result, they move slower than continental drift and the only thing they really ever successfully pull off is dissolving monopolies.
 
jaw04005

jaw04005

macrumors 601
Aug 19, 2003
4,513
402
AR
Yawn. I’m sure someone at the FTC looks in to pretty much everything.

One wireless-advertising executive said he was contacted a few weeks ago by an official from the FTC who wanted to talk about how the mobile-ad industry works, the Apple developer agreement and how it could affect the executive's business.
Click to expand...

It’s hilarious the FTC had to have someone in the “mobile-ad industry” explain mobile advertising.

Sounds sort of like those lawyers that call you after you get in a car wreck.

On the one hand, you have AdMob that’s collecting tons of information about Apple’s customers and will in turn provide that data to Google once their buyout gets approved (and despite the pandering they’ll eventually get regulatory approval).

Then you have Google collecting additional information about Apple’s customers by being the default search engine on the iPhone and via the Google app.

You know Google is going to use that data to further develop their Android operating system by looking at iPhone customer’s surfing habits, app store links, etc.

It’s sort of like allowing your biggest competitor to get a peek inside your customer’s homes everyday and collect usage statistics.

So, in some ways I can understand why Apple created iAd. iAd just like the App Store and iTunes Store will probably not contribute much to Apple’s bottom line.

There’s no way in hell the FTC is going to force Apple to disclose additional information to advertisers about iPhone customers (even if iAd does that). They would be publicly scorned.

Not to mention, mobile advertising is a new, emerging market and the last thing it needs is regulatory intervention.

So, good luck FTC. Feel free to carry on with your inquiries.
 
T

the vj

macrumors 6502a
Nov 23, 2006
654
0
hundleton1 said:
For god sake let them fight it out, Adobe is the monkey on Apples back, if they not like what apple do then move on, its like MS crying because intel introduce a new CPU that does not support current windows.

as for Apple and Google, let them buy who they want that the fight it out. one, both or neither will survive in the end but hay thats business
Click to expand...


For people doing what they want without controls is why we are in a resession.

Apple will give up with Adobe for one reason... Apple can not dictate the kind of application it wants to run into the products THE SOLD. The product IS MINE, I PAID FOR IT.

If Apple keep doing that, tomorrow the next OS X will run only the applications Apple wants.
 
E

Eddyisgreat

macrumors 601
Oct 24, 2007
4,851
2
supmango said:
We all need to remember that the FTC is a government agency. As a result, they move slower than continental drift and the only thing they really ever successfully pull off is dissolving monopolies.
Click to expand...

lololololol

And yes, bad week for Apple. I think they're great but I really hope these threats have some teeth, though after seeing the FTC's "tough stance" on broadband policy (read: none) i'm not too sure what to expect.
 
thejadedmonkey

thejadedmonkey

macrumors G3
May 28, 2005
9,180
3,329
Pennsylvania
jaw04005 said:
It’s sort of like allowing your biggest competitor to get a peek inside your customer’s homes everyday and collect usage statistics.
/snip
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Yeah, but this is assuming that Apple is no longer a hardware company, but instead a software as a service company, that just so happens to run exclusively on hardware that they make.

I can definitely see them going in this direction now, but traditionally (and by traditionally I mean Apple Computer inc, not Apple inc) they have not been.
 
RalfTheDog

RalfTheDog

macrumors 68020
Feb 23, 2010
2,115
1,869
Lagrange Point
thejadedmonkey said:
Yeah, but this is assuming that Apple is no longer a hardware company, but instead a software as a service company, that just so happens to run exclusively on hardware that they make.

I can definitely see them going in this direction now, but traditionally (and by traditionally I mean Apple Computer inc, not Apple inc) they have not been.
Click to expand...

Apple is not a hardware, software or a media company. It is an integration of the three. Take any one away from them and their business plan falls flat on it's face.
 
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