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Apple's iAd Chief Leaving for Venture Capital Firm

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AllThingsD reports that Andy Miller, the former founder and CEO of Quattro Wireless who became Apple's vice president of mobile advertising and head of the iAd program with Apple's acquisition of Quattro in January 2010, is planning to leave Apple in the near future. Miller is said to be leaving to become a general partner at venture capital firm Highland Capital, which had previously funded Quattro.
Sources said Miller -- who sold Quattro Wireless, the mobile advertising company he co-founded in 2006, to Apple in early 2010 for $275 million -- will become a general partner at Highland Capital, the Boston-based venture firm that had funded Quattro.

Apple will search for a replacement for Miller, whose staff was told of the impending departure today.
Click to expand...
Apple purchased Quattro Wireless after it lost out to Google in an attempt to acquire AdMob. Apple was reportedly close to a deal with AdMob when Google swooped in with a last-minute offer to win the competition.

Apple's iAd program went live in July 2010 as Apple's effort to revolutionize mobile advertising with high-quality, interactive ads for iOS devices. The effort is seen as having had only marginal success so far, however, with some advertisers turned off by high costs, Apple's demands for control over the creative process, and iOS-only availability. Apple has cut buy-in fees for advertisers several times in order to try to boost interest and fill ad slots that are growing quickly as iOS device sales continue to explode and more developers integrate iAd into their apps.

Article Link: Apple's iAd Chief Leaving for Venture Capital Firm
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/17/apples-iad-chief-leaving-for-venture-capital-firm/
nylonsteel

nylonsteel

macrumors 68000
Nov 5, 2010
1,552
491
re iad chief leaving

probably a good thing

iad = "marginal success so far..."

this guy made bank working for aapl and he will make more bank on his venture

we need some new ideas/new blood in the so called iad project

"Honey, whaddya do for money?..." - ac/dc
 
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dreamworks21

macrumors newbie
Jan 15, 2008
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His parting shot was taking down the Apple Store this morning while shouting "so long suckers!!!!". Steve will have his revenge...
 
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samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
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Not surprised. iAds is relatively a sinking ship and under Apple's auspices probably a very frustration environment to work in having a) run your own company and b) dealing with Apple's strict guidelines...
 
A

accessoriesguy

macrumors 6502a
Jul 8, 2011
891
0
well he already did his time, helped start and set everything up, the next person just picks up from what has already been done, instead of from scratch.

Venture capitalist, I hope he goes off to some cool work. They have made some cool things in silicon valley!!!
 
kas23

kas23

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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

The beginning of the end of iAds...or was that when Apple began to continuously axe prices?
 
MacSince1990

MacSince1990

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Oct 6, 2009
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Meh. Honestly they need better advertisers. Hell, they need better writers. I mean I could do a better job, and I'm in no way qualified. At least on paper.
 
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samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
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MacSince1990 said:
Meh. Honestly they need better advertisers. Hell, they need better writers. I mean I could do a better job, and I'm in no way qualified. At least on paper.
Click to expand...

Actually they need better pricing (although it has gotten "better") but more importantly they need to allow the client/agency have control over their own messaging and not micromanage causing an already laborious deadline to linger months and months for approval by Apple. It's hard enough for client and agency to reach a final product. Then having to deal with Apple's system is ridiculous.
 
BC2009

BC2009

macrumors 68020
Jul 1, 2009
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iAd has so many problems catching on. Google swooping in to acquire AdMob was a brilliant move, as I suspect iAd would have done better had it been born from AdMob.

Apple needs to make some credibility for themselves in the advertising space for this to succeed. Publishing studies that iAd audience is more likely to buy your stuff (i.e. saying iAds are more effective) is not going to win over the advertisers. They need to make iAd advertising cheap and easy and build momentum. Advertisers consider a "premium product" to be the one that reaches the most people (e.g. Super Bowl). They don't care how much prettier and how much more interactive their ads are. So if Apple wants to make them pretty and interactive, that is their business. They can't expect to markup the pricing on that alone.

My advice, use a "dumping" scheme like Google does. Use your other business to subsidize iAd and just look for it to break even, severely cutting the costs, but still throw more people at it to improve the ad creation tools and process to keep the ads pretty and interactive. Then it will be Apple giving away an advertising product to undermine Google's business and Google giving away a mobile OS to undermine Apple's business. Either that or both companies can agree to be partners again and just do the stuff they do best. Those were the days......
 
MacSince1990

MacSince1990

macrumors 65816
Oct 6, 2009
1,347
0
samcraig said:
Actually they need better pricing (although it has gotten "better") but more importantly they need to allow the client/agency have control over their own messaging and not micromanage causing an already laborious deadline to linger months and months for approval by Apple. It's hard enough for client and agency to reach a final product. Then having to deal with Apple's system is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Well, they need all of those things ;)
 
A

AppleDroid

macrumors 6502a
Apr 10, 2011
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Whenever someone says "Venture Capital Firm" an angel loses its wings. I realize this has no real value in regards to the discussion but it's not a very exciting article anyway.
 
marksman

marksman

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Getting out while the getting is good. I predict an iAds overhaul in the next 18 months
 
J

jackhdev

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Apr 9, 2011
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A5288d Safari/7534.48.3)

Great, this guy sucked. The fill rate for iAds in my iPad apps is under 10%! Are you kidding me?
 
kiljoy616

kiljoy616

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troop231 said:
I'll gladly take his spot even for 50% of what he makes :p
Click to expand...

Good reason why you will never get it, same here I do it for 40%;)

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jackhdev said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A5288d Safari/7534.48.3)

Great, this guy sucked. The fill rate for iAds in my iPad apps is under 10%! Are you kidding me?
Click to expand...

Make better software.

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BC2009 said:
iAd has so many problems catching on. Google swooping in to acquire AdMob was a brilliant move, as I suspect iAd would have done better had it been born from AdMob.

Apple needs to make some credibility for themselves in the advertising space for this to succeed. Publishing studies that iAd audience is more likely to buy your stuff (i.e. saying iAds are more effective) is not going to win over the advertisers. They need to make iAd advertising cheap and easy and build momentum. Advertisers consider a "premium product" to be the one that reaches the most people (e.g. Super Bowl). They don't care how much prettier and how much more interactive their ads are. So if Apple wants to make them pretty and interactive, that is their business. They can't expect to markup the pricing on that alone.

My advice, use a "dumping" scheme like Google does. Use your other business to subsidize iAd and just look for it to break even, severely cutting the costs, but still throw more people at it to improve the ad creation tools and process to keep the ads pretty and interactive. Then it will be Apple giving away an advertising product to undermine Google's business and Google giving away a mobile OS to undermine Apple's business. Either that or both companies can agree to be partners again and just do the stuff they do best. Those were the days......
Click to expand...

I don't really think iAd is something Apple cares about. Its more for add to the developer who can't sell their wares.
 
T

thetexan

macrumors 6502a
May 11, 2009
720
0
The only reason iAd exists is because Steve Jobs can't stomach the idea that Google is making millions (maybe billions) per year off the iOS platform. Advertising is not Apple's business and it shows because they're doing a lousy job at it so far.

App developer puts app in iTunes for $0, Apple gets $0. App developer puts Google advertisements in app, both Google and developer get paid. Apple still at $0.

If Steve had his way and it weren't for the pesky government regulatory agencies around the world he would ban applications form using advertising unless they went with Apple's iAd platform.
 
J

jackhdev

macrumors 6502
Apr 9, 2011
343
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Bismarck, North Dakota
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kiljoy616 said:
Good reason why you will never get it, same here I do it for 40%;)

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Make better software.

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I don't really think iAd is something Apple cares about. Its more for add to the developer who can't sell their wares.
Click to expand...



Do you know what fill rate is? If there are 100 people using your app at once, and the fill rate is 10%, then only 10 out of those 100 people will see ads. That's horrible!! On the iPhone, it's 90%, which is much better. It doesn't have anything to do with the quality of software. Additionally, apps that are free are downloaded apparently 75% more than paid apps, so that's a GREAT reason to put ads in. More people using your app, and more money. Know what you're talking about, please.
 
BC2009

BC2009

macrumors 68020
Jul 1, 2009
2,237
1,393
kiljoy616 said:
Good reason why you will never get it, same

Make better software.
....
I don't really think iAd is something Apple cares about. Its more for add to the developer who can't sell their wares.
Click to expand...

jackhdev said:
Do you know what fill rate is? If there are 100 people using your app at once, and the fill rate is 10%, then only 10 out of those 100 people will see ads. That's horrible!! On the iPhone, it's 90%, which is much better. It doesn't have anything to do with the quality of software. Additionally, apps that are free are downloaded apparently 75% more than paid apps, so that's a GREAT reason to put ads in. More people using your app, and more money. Know what you're talking about, please.
Click to expand...

I think kiljoy616 holds the belief that people will pay for better software and therefore there is no need for supporting it with ads. That is, if the software were better then one would not need to monetize with ads. However, that does not take into account the many apps that offer a free ad-supported version along side a paid version. I have personally used an ad-supported version of an app before upgrading to the paid version of it and I think this is a great thing. It also does not take into account the many users who simply refuse to pay for apps and would prefer getting things for free and dealing with ads. The "apps should be free" mentality is more prevalent in the Android ecosystem, but I have seen many iOS users review apps complaining about the money they had to pay for an app which is a bit ridiculous given what you can get for $5 or less on the app store. So far it seems to me that the App Store has got some real value apps and I don't have much inertia to overcome to pull the trigger on a $2.99 app -- I figure I could have the app or a couple of candy bars -- usually not a hard decision for me.
 
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