Apple Introduces iAds Mobile Advertising Platform

[Vanilla]

Wow, it sounds just like intrusive flash ads! What a surprise! I guess when Apple's doing it, it's a good idea, huh?

You have to click on the ad to get the experience. You don't want the experience? don't click on the ad. I wouldn't call that 'intrusive'

When and if they build ads that take over your screen real estate, forcing you to close them THEN I'll join in the chorus of anger, but for now I don't see the problem at all. With luck this will trigger some neat creativity...

As an aside I think this can only help the adoption of html5 on the net. I agree with the macbidoulle poster, agencies that develop iPhone iAds are unlikely to rebuild them in flash for the web, they'll steadily gravitate to standardising on html5... nice one....

 

[hobo.hopkins]

Wow, it sounds just like intrusive flash ads! What a surprise! I guess when Apple's doing it, it's a good idea, huh?

Have you ever used a free app on an iPhone or iPod touch? Ads are already rampant. This is no more intrusive than what currently exists. All this will do is replace and enhance the unrelated ads that we currently see.

It really isn't that hard of a concept.

The bulk of online advertising is poorly designed, badly programmed, annoying, and irrelevant to the user.

This is exactly what Apple wants to change, and yet you are protesting them doing just that.

 

[BettBee]

When you see an ad in an iPhone app do you want it to be terrible and spam-like? Or do you want it to be an interesting product and well produced?

I dunno about all of you, but I'd rather see more ads for hollywood movies and chain restaurants and fewer for 'wonder drugs' and credit cards.

No no, you have it wrong. I do not want to see ads in apps at all.

I don't mind a plug in a free app for the company's own stuff, between games or at startup or whatever, but if an ad interrupts usage of an app, it's gone with one star. The free apps are the ads. If an app is good, and not prohibitively expensive, I buy the full version to get the full functionality. That is the encouragement to make the free apps.

Jobs just wants the revenue from the ads. Any other explanation is eyewash.

 

[BettBee]

According to my sales and analytics reports, more people are currently downloading and still using my free ad supported app than my similar paid app. Guess all those thousands and thousands of users don't truly need that free app...

No personal offense intended, but this is only one app, one case, and a statement made by a person with a conflict of interest in this discussion. (Since you are profiting from ads, you cannot be assumed to be objective in this case.)

And even if you are objective on this one, more free than paid downloads does not prove your point. Either you have saturated your market, not reached the right market, or users neither want nor need the added functionality of your paid version.

 

[hobo.hopkins]

No no, you have it wrong. I do not want to see ads in apps at all.

No one wants to see ads at all, yet they always have and will exist in free apps. This doesn't change that.

Jobs just wants the revenue from the ads. Any other explanation is eyewash.

While this is definitely a part of the explanation, this isn't the only reason. Why does it matter if Apple does get more money from ads? I don't care if Apple gets more revenue, as long as the ads aren't any more intrusive than they already are. And if they are more relevant to the user, that's also a good thing.

 

[GSV]

What sort of revenue could this generate for Apple? Are we talking millions, 100 millions, or billions?

 

[BettBee]

Well, ads can be fun too. Look at all the hype over Super Bowl ads. They generate revenue for the company, the network and they can be highly entertaining. It will interesting how this all plays out. Given Steve's track record I'm not gonna bet against him on this.

Ok, your analogy works until the ads start interrupting plays at random moments, so that you have to pay a premium to make sure that some exciting and history-making play won't be cut off to show you the dancing lizards or whatever.

 

[BettBee]

I read a very interesting post on Macbidouille(original version of Hardmac) :

Ads in HTML 5 is ****ing brilliant !
How do you build ads on the web these days ? with flash
If you have to develop an ad for the Iphone (big big market), it's in HTML 5
Do you need to re-develop your ad in flash for the web ? No, it's already in HTML 5...
So what do you do ? you don't want to lose your time, your an ad-agency, you develop all your ads in HTML 5 ...

Jobs just gave a master slap in the face of Adobe and Google !
Brilliant !
Xap'

Folks will just get flashblock and adblock plugins as I do. I see few ads.

 

[deconstruct60]

I'm not siding with anyone on this issue, but according to the New York Times, this is inaccurate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/technology/14brawl.html?pagewanted=3



So, who do we believe?

What Job's said is still mostly accurate, he is just using adjectives to paint Google in a bad light.

a. that will just fuel the fire under the DoJ giving Google a hard time about the acquisition. So he gets to stick it to Google indirectly.

b. it deflects from the corporate (including CEO/Chairman) screw up that they couldn't complete the due diligence in 45 days because they had an "ad hoc" acquisition procedure. Job's isn't going to say "we/I screwed up and Google was more nimble than us".


Just as it is tell that someone didn't follow up with a "but wait ...." question to the "just in the US" after earlier Jobs threw out that 1 billion ad views. Well a huge chunk of those 10 million iPhone OS devices are going to be outside the US. If going to limit themselves to just the US that number was just blowing smoke.

 

[BettBee]

This is good news and I'm glad Apple is muscling-in on this because ultimately, they have the well-being of the user experience in mind in addition to their bottom line.

Hahahahaha, good one . . .

 

[BettBee]

We'll just have to have faith in the free market. There isn't a shortage of apps in the App Store, so there will hopefully be alternatives if ad-free paid apps are economically feasible. Users will complain loudly...

Faith. In the free market. Really? Sigh.

 

[MattWylde]

Are you people not aware that Ads exist on paid apps too? Why are you so naive to think that only free apps contain ads?

Apple is forcing this sh*t down our throats. They are now going to be taking up 1/8 of the screen at all times for stupid ads.

Wow, they are interactive and don't take up the screen/leave the app....well so are those annoying as f**k flash ads that are all over the web. I HATE HATE HATE HATE them.

When I pay $400 for a phone, I don't expect the company who already made profit off of me to sell me down the river.

This seriously infuriates me. F**k you Steve Jobs, as*hole.

 

[Kevlar]

And I am guessing everyone here who is complaining, doesn't use google or bing or yahoo because their searches are turned into ads right?

Ads are all around already, and on the iphone already. Except that the current iPhone ads are horrible. They are poorly designed and ugly. If these are truly non-invasive ads, then who cares. It's the same as it was before. except the end user might have a better experience. Paid apps could of included ads already and I can't think of one that has so why would this change anything?

Also might allow more decent free apps to be created as devs will have a simple way to make a few $$ back.

Ads on the iPhone already existed. This is just apple creating something to eliminate money generated by the iPhone going to google.

If this was a device wide thing without the choice of developers to include it, then people have a right to be pissed. This announcement alone changes nothing except that money created by the iPhone stays more so with Apple and it's developers (but far more to apple then I would of liked).

 

[Porco]

MacRumors is ad-supported. Given your philosophy, what are you doing posting here?

Well I said often, not always. Like most people, I don't use the vast majority of the internet, and web sites that use intrusive ads are ones I try to avoid where possible.

Also, unlike the iPhone OS, the web does not belong to Apple so I could hardly blame them for ads on web sites, but they do like to brag about being innovative and providing a good end-user experience, which I think increasing the ease of using ads has little to do with, in my opinion.

I guess I just wish Apple were spending their time on other things.

 

[deconstruct60]

Um. no. It's not like this is new technology. Mobile ads already exist on the iPhone on a massive scale. And there aren't many (any?) paid apps with ads in it.

This changes nothing.

In so far that this is suppose to be less annoying (really a pause/resume to application state by switching windows and embedding a broswer/HTML engine in the app ) may see more $0.99 app go this route if can't maintain higher price points need to sustain business. The race to the bottom price pressures in the AppStore market are still clearly present.


Free apps just more desperately need it but this will likely have side effect of giving developers "free" dial home and upload stats abilities too like the other ads mechanisms. Any kind of marketing team attached to those apps they will salivate to get that kind of info. For example, apple used same info in the presentation... users use apps for this long for this many times a day.

Likewise the model is all the more revelatant on the iPhones that many ads will be viewed on. Users pay $90 or $199 for $500+ phone. Same thing if app really costs more than its price point can use this for "subsidized" (really amortized) apps. Watch ads and get updates for a discount perhaps. All the more cover for the developers when Apple is sanctioning this embedding ads in apps activity. The same reason why folks think Apple will dominate the embedd process also help strengthen legitimize this revenue mechanisms for software shops.

 

[Teddy's]

Flyers

I hope this is like reading flyers. Less paper.
For those Canadian savers who cannot pay their rogers, bell, and telus iphone bills. We have an ad for them!

 

[PeterQVenkman]

It's inherently a lot less intrusive: Video and sound DOES NOT PLAY unless you CLICK on it. (As the big-ass bold words you quoted yourself make very, very clear.)

Well, there are flash ads that behave exactly like that. Do you defend those as well?

And because it's a touch platform, there's no such thing as a rollover — meaning no obnoxious auto-expanding ads or audio coming at you if you rollover anything.

Let's hope not! Do you trust Apple to not do this? More likely Apple would just charge a premium for auto-exapnding ads. That's how some sites work now. I'm guessing that when it comes down to the user experience vs. the almighty dollar, Apple will pick $$$ every time.

Have you ever used a free app on an iPhone or iPod touch? Ads are already rampant.

Yep. Just saw one today in We Rule when I harvested my crops. Granted, it didn't have animation, sound, or video in it. It was more like a google text ad. Which isn't what Apple was hyping today.

This is no more intrusive than what currently exists.

That remains to be seen. But interactivity and movement are words I would use to describe an intrusive ad.

All this will do is replace and enhance the unrelated ads that we currently see. It really isn't that hard of a concept.

Oh, I get the concept. Apple makes no money off the ads already in apps that aren't on an Apple controlled ad network, so they want to change that.

The bulk of online advertising is poorly designed, badly programmed, annoying, and irrelevant to the user.

This is exactly what Apple wants to change, and yet you are protesting them doing just that.

Apple can't ensure people make good ads. They can't magically force people to become good designers or programmers. The app store itself is evidence of that.

This is what Apple showed off for cool new ads:

This is the sad reality of online advertising. I'm so happy Apple is facilitating more ads on my iPod touch.

This one appeared in the "clothing" section of yahoo.com

The mere existence of iAd isn't going make people turn out great advertising. It will just bring more crap to our hand held devices.

 

[kingtj]

Seriously??

If you're that worked up over these issues, why don't you just sell off your iPhone NOW and use a competing product? It's not worth giving yourself a heart-attack over it!

Quite frankly, I knew a LOT of people who didn't care much for iTunes, several versions ago. Especially on the Windows side of things, there were already quite a few really nice music management programs around, and most seemed to load more quickly and in some cases, work with the files on your iPod more flexibly than iTunes did.

But at present, I think it's about the best you could expect to ever get for free from a company selling the hardware and commercial content! Have you ever seen the horribly buggy and broken players people were required to use for services like "Yahoo Music", when they tried to sell music?

iTunes made some recent changes that make the product MUCH more respectable, IMHO - like auto-sorting content into appropriate sub-folders for you based on the type of media it is. (No more throwing your videos and audiobooks and everything under the "Music" folder like it once did.)

And as for Apple "making decisions for its users", yep - they often do, but that's why their products get heaps of praise for "ease of use", "forward thinking" and so on. The fact is, most users aren't interested in or willing to make the effort necessary to make good decisions about all the aspects of the products they purchase. With Apple, you're paying, in part, to let them "call the shots" for you - so you can "sit back and enjoy the results".

Some very good products have been released in the past couple decades that give the user *ultimate control* over everything. Guess what? Most failed miserably or faded into obscurity. (My old Rio "MP3 Car" music player comes to mind.... It was a pull-out car stereo type of device that held up to 2 notebook hard drives inside and ran Linux. When pulled out of the dash, you could attach an AC adapter to the back, hook up its RCA outputs to a stereo or plug headphones into the headphone jack, and use it indoors. The open source operating system let people do any and all hacking they wanted, to roll their own custom menus and features. At the time, it was leaps and bounds ahead of anything out there by the "name brand car stereo" makers! It was also a dead product within the year....)

[Expletive deleted] that. I will never click on an ad in an app. This may be a dealbreaker for me on the iPhone.

I like Apple's hardware, mostly, but I really hate the way this [expletive deleted] company makes decisions for its users. Steve Jobs apparently thinks he's [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] God. (I'm not kidding. When asked: "Why no widgets on iPad?" he replied: "We just shipped it on Saturday, and we rested on Sunday. Everything is possible." Really, Steve? This guy makes some great products but he seriously needs to get over himself.)

And, since I'm on this rant, let me just add that iTunes is the worst, slowest, money-grubbiest piece of [expletive deleted] I've ever had the misfortune to have been forced to use on a mac. I use it only to sync the phone and download free podcasts mainly for academic use. I refuse to buy [expletive deleted] music or other [expletive deleted] except for iphone apps and hardware from Apple.

The iPhone, which I have come to really like, is starting to seem less worth it. I am now seriously on the lookout for an iPhone killer.

 

[gmcalpin]

HTML 5 is still very limiting compare to flash in terms of creative production.
Even if HTML 5 was equal to flash in capabilities, it would take WAY more effort to do simple animation in HTML 5 compared to flash and that equates to cost.

Not arguing with your points but…

http://gizmodo.com/5507864/yes-this-is-a-game-of-quake-running-in-an-html5-browser

The URL says it all.

EDIT: It's Quake running WITHOUT PLUG-INS in an HTML5 browser.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

Not arguing with your points but…

http://gizmodo.com/5507864/yes-this-is-a-game-of-quake-running-in-an-html5-browser

The URL says it all.

http://www.quakelive.com/

And there is quake 3 running 4 or 5 times faster in a browser, with multiplayer support and 3d acceleration using a plugin! Also, just to be cheeky, I watched that demo of Quake 2 done in HTML 5 through an embedded flash youtube player. The irony!

 

[gmcalpin]

Well, there are flash ads that behave exactly like that. Do you defend those as well?

I run an ad-supported website. Ads are a necessary evil for me. They're like 80% of my income right now. I will quickly ban any ads I find obnoxious (i.e. Evony ads) or obtrusive, revenue-be-damned, but — just like websites — developers need to make money somehow, if they're giving their work away for free.

So… yeah, I guess I'd defend those. Free apps/sites + ads = fine. Paid apps/sites + ads? FUUUUCK no, and (clearly) just about everyone agrees with that.
I know I make maybe 50¢ a YEAR in ad revenue from one regular reader of my comic strip, you know? If I pay you (a developer) directly even just $2, you're making more money from me than you would from an ad, so don't show me that ****.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

I run an ad-supported website. Ads are a necessary evil for me. They're like 80% of my income right now. I will quickly ban any ads I find obnoxious (i.e. Evony ads) or obtrusive, revenue-be-damned, but — just like websites — developers need to make money somehow, if they're giving their work away for free.

Yeah, I agree, devs need to make money. But this is really about Apple making money off the ads people are putting into apps anyway.

So… yeah, I guess I'd defend those. Free apps/sites + ads = fine. Paid apps/sites + ads? FUUUUCK no, and (clearly) just about everyone agrees with that.
I know I make maybe 50¢ a YEAR in ad revenue from one regular reader of my comic strip, you know? If I pay you (a developer) directly even just $2, you're making more money from me than you would from an ad, so don't show me that ****.

These are interesting times we live in. I always wanted to live through a giant shift in our way of life. I just hoped it wasn't going to be pervasive advertising in every aspect of our lives!

 

[AdLib]

Cue the trolls who pretend that ads in free apps never existed before on iPhone. (Or who imagine all kinds of weird scenarios that are nothing to do with what was just announced.)

But those ads do exist already. This just makes that easier for developers. Who, by the way, need to eat food. If they starve, no more free games!

You want to address the issue of reviews of PAID apps that also complain of ads in them?

 

[NakedPaulToast]

then buy paid apps, instead of the free ones.

arn

Why do you and others keep going off about paid apps somehow being exempt from ads? They're not.

Read what Steve Jobs actually said.
"We have a lot of free or reasonably priced apps... we like that, but our devs have to find ways to make money. So our devs are putting ads into apps, and for lack of a better way to say it, we think most of this kind of advertising sucks."

They have created APIs, making ad inclusion even easier, simply being an iphone developer puts in place the mechanism to receive your ad income from apple, and now Steve Jobs is encouraging iAd use for free and reasonably priced apps.

So instead of telling people to buy apps to avoid ads, perhaps you could also explain how buying apps will prevent the developer from including ads in their next update?

 

[Friscohoya]

This will keep apps free and develoeprs on this platform...not sure how excited I can be about more ads though as a principle.