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Apple Reportedly Looking to Revolutionize Mobile Advertising

What do they mean by "Mobile Advertising"? Is it those little banners that appear in certain free apps that you get from the App Store? Is that really subject to discussion? There is a solution: get the paid version of the app, and no more adverts! There is nothing to revolutionise!

Oh and about this quote:

"Apple has a vault of valuable data that can help drive an ad business. It knows precisely which apps, podcasts, videos, and songs people download from iTunes; in many cases it has detailed customer information such as credit-card numbers and home addresses."

I'm sure if Apple were to use that information in any way, that would be illegal. So no, I'm pretty sure they can't use that to help drive an ad business. Debit card information doesn't say anything about what products I like anyway. It's just a series of digits that has been assigned to me, and it's confidential.
 
pmz said:
Just the opposite, Apple is about to announce Google Maps' total exit from the iPhone on the 27th. You'll see iGuide in it's place, the new under the hood feature set of the Maps application, using Apple owned maps.
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I could imagine - available for the u.s from today, the rest of the world some time in the future!
 
Advertisers wouldn't know one's data, Apple will use the data they have to customize and provide targeted ads when one is looking for something specific. An Italian restaurant search would generate some local ads relevant to the type of restaurant, places chosen, distances traveled in the past, day of the week, holiday proximity (e.g., Valentine's day). They would be tastefully presented and provide useful information for making a decision. Sounds good to me.
 
martint84 said:
I'm actually all for this. We have to face the reality that services like google and bing operate off of their ad revenue. If I'm going to see adds anyway, might as well make them something I'm actually interested in. How many times have you seen an ad on one of your iPhone apps that is totally worthless? I think it's a win win as long as we don't start seeing ads in places that used to be ad-free.
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If I help those companies streamlining their advertisement channels by contributing my personal data, I want to get paid for it.

My second argument against personalized advertisement is that it simply never works. Best example is Amazon and their recommendation system. I once ordered a CD from a French underground singer, now they won't stop tormenting me with Céline Dion advertisements, which I find even more annoying than being presented random ads.
 
Stella said:
Hmm.. advertising on your iphone ( or any phone ).

No thanks! Never.

"One other item of interest included in the cover story is speculation may look to dump Google as the default search engine provider for the iPhone in the future, "

Why not give the user a choice of any search engine? Why only Google or Yahoo at the moment?
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Actually, this has the potential of being benign advertising (let me explain). Up until this point, consumers have been growing skeptical, tired, and very much immune to traditional advertising because: A) we are exposed to it all day, everyday B) Most of the time the content or product offered is not relevant to us, and B) For the most part, I see ads when I am not buying anything at the particular time, or am not interested. And this is where mobile platforms can make a huge difference. How many times has it happened to you, that for example, you need a certain product or service, and at that particular time, you actually have to dig for information instead of being reached right then and there by informative and relevant advertising?

Imagine the following scenario. You are with your Girlfriend on a date because you usually go out Friday nights. You both like Italian food, and usually never drive further than 30 miles away from your home. Based on the music you listen, one can pretty much know the kind of ambiance you like and perhaps a little of your personality and what a fun evening represents to you.

Now with that in mind, instead of having to look up and new Italian restaurants on Friday before you go out with your GF, how would you like to be exposed to ads that pertain to new Italian restaurants in your area that match certain criteria for you? Instead of being unsolicited information if you saw that same ad on Tuesday morning (in which case you would probably just miss it all together), that ad at the right time, about the right product/service and at the right place, might actually be useful. Call it smart ads (If implemented right).
 
What if ads were pushed as something that would actually be attractive to the user? I mean, that is the point of advertisement anyway, is it not?

Picture iNews, an out of the way app that feeds you up-to-date news regarding things that directly relate to you (album release dates, new film info from your favorite director, new products from your favorite electronic device company, bands coming to town) which you can then add to your calendar, or ignore. You can manually input things you are interested in (further improving Apple's information database) or it can pull information from your purchases.

Another app can for be recommending you new artists, films or products based on your purchases, time spent on certain apps or even based on an advanced genius (from iTunes) system that analyzes your data compared to the data of other users to make educated guesses on things you may be interested in, learning by your input and continued use.

Another app can be for finding sales. You enter the app, type in what you're looking for, and it can give you a full list of stores in the area currently carrying the product, proximity, and price. There can be Apple-exclusive coupons where all you have to do is show the coupon on your iPhone/iSlate, or even send an infrared signal to activate the coupon or any points you may have saved up by using the iSlate for shopping, buying apps, or even getting to a certain place in a game app. This could be the app that would attract shoppers to buy an iSlate - Make back the cost of purchase through savings.

All these apps are valid forms of advertisement, could be out of the way and easy to deactivate, and most of all would be attractive to the user rather than annoying.
 
Paranoid much?

Seems to be a lot of paranoid people on here. If Apple wanted to stick ads everywhere, they already would've done so.

All that is being suggested here is enhancing ads WHERE THEY ALREADY EXIST, by presenting consumers with more context/location sensitive advertisements. This is extremely attractive to both publishers and clients as the possibility of click through is much greater.

Apple already does this to some degree in iTunes... the Genius Recommendations are based off the song you're currently playing.

Apple is well aware that certain people would rather pay for a service than be inundated with ads. However I also feel they understand there are those who prefer not to pay, so they will work out a system for ad supported services. Specifically I see this happening with MobileMe. By the end of this year there will be a free ad-supported version of MobileMe to compete with Google's services.
 
ShiftyPig said:
And so it begins: all that data that Apple collects via iTunes is about to be used against us. You bought the last Black Eyed Peas album, you can be damn sure you'll be seeing ads for the next one.
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I agree with some other users here, wouldn't you want to see ads that are relevant to your tastes than random ads? I know when I see an ad that actually interests me (which happens very rarely) I'd check it out.
BRLawyer said:
APPLE IS DEAD. OR IS IT?
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Wow, I never thought you would say that...
swarmster said:
What do you mean by "used against us"? I don't really get the knee-jerk reaction everyone seems to have toward companies when they actually look at the data you've given them.

Even in your example, it's not always easy to keep track of when your favorite bands' albums are coming out, and if they want to show me ads based on what I've shown interest in, that would actually be useful. A hell of a lot more useful than typical ads, at least.
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Agreed.
Surely said:
That's not really 'the opposite'.....

Oh, and source?

None of the other iPhone apps are called 'i' anything. They're all 'Maps' or 'Mail' or 'Phone' or 'Stocks' or 'Weather'. Why would they call a new maps app iGuide?
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Good point, they will surely not use an 'i' prefix
Stella said:
I could imagine - available for the u.s from today, the rest of the world some time in the future!
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Well, the rest of the world has tethering on their iPhone, and had MMS at launch, we didn't...
 
apple should use some of their $$$ and buy Netlist.

Have you guys seen what Netlist does? They have the most mindblowing scalability in Cloud computing. I think they could severely screw Cisco in the near future. I bet the value Apple could derive from them would be huge in mobile advertising and also in Enterprise solutions.

It would put Apple in a new game.

Apple
Operating Systems
Computers
Television
Music
Telephones
Gaming
Enterprise
Cloud
(SERVERS/MEMORY/VIRTUALIZATION)
 
This is dumb. Google's ad income was the main thing that prevented Microsoft freezing Mac users off the Internet. Google made it possible for tens of millions to use non-Windows OSs. Apple have benefited from that more than any other company, and now they want to kill it?
 
wow, how stupid of apple to try to even compete with google when it comes to adds. Can't wait to see how hard they flop.
 
Stella said:
Why not give the user a choice of any search engine? Why only Google or Yahoo at the moment?
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This is a Verizon-like answer, but nothing's keeping you from using any search engine you want in Mobile Safari; just bookmark the homepage of the site in Safari. You could even have it as an icon on your screen to autoload it.

That said, I agree it would be nice to be able to configure the search bar with whatever engine you want. But honestly, which would you use instead of Google or Yahoo?

T'hain Esh Kelch said:
Wow. The implcations if this, if true, is just.. Wow.

Apple taking on Google in GoogleLand... Wow. But given Apples history of making everything half-perfect, they will loose badly.
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I think you meant "Google's history of making everything half-perfect"...no, that wouldn't be correct either, since other than search and ad-words, just about every product Google offers, while free (which is good) is still BETA, butt-ugly to look at, has a bad UI, and no consistent interface across apps. Apple, on the other hand, while they've had a turkey or two, tends to come out with products that have a consistent look and feel across them, behave well, look good, and function well.

Google would be nothing if its apps weren't free, and the only reason its apps are free is because of the insane amount of money that AdWords generates...
 
Sorry Steve, you have got it wrong this time. It's not that 'mobile ads suck' it's that 'ads suck'. You got an extra useless word in there my dear boy.

I pay $100 a month for this phone and if I see any ads or find out any of my info is being shared for this reason my iPhone will be history. Don't bite the hand that feeds.

If this turns out to be true it may well be time to sell all my shares AAPL as well.

T'hain Esh Kelch said:
Well, IMHO they are better at it than Apple.
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Google has done almost nothing right...ever. They have an ok search engine that was developed a long time ago and is only good because the competition is so poor. They haven't really improved it...if anything it has gotten worse. Their attempts to get into other areas have been laughable.
 
Apple, I don't want Bing! And I don't want ads invading my OS and software!

Looks like "Genius" just got a new job lol! :rolleyes:

I'm sure they will update the end user agreement now on iTunes etc. But even thought that would be legal, it feels kinda like a slap in the face since we never anticipated our data being used in these ways.
 
wobudong said:
But wait, there's less (maybe).
What if Apple gave you a free iPhone in return for accepting targetted ads?
:cool:
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This logic and business model goes against EVERYTHING Apple has put into place with its products, ecosystem, and content PERIOD! IF, and big IF, they ever did that, it would be a HUGE change in their business philosophy. I don't really care for it. Google is all about it, but there are always trade offs like them collecting tons of data about you, and annoying you with ads. I want ad free premium content, which Apple have PROVEN people are VERY WILLING to pay for. THAT is Apple's entire business view. You get what you pay for! I don't want crap all over my devices and software, thanks! :rolleyes:

Sorry, double post. Please combine mod, thanks!
 
Surely said:
None of the other iPhone apps are called 'i' anything. They're all 'Maps' or 'Mail' or 'Phone' or 'Stocks' or 'Weather'. Why would they call a new maps app iGuide?
Click to expand...

Because it's not an Apple app. It's from a third party called iGuide.
 
Infospace

Apple should buy InfoSpace (dogpile.com, metacrawler.com, webcrawler.com, webfetch.com and more than 100 affiliates) and jump into metasearch which is way better than using a single search engine. And from there, Apple should build its own search engine. InfoSpace is valued now at about 400 million which is not a lot of money for a company like Apple. They get easily get the control of that company for 500 million.
 
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