Apple has once again revised its developer policies on iAd. The new regulations prohibit mobile advertising companies that are affiliated with a “developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems.”
It’s obvious Apple is trying to protect itself from Google and AdMob. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said at the D8 conference last week that Apple wouldn’t be allowing analytics firms such as Flurry to gather app data. Apparently Flurry was able to gather early data on the iPad before its launch. The new rules now limit companies to sharing data only if it’s for the purpose of servicing the app, and only with Apple’s consent.
It might be that Apple is barring companies like AdMob because their information gathering could give Google an advantage as it competes with Apple in operating systems. It may also raise anti-competitive concerns for Apple, who is reportedly getting more attention from federal regulators.
This would severely hurt some affected mobile advertising companies who rely on getting back data from their ads to see how effective they’ve been. AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui recently wrote on his blog,
“These advertising related terms both target companies with competitive mobile technologies (such as Google), as well as any company whose primary business is not serving mobile ads. This change threatens to decrease – or even eliminate – revenue that helps to support tens of thousands of developers. The terms hurt both large and small developers by severely limiting their choice of how best to make money. And because advertising funds a huge number of free and low cost apps, these terms are bad for consumers as well.”
Nick Nebelsky is President of Ideation at Intense Media, an idea development company. He is a certified Apple Developer and specializes in creating software apps and media for mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone and iPad. Nick’s background is in both electronic and traditional media, with a heavy emphasis on graphics. You can email him with story ideas at nick@intensemedia.com.
Posted on July 5, 2010
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