The Wide, Wide World of Apple

[Barrister]

As I understood the model, ads will be introduced through individual Apps, not just generically whenever you use iPhone (which yes, would probably cause me to throw the device through a window if I had to watch an ad before launching Safari).

As I understand it, it allows app developers to develop apps that are free, but supported by viewing ads.

[DisturbedPervert]

Here's an article about it.  Watching ads?  That's crazy talk.  I don't see them on my computer, I'm not gonna see them on a touch pad either.

Steve Jobs unveiled sweeping changes to the iPhone OS that powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch on Thursday, including one that analysts say will bring the company hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue in advertisements within free software.

Before the announcement, Steve Jobs reportedly told advertising executives that this is Apple's "next big thing," and he could be right: Analysts say the ad platform will soon bring the company hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue yearly.

For the first time, developers can serve interactive and video ads within apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad from Apple's servers, and all they have to do to be included is provide Apple with the files.

Apple will keep 40 percent of revenue from the ads — a significant bump from the 30 percent it collects from app developers, record labels and book publishers — in return for selling the hardware, serving the ads and owning the ecosystem within which they run.

"Steve Jobs believes there will soon be around 100 million Apple devices on the market and that most of people's mobile activity will be dominated by applications, where they will spend around 30 minutes a day," said Ovum principal analyst Eden Zoller. "According to Jobs, if 10 ads were to appear on each device per day, this would make for one billion ad impressions daily."

Much of the platform is believed to be based on Quattro Wireless' mobile ad platform, which Apple purchased for $275 million about four months ago. Steve Jobs hopes to do something new with the iAd platform, he said yesterday: Combine the immersiveness of television ads with the interactivity of web ads using HTML5 code, which has multimedia capabilities that would make its ancestors blush.

As usual, this concept will spread to Android; Google has also embraced HTML5, and has been trying to purchase Quattro rival AdMob for $750 million since last year, although regulators haven't yet approved the deal. After Apple's iAd announcement, they are more likely to do so, because Google now has clear competition within the space.

Apple told Wired.com that it will still permit competing mobile ad networks to serve ads within apps on its platforms; deny them would only draw regulatory scrutiny. However, analysts predict that Apple will serve a large percentage of the advertisements running on its devices.

In addition to giving Apple yet another way to profit from its popular devices, iAd borrows a page from Tom Sawyer's playbook: getting third parties to enhance its platform for free, and even better, charging them for the right to do so. Likewise, Sawyer notoriously convinced his friends to paint a picket fence while he stood idly by — eating an apple, of all things.

By giving app developers a way to enhance Apple's platforms without charging users, the company adds to its army of software developers, most of whom don't work for Apple in the traditional sense of the word.

All in all, analysts believe the iAd platform will be worth far more than the $275 million the company spent on Quattro Wireless.

"We believe in-application advertising could reach roughly $700 million by 2013, with about 70 percent going to ads within the iPhone platform, or $500 million," said a Piper Jaffrey analyst, according to the Wall Street Journal. "We estimate Apple could capture $380 million of this market through the iAd platform in gross ad revenues, or 77 percent market share on the iPhone platform for advertising as we expect AdMob and others to continue to compete on the iPhone platform."

These video and interactive ads will appear on devices you can carry around, so their location awareness is critical to extracting the maximum revenue from each ad served. Mobile smartphone ads have some potential for abuse in this regard, because advertisers know who you are, where you are and, often, what you're doing.

As one safeguard against privacy-invasive advertising, Apple will only allow apps that have "beneficial uses" of locational data to serve location-based ads. In other words, you'll only see ads related to a place if you're trying to do something else with that locational information.

The iAd platform, part of the iPhone OS, will allow users to watch videos, play games and even purchase products within an ad inside of an app and is expected to roll out in the next few months.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Well, I thought there were already some ads in apps.  In any case, get ready for the deluge of: iAds 

Oh, you're talking about the ads that come with some of the free apps (haven't seen any with the ones I or anyone has purchased)?  I thought you were meaning ads just....popping up...when you were  doing whatever on the phone, like surfing the web or something.

[derspiess]

Oh, you're talking about the ads that come with some of the free apps (haven't seen any with the ones I or anyone has purchased)?  I thought you were meaning ads just....popping up...when you were  doing whatever on the phone, like surfing the web or something.

Yeah, that.  I'm just a little surprised that Apple fanbois are either indifferent to it, or are acting like it's a good thing, given how they ripped the Zune HD for having: ad-supported apps.

[Ed Anger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40&feature=player_embedded

iMew.

[Barrister]

Apple delays international launch of iPad due to high demand
By Chris Foresman | Last updated about 4 hours ago
Apple had originally planned to slowly roll out the iPad around the world beginning April 24. However, due to "surprisingly strong US demand," Apple has announced that it will delay the international launch of the iPad until late May.

According to a statement released this morning, Apple has sold over 500,000 iPads to date, and demand in its stores continues to outstrip supply in many cases. Though no specific numbers were given, the company has apparently received an unexpected number of preorders for the WiFi + 3G iPad model as well, set to begin shipping in the US by the end of April.

Apple will begin taking preorders for international customers on May 10 for delivery later in the month. Pricing will also be announced then.

"We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far," Apple said in a statement.

No, it does not please me to know that.

[DisturbedPervert]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40&feature=player_embedded

iMew.

It does have a use after all 

[MadBurgerMaker]

Yeah, that.  I'm just a little surprised that Apple fanbois are either indifferent to it, or are acting like it's a good thing, given how they ripped the Zune HD for having: ad-supported apps.

Were they really ripping the Zune for that?  Morons.

I occasionally find it somewhat irritating, having to tap through an extra screen to do something, but not really a big deal.  Fuck it, it's free, right?  Hopefully this new way of having the ads won't make it worse.

[citizen k]

Israel Cites Wi-Fi Issue in iPad Ban
Jared Newman

Don't count on bringing the iPad on any trips to the Holy Land, as Israel has blocked Apple's tablet from entering the country.

Israeli Customs is confiscating the devices upon entry, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. Authorities have already seized roughly 10 iPads, according to the Associated Press, and tourists who bring their iPads into the country will have to get them back when they leave. (Though, having dealt with Israeli Customs before, I have a feeling that won't be as simple as it sounds.)

The Israeli Communications Ministry blames the iPad's Wi-Fi, which supposedly uses low-powered "American standards" as opposed to the "European standards" on which Israel relies for electronics. The ministry is now working with Apple and local distributor iDigital to approve the import of iPads into the country, but even when that happens, it's not clear whether Customs agents will try to distinguish between American iPads and European ones.

Further explaining the ban in a follow-up Haaretz article, Communications Ministry director Eden Bar Tal said there weren't enough details from Apple to warn travelers sooner. iDigital had "no information," he said, and the ministry itself was scrambling to get specifications. "It's new in the United States too, and I imagine that despite Apple's delay (in shipping iPads internationally), there will soon be an iPad which meets European specifications," he said.

Bar Tal also reserved some harsh words for people who thought they had the right to bring whatever technology they wanted into the country. "People who bought the device in America can't force their needs on other people," he said. "I don't get involved in what individuals do at their own expense, but you can't only be concerned about yourself."

The iPhone finally launched officially in Israel in December 2009, more than two years after the phone debuted in America. At the time, one importer told Haaretz that the Communications Ministry again blamed lack of compliance with European standards.

[DisturbedPervert]

That makes no sense at all

[garbon]

What's a low powered standard?

[Lucidor]

Perhaps they are banning all electronic devices that aren't using a functioning WiFi technology, like cars, lawnmowers and coffee makers?

[derspiess]

Perhaps they are banning all electronic devices that aren't using a functioning WiFi technology, like cars, lawnmowers and coffee makers?

You mean you Euros don't have wifi on those things yet?? 

[Alatriste]

What's a low powered standard?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_power_around_the_world

In America you use 120 Volts, 60 Hz. Israel uses 230 Volts, 50 Hz, like Europe. Don't ask me what volts have to do with Wi-Fi, tough... like DisturbedPervert, I think it makes no sense at all.

@Derspiess
You Yanks have got it too easy. Back in my days we had to walk ten miles under the snow to get a coffee maker with Wi-Fi, uphill both ways!

[MadBurgerMaker]

Hey here's the next iPhone, revealed via publicity stunt:

http://gizmodo.com/5520438/how-apple-lost-the-next-iphone

http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone



Eh.