Embedding

I have to admit to being entirely distracted in the last week. Work is the usual culprit, and in no small way, the beginning of the World Cup has played its hand in keeping me away from my computer. Anyhow, despite England failing to do anything to talk about on the pitch, Apple have been busying themselves with the upcoming launch of the next iPhone. As have the customers, with AT&T and apple themselves now refusing to take any further pre-orders, and in some cases, even pushing back the launch date (presumably to increase stocks at launch).

In any case, its coming, June 24 (to a lucky few).

Those of you more interested in actually using the device than looking at the possibilities it offers for serving ads might think the rest of the article will be irrelevant. Well, I'm pleased and sorry, in equal measures, to say that this is not the case. Ads will continue to be a very important source of revenue for Apple and its new mobile advertising partner, Quattro.

First up, I'd really like to examine IOS from the perspective of a consumer. The most immediate advantage is that a better advertising framework will continue to attract great developers to the platform, and you'll get great apps and games, sometimes for free! As well as this, you are going to see far better ad integration within these apps. There is nothing worse than an annoying ad that gets in the way of whatever it is you're doing. Apple have promised that IOS will make this a thing of the past. Remember the days, when you are on the final boss of Super Planet Destroyer 3 and the bus stops just a little too abruptly, and your finger hits and advertising banner, shutting the app, and shoving you into browser mode to go to the advertisers webpage. Instead, should this occur (some bus drivers will always be trigger happy with the brakes), Apple tells us it'll be far easier to negotiate your way back to the app, and it'll still be in the same place you left it.

For the developer, Apple claims we'll see far better use of embedded content. Streaming video, similar to that which really, has only come into its own on the net in the last two years or so, will be far more commonplace. We'll also see embedded ads become far more interactive, but lets just hope that they go further than "shoot the (insert animal here) to win $1m". Speaking of money, the deal is, that developers will receive 60% of revenue generated. Which, from the perspective of someone without much knowledge of historical revenue percentages from mobile advertising deals, sounds fair.

What wouldn't seem quite so fair, should you already deal with them, is that Apple has effectively banned developers from aggregating content with Googles MobiAd platform. I can understand this to a certain degree, as some say the MobiAd platform was swiped from within Apples grasp by Google, and so some bad blood may still exist there.

Allegedly, Ads are dynamically sent to devices which may mean that we'll see a larger variety of more relevant ads within the apps we are using. One of the fundamentals of advertising is that ads, are of course, far more effective if served to an audience with a pre existing interest in whatever is being sold.

Come June 24th and beyond, we'll see what the new hardware and software of Apples iPhone will let developers do. I hope it delivers more relevant and better implemented advertising to the consumer. Since, I am one.