Apple Moves to Stop Location Based Advertising? For Now.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Excuse the cynic in me and for that matter Mr. David Wolf who once very aptly pointed out that “Idealism is what precedes cynicism; cynicism is what follows.” I´m not alone in thinking that this is far from the death throes of mobile advertising, simply something Apple wishes to keep for itself in the race for position in the mobile advertising wars, coming soon to a smart phone near you soon.

“If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.”

Two to three years ago, I would have simply suggested that Apple was trying to protect their users. Today, I feel they are trying to protect their market share in the untested waters of mobile advertising. Apple know that Google is their biggest enemy. Look at their recent quarrels, and gotcha acquisition record. When Apple showed an interest in AdMob, Google quickly snapped it up. Apple with its huge war chest of cash is working out a way to match Google in this market, the overpriced acquisition of Massachusetts based mobile ad company Quattro Wireless last month, just the most recent example. The introduction of Android and to a lesser extent the Nexus One is proof Google wants an upper hand in mobile advertising. Google´s CEO has said in recent months,

“We will make more money from mobile advertising,” Schmidt said when asked about the possibility of mobile computing taking off. The thought is that advertising on mobile platforms will be much more highly targeted than it currently is on the desktop.
“I never worry about Microsoft,” Schmidt said in wrapping up his thoughts.

It will be interesting to see how Apple interprets “beneficial”. Frankly, in free apps I expect some level of advertisements; that is a small price to pay for something that does not have a traditional price tag, but rather one of zero. If I´m going to be receiving advertisements, I WANT them to use my location, that would be HELPFUL. I hate bashing Apple but it just seems like more interference in my life as end user. If you are truly looking out for me why not force app developers to give me an option of whether I want location services used, rather than keeping it to yourself until you can best determine how to monetize it for Cupertino?

This is an article by The Apps Machine.