Apple Releases Mac App for Creating iAds

Apple’s latest blow to Adobe’s Flash is the launch of its new iAd Producer app for the Mac, designed to help developers create, test, and launch mobile adverts to run under iAd. The software is available to anyone in the iOS Developer Program and it’s completely free. Apple describes iAd Producer as “a powerful visual editing canvas” that can make “creating beautiful, motion-rich iAd content as easy as point and click.”

While Apple has emphasized the software’s ease-of-use for less experienced developers, who can stick to the basics with HTML5 and CSS3, advanced developers can utilize JavaScript editing and debugging to produce their iAds. For those without a great development background, there are a variety of templates, components, and animations to help you build excellent iAds with little effort.

The software’s visual designer brings together all of the key elements of your iAd in a single design window and allows you to select the iOS device for which your iAd will be built. When you’re nearly finished, iAd Producer will check your work to identify any errors, and you can then use the built-in simulator to test drive your ads and ensure they’re ready for prime time.

Although Adobe itself is far from on the decline, Apple has made it clear for a while now that they aren’t keen on the company’s Flash format, choosing to support HTML5 instead. iAd Producer offers an alternative to developing in Flash, which many designers have previously chosen to create mobile ads, by using HTML5 and CSS3.

iAd Producer is compatible with Mac OS X 10 and at present there’s no word on a Windows version of the software.

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