Apple has been receiving stiff competition from companies such as Samsung, which quickly moved up in the market following its release of Galaxy S devices and anti-Apple advertising. Now, it seems that another company is gearing up to do the same thing, perhaps, after seeing it become a success with Samsung. A new ad from LG highlights OPtimus G Pro’s Panorama feature just like iPhone 4S and 5 TV ad, and then adds on to it.

By doing this, the ad shows that the company’s Optimus G Pro phone is more advanced and that the panorama feature is more expansive on this device. in Apple’s version of the ad, a person is taking a picture of children and uses the Panorama feature to sweep across the screen while saying an elongated “cheeeeese”.

The LG spot begins nearly identical to Apple’s, with the same classic white background, lineup of children, and use of the panorama feature. The narrator in the ad, also says the same phrase, “cheeeese” (“Kimchiiiiiii”) in Japanese. However, halfway through the ad, the Optimus G Pro begins to move all around the screen while capturing a number of different image points including the ceiling and floor. The children, which are organized horizontally in Apple’s ad, are active and running about in LG’s ad.

Google released the “Photo Sphere” feature with the JellyBean 4.2 update to the Android OS, meaning that users can automatically upload the photo to their other Google services. This isn’t the first time that one of Apple’s ads were skewed to show off a feature on another phone, however, these ads appear to be working in the favor of competitors, particularly Samsung.

{Via AppleInsider}

Earlier this year, in February, Apple promised its iAd developers that they would increase their payouts later on in the year. This would give the developers who use the iAd service a 10% increase from the current 60% of total earnings. Apple’s decision to raise the payouts isn’t all that surprising, when considering that Apple currently pays its iOS app developers 70% of the total revenue, 30% of which Apple keeps for themselves.

Now, the iAd platform is on the same level of iOS development in terms of profit for both the developers and the Cupertino based company. During iAd’s initial launch, it gained only a small network of advertisers willing to put up with Apple’s higher than usual prices, and a number of restrictions by which they must comply. The minimum buy-in for the mobile ad platform was decreased by Apple from $1 million to $100,000 since its launch in July 2010 with iOS 4.

This new price is down from a $300,000 minimum which took effect last July. AdMob is the leading mobile ad service of choice, particularly on the Android platform, because of its abilities to support multiple platforms at once, and with its substantially higher adoption and usage than Apple’s iAd. With this increase in payouts, Apple may increase the number of developers in its iAd program, however, the company still has much improvement before the service experiences increased adoption.

{via iMore}

According to sources close to the situation, Apple is planning an important — but not large-scale — event to be held in New York at the end of this month that will focus on a media-related announcement.

Per the usual caveat, the tech giant is well known for moving around their public show-and-tells, so this could certainly change at any moment.

Apart from organizing major media events Apple has participated in other events in the past such as Verizon iPhone launch and the unveiling of The Daily app for the iPad. Based on the fact that the event is New York based it is being speculated that it might be about Apple’s advertising business, iAd. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, is rumored to play an important role during the event.

The January event is expected to be a “media” only event which suggests that no new hardware will be announced. Apple has been struggling to see substantial success in mobile advertising  and with the recent news about the company hiring Adobe’s executive this event could possibly be about iAd.

Apple has hired Adobe’s Todd Teresi to head iAd. Story coming….

Teresi worked at Adobe over the past nine months as VP of the Media Solutions division and has also held mobile positions at other prominent companies such as Quantcast, Yahoo, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Apple mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless, and transformed it into their own ad platform, hoping to make mobile ads in iOS a part of their revenue stream, however, the platform failed to gain traction due to high prices on ads and too much control over the design process.

Prior to the arrival of Teresi, the iAds platform was run by Quattro founder and CEO Andy Miller. However, Miller also left Apple in September 2011 for a Venture Capitalist position, leaving it to Eddy Cue, who also operates iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore, and iCloud.

{via MacRumors}

Macstories recently reported on a fellow Apple app developer,Mike Zorner, whose app, Dex, hit rock bottom with an iAd fill rate of 0%. This made Zorner curious as to what was causing his iAd fill rate to drop so suddenly. When Zorner emailed Apple, he received the reply below. Bummer.

Hello Michael,
We periodically review the apps in the iAd Network to ensure that all apps receiving ads are aligned with the needs of our advertisers. Currently, our advertisers prefer that their advertising not appear in applications that are targeted for users that are young children, since their products are not targeted at that audience.
We appreciate your understanding.
Best Regards,
iAd Network Support Apple, Inc. 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014

It has also come to the attention of many developers that Apple is now removing iAds from any applications in the App Store that target kids.

While Apple has confirmed that Zorner’s app is not appropriate for iAds, they have not yet released a press statement as to whether all kids focused apps are being pushed away from iAds. The age group of kids for which this application is being scrutinized is currently a very small part of the iAd network, bringing in to question why Apple would attack such a small target market.

It is however clear that Mr. Zorner’s application, Dex was labeled as “Kids” only last week. It is not a widespread issue at this point, although more developers may come forward throughout the week if their apps are also affected. Stay with us throughout the week. We’ll keep you updated as this issue furthur develops.

The theme was available from Cydia since February, but wasn’t famous until it was picked up by news websites yesterday. It seems Apple only got wind of the Scion theme after the news broke, and contacted Toyota to request that it removes the theme and ends the advertising campaign.

Velti, the advertising agency used by Toyota, contacted Kyle Matthews – founder of ModMyI – and asked him to take the theme down:

I received a call from our contact at Velti this evening as well as an email asking me to please take the theme out of Cydia. On the phone, he explained Apple had contacted Toyota and requested they remove the theme and stop the advertising campaign. They (Velti) in turn contacted me relaying the message. The reason Velti listed for the removal request of the theme emailed through our dev portal was “Toyota’s making us take it down…” Toyota had agreed to do so to “maintain their good relationship with Apple,” our Velti contact told me on the phone.

Despite a federal ruling that made jailbreaking legal last year, Apple obviously doesn’t approve of the process and is clearly determined to try and control it, rather than accept the huge community of people that enjoy hacking its devices.

Needless to say, if you didn’t grab Toyota Scion theme yesterday, you’ve missed out!

Worlds most advanced mobile operating system (iOS) certainly deserves unique and creative ways for brands to reach out to their audience. Apple’s iAd is setting new standards for mobile advertisement and raising the bar for the existing players. The level of interactivity these ads achieve is exactly what advertisers would hope to get when the big brands spend millions on their annual advertising budget.

The developers are also happy to adopt the iAd network in their apps as the CTR and CPM rates are very impressive which also motivates them to offer the best content to their customers at no cost.

Apple’s new ad network didn’t witness a perfect launch as it was initially criticized  for low fill rates, long production times and then there were reports about Adidas and Chanel pulling out due to repeated rejections and excessive control.

However, now it seems that the Cupertino based company is all set to expand its network aggressively as they recently announced the lineup for Europe where they have managed to attract L’Oréal, Renault, Louis Vuitton, Nespresso, Perrier, Unilever, Citi, Evian, LG Display, AB InBev, Turkish Airlines and Absolute Radio.

Check out the iAd video highlight after the break.

Included in the initial launch in France and the UK are L’Oréal, Renault, Louis Vuitton, Nespresso, Perrier, Unilever, Citi, Evian, LG Display, AB InBev, Turkish Airlines and Absolute Radio.

Germany will get iAd in January.

Many developers who have been wishing to leverage Apple’s iAd network in more countries should be happy.

Apple’s advertisers certainly seem happy about it all if L’Oréal are anything to go by:

As the world leader in the beauty business, L’Oréal aims to create the most meaningful connections between its brands and its customers, so iAd was a natural choice,” said Marc Menesguen, L’Oréal’s Head of strategic marketing. “We’re thrilled by the quality, the interactivity and the depth of iAd’s user experience, giving us an unparalleled opportunity to reach and serve the most engaged and discerning customers at the digital forefront of beauty, hence our choice of Lancôme to lead our iAd campaign.

And those of us that try to avoid ads as much as possible can all heave a huge sigh of frustration and apprehension!

Here is Apple’s full Press Release in full…

Apple’s iAd Coming to Europe in December

Revolutionary Mobile Advertising Network Will Launch in Europe with L’Oréal, Renault, Louis Vuitton, Nespresso, Perrier & Unilever

CUPERTINO, California—November 18, 2010—Apple® today announced it will expand its revolutionary iAd℠ mobile advertising network to the UK and France this December, with Germany to follow in January. iAd will launch in Europe with iAds from L’Oréal, Renault, Louis Vuitton, Nespresso, Perrier, Unilever, Citi, Evian, LG Display, AB InBev, Turkish Airlines and Absolute Radio. Since its US launch in July, iAd has emerged as a powerful new way for advertisers to reach millions of iPhone® and iPod touch® users right in their favorite apps, while providing a significant new revenue stream for developers. iAd has signed on over half of the top 25 leading US national advertisers in just four months,* with a projected 21 percent share of US mobile display advertising revenue for 2010 according to research firm IDC.**

“We’re thrilled to add leading global brands to the iAd Network in Europe and create even more great opportunities for developers,” said Andy Miller, Apple’s vice president of iAd. “In just four months, we’ve doubled the number of advertisers on the network and thousands of developers now have a valuable new source of revenue.”

“As the world leader in the beauty business, L’Oréal aims to create the most meaningful connections between its brands and its customers, so iAd was a natural choice,” said Marc Menesguen, L’Oréal’s Head of strategic marketing. “We’re thrilled by the quality, the interactivity and the depth of iAd’s user experience, giving us an unparalleled opportunity to reach and serve the most engaged and discerning customers at the digital forefront of beauty, hence our choice of Lancôme to lead our iAd campaign.”

iAd, which is built into iOS 4, lets users stay within their current app while engaging with an ad, even while watching a video, playing a game or using in-ad purchase to download an app or buy iTunes® content. With user engagement times averaging more than 60 seconds per visit, iAds combine the narrative quality of TV ads with the interactivity of digital for something entirely new.

Advertisers can learn more at advertising.apple.com. Developers who join the iAd Network can easily incorporate a variety of advertising formats into their apps. Developers will receive an industry standard 60 percent of the iAd Network revenue, which is paid via iTunes Connect. Developers can visit developer.apple.com/iad to join the iAd Network or to learn more about the iAd platform.

* Advertising Age “100 Leading National Advertisers” rankings for 2009 by spend, June 20, 2010.

** US mobile display advertising 2010 forecast, published by BusinessWeek.com, September 26, 2010.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

How do you feel about more ads coming to your favourite mobile OS? Have your say in the comments…

The report added that “some are weeks — perhaps months — away from having an iAd in the system.” It indicated “an agency exec with several iAds in the works,” as stating, “most advertisers won’t be there on July 1; there just isn’t enough time,” an issue Apple can partly be blamed for.

The report stated that Apple is taking care of “all the technical production of iAds, and telling agencies it will take six to eight weeks to produce an ad after the creative is produced.”

Apple selected July 1st for iAds release date, and “doesn’t necessarily coincide with the objectives of the marketers themselves,” the report said. Apple is telling marketers that the iPad won’t be on the iAd platform until November.

At WWDC earlier this month, Steve Jobs announced that a special build of iOS 4 would be released for iPad users later in the year, bringing support for iAd, as well as features ranging from multitasking and related background services to Home page Folders and a variety of new developer APIs.

This was met yesterday with lots of grumbling from Google, and gnashing of teeth from Admob’s CEO. Whilst the wording of the clause excludes any rival smart phone maker, Google is the only real threat on the horizon that Apple probably cares about right now.

Wired make an interesting point about why Apple should block AdMob from collecting data from Apple devices:

If Apple were to allow Google to track user data within ads, Google would, by definition, gain insight into how people are interacting with advertising elements within iOS apps, and would be able to use that information to inform the process of building AdMob ads into its own Android platform.

But then again, I am sure Google could research information of that flavour in other ways if they really needed it. Still that argument might convince a government investigation of Apple’s reasons for its current strategy in this situation.

The Financial Times is reporting today that those same “sources close to the government” they quoted last time are sure that the FTC are still actively interested in all this. And that they may have moved their plans forward with regards to an investigation into Apple and Google.

According to two people close to the situation, US regulators have already taken an interest in Apple’s actions, though it is not yet clear whether it will be left to the Federal Trade Commission, which carried out the recent Google investigation, or the Department of Justice to take an investigation forward.

Apple’s latest rules for developers who create apps for its devices limit the situations in which they can send approved information about their apps’ audiences to advertising services. The information cannot be sent to advertising networks that are affiliated with companies developing or distributing mobile devices or operating systems – a definition that effectively excludes Apple rivals like Google and Microsoft.

Do you think Apple’s actions are “just business”, or unfair to Google? Let us know in the comments.

To little fanfare before the weekend the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US cleared Google’s acquisition of AdMob. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) dived in to snap up AdMob in late 2009, while Apple was mulling over the purchase itself.

The deal has been on hold while the FTC looked into it ever since then. The FTC’s initial concern was that Google snapping up a competitor in a market place that it is already dominant in could lead to antitrust worries.

In the meantime Apple purchased a similar, but much smaller and cheaper rival mobile advertising company called Quattro Wireless. This was morphed into iAd, Apple’s own entry into the mobile advertising arena, which is set to be an integral part of iPhone OS from version 4.0 onwards.

It is expected that, at least initially, Apple will only allow iAd to be used on its own devices. Whereas AdMob started out on the iPhone, but is now on Android too, and is expected to try and spread to as many platforms as possible. But its days on the iPhone seem numbered, at least in the iTunes App Store model. Because Apple seems to be locking other advertisers out by restricting their use of metrics to track consumers, so as to make their existence on its platform untenable.

On the surface of it the basic reason why the FTC cleared this acquisition by Google now is because of Apple’s move into the mobile ad arena with iAd. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) did Google a favor. Even if it didn’t intend to. Because as it stood, back in late 2009, Google had simply paid top dollar for a company which was potentially of no great strategic value to it, other than in a move to stymy Apple’s aspirations in the Google’s sandpit.

The FTC’s decision was probably also swayed to some degree by their perception of Apple’s dominance in the mobile market place generally. Their thinking being that some competition for Apple might be a good thing. And perhaps that Apple seems big enough and ugly enough to go toe to toe with Google in a market that it is traditionally dominant in.

If neither of those factors had been in play it is likely Google would have had to go to war and fight the FTC for this acquisition to be approved. Because as it stands even now AdMob has a de-facto monopoly on mobile advertising. Even if it may be short lived now.

“As a result of Apple’s entry (into the market), AdMob’s success to date on the iPhone platform is unlikely to be an accurate predictor of AdMob’s competitive significance going forward, whether AdMob is owned by Google or not,” the Commission’s statement explains.

But the hands off approach that the FTC has taken at this stage is certainly not one that comes without caveats.

Google is The (with a capital ‘T’) advertising powerhouse on the web globally, and the FTC is not without its concerns over that.

However, Google’s mobile phone market share at the time the FTC was looking over this, was to Apple’s mobile phone market penetration what Apple’s iAd is to Google’s global advertising behemoth currently. Of course things can change.

In some ways it could be said that the FTC feels it is creating some balance with its decision, and recognises that there is going to be healthy competition between Apple and Google in the future – which should in theory be good for the consumer. By consumer one could infer both us clicking on ads, and also advertisers who buy exposure from Apple (via iAd) and Google (via AdMob). But let’s remember Apple has not served a single ad yet.

Google is also a company that preaches, and to some extent practises, openness to all. Where as Apple presents a slightly less accessible front to its “partners”. Google has also played nice in terms of the US government’s world-view when it comes to things like China. It spends a bit more on lobbying than Apple does too. All these things may count for something.

Having said all that the FTC did have the following to say, “Though we have determined not to take action today, the Commission will continue to monitor the mobile marketplace to ensure a competitive environment and to protect the interests of consumers.”

In other words if iAd fails (which is unlikely) they may look at this again.

Notice also that the FTC don’t specifically say “mobile advertising” in their statement. They say “mobile marketplace”. The FTC obviously have concerns over the mobile marketplace generally. And probably also feel that they still have a lot to learn too. It’s worth noting that they may still be mulling over an antitrust investigation into Apple over Flash, and also Google over some of its recent acquisitions of internet communications companies.

An interesting twist is to consider what would happen if Android gains massively in market share. Which if you believe Google, and certain analysts, is already happening. In that case AdMob will still be the only advertising network available to advertisers on Android, unless Apple opens up iAd. And it will be the only mobile advertising marketplace on a very large eco-system controlled by a company which is already The King of Advertising – globally!

When you look at this that way it’s hard to see who the FTC is actually protecting. Google has its own mobile phone ecosystem, which is actually quite closed from an OEM point of view. And it has an advertising network which is likely to be used more and more exclusively on their devices only. That is until HP or RIM get their act together.

Apple has an extremely closed mobile device ecosystem, and its own very closed advertising network – which is purportedly charging advertisers a premium to play on, as well as potentially being choosey about who can leverage the network in their apps. Two aspects that advertiser and consumers have yet to form solid opinions on, but have been heard to be apprehensive about.

The whole equation may be a little too complex for the FTC to form an opinion on, or effectively legislate for right now. Almost to the point that making a decision about advertising networks alone becomes moot currently.

Moving forward its likely that AdMob and Android will become synonymous with one another, likewise the iPhone, iPad and iAd will do the same.

At that point the FTC will have to decide if two companies, both with an effective monopoly for advertising in their own handset eco-systems is something they need to look at again.

When you look at it in its entirety, what choice did the FTC have today? And what have they actually achieved?
More to the point, what could they have achieved?

The FTC probably realised all this. Saw it had no effective decision to make. And so decided that the best thing to do was let this all play out, while keeping a close eye on both Apple and Google with regards to their mobile devices, OS and advertising networks in their entirety moving forwards.

What do you think? Are both Google and Apple monopolies in their own right? Should the FTC do something now, or later? Let us know in the comments…

Whilst there has still been no comment from either Apple or any government office on this subject, some journalists and industry insiders are already offering Apple advice .

The advice is basically to let developers choose their development tools by modifying the now notorious clause 3.3.1. Some believe this will be enough to mollify any investigators in a government probe. To me it smacks a little of desperation when the sources that this advice is coming from are analyzed more closely.

Allegedly the spark which ignited the possible investigation was indeed a complaint from Adobe about Apple’s new rules. But it has potentially been reenforced from a couple of different sectors of the tech industry.

Advertisers and agents, as well as corporations employing them, who were hoping to advertise with Apple are not enamoured with the price Apple wants to charge for blocks of advertising. Or the fact that Apple will also hold the whip hand initially at least, when it comes to producing iAds. A service which Apple will also charge a pretty penny for. And will hold a monopoly over until it makes tools for producing iAds available to advertisers and their agencies.

Furthermore mobile advertising companies like AdMob are not too happy that other parts of Apple’s Developer Contract apparently stop third party advertising services using customers information, particularly habits and location awareness, to tailor ads to their audience. That is something now reserved for iAd alone since the iPhone SDK Developer Contract update, as transmission of data from apps to third parties is now outlawed in clause 3.3.9.

All of these put together could possibly give the FTC and DOJ enough meat to get their teeth into while they weigh the possibility of a probe. But it would still be messy and complicated. As has been shown by some rather rudimentary questions that have come out of the FTC over the last day or so and been addressed to industry experts in what seems to be an information gathering exercise.

Most sage sources in the industry still think this probe won’t fly. And I tend to agree.

Are all these niggles enough to add up into a big ball of antitrust trouble for Apple? We’ll keep you posted.

Let us know in the comments if you think Apple should or should not be investigated.

However, taking a closer look at the new iPhone Developer Contract, there is another clause that is causing some consternation for advertising firms like AdMob, Analytics companies such as Flurry, and even individual app developers who like to analyse their customers gaming habits to provide a “better gaming experience”.

The crucial part of Section 3.3.9 of Apple’s new developers agreement states the following :

The use of third-party software in Your Application to collect and send Device Data to a third party for processing or analysis is expressly prohibited.

There are many ways to interpret this.

Firstly, if you are collecting your own analytics and not sending it to another party then you seem to be in the clear. This would be my interpretation anyway. Further subsections of the clause do state that you need to let your customers know about data you are collecting. But then this is fairly standard fare in a world where we are supposed to respect our customers privacy; something Apple takes very seriously.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of the wording a little further we need to figure out what “Device Data” means. Is this referring to an iPhone’s specifications and information such as it’s UDID (a unique identifier each iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad has)? Or is it also referring to any data generated by your app?

Either way it can be seen as giving iAds a competitive advantage over the likes of AdMob, and also hobbling analytics companies like Flurry and Distimo; who offer plugins as well as direct monitoring for developers so they can track app usage, as well as allow them to create wide ranging industry reports on app sales and usage for general consumption. In Distimo’s case they actually hook directly into your Developer Account at Apple. I would have to wonder how this is affected, if at all, by this clause – as your device is not sending any data back to them in that scenario.

In simple terms what this clause could mean is that AdMob may potentially not be able to produce targeted ads, whereas Apple’s own iAds would be able to. It could also mean that any analytics data that other companies might like to collate for general consumption, or on the app developers behalf, would not be as fine grained as it has been able to be in the past.

Peter Farago, who runs marketing for Flurry, has said that they are still trying to interpret exactly what the clause means, but feels that there will be a way to work with Apple moving forward. I would tend to agree with that analysis.

Apple, as they have done with 3.3.1, has set a base line they can fall back to in any disagreement with another party. How, and when they actually enforce the strict wording of this contract is entirely up to them.

Flurry goes on to say :

It’s too early to tell. No one’s freaking out. There’s more to understand about it, and we’re dialoguing with Apple about it, but it looks we may have to modify the way we collect and distribute information.

Do you feel that some of these companies have been too free and easy with your personal data in the past? Or do you think Apple is simply trying to unfairly crush any and all competition?

Let us know in the comments.

The changes the iPad will bring to mobile advertising are twofold; changes in content and changes in delivery. The content change reflects the iPad’s own multimedia capabilities. As we all know, Flash is a non-starter on the iPad. With its larger screen real estate and advanced graphics hardware, look for advertising on the iPad to move from static displays to more video and interactive content. It seems odd to suggest the iPad will drive a move to traditional video advertising but users seem more willing to let an ad run to get a free game or application than to get a free television show. With technologies like H.264 and HTML 5, getting that advanced content to the user is easy without having to even consider Flash.

The other change will be in delivery. Apple’s recent acquisition of Quattro demonstrates their desire to control the advertising media that appears on their devices. This gives Apple incredible control over what appears and how it appears on their device. The iPad compliments the Quattro acquisition because it gives Apple a supercharged platform for selling and displaying mobile advertising and the Quattro acquisition compliments the iPad because it gives Apple the control it desires. Once the iPad starts taking off, look for Apple to acquire more mobile advertising delivery channels, not only to control (and profit) from iPad advertising, but also to wrest market share away from Google.

Will the iPad become the advertisers dream device? Will it take the prevalent pay-for-play model to new heights? Leave us a comment and let us know.

By: Erin Peterson

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