An article in AppleInsider [appleinsider.com] discusses some of the opportunity and ways advertisers plan on exploiting the iPad. Two of the key buzzwords in use in the run up to the iPad launch are interactive advertisements and dynamic content. While the article was not particularly forthcoming about the ways advertisers plan on exploiting the new platform, it did note the iPhone 3.2 SDK now allows for inserting of advertisements in more spots throughout an application. The static placement model most iPhone users are know familiar with will change in ways we can only imagine.

While we don’t yet have any details on how the iPad advertising model will develop, hints at interactive advertisements and dynamic content inevitably lead to video. Traditional video advertisements would be a good match for the iPad as long as it stayed on topic and within the context of the current application. They could fill lulls in the action of a game (in between level loads for example) and the advertiser would have a captive audience for their commercial. If the video somehow promoted a level of interactivity it would also fight the urge a user might have to tune it out. I don’t know about you but I don’t even notice the ads inserted into iPhone apps any more. It is this invisibility factor advertisers need to fight and the iPad may be the perfect device for it.

As with many aspects of media, the iPad is poised to change the world of advertising as well. It will be interesting to see what mobile advertising companies do with the tools the iPad and iPhone OS SDK gives them.

What do you think? Is the iPad platform a golden opportunity for the marketers? Would you just as easily tune out an interactive commercial as a banner ad? Let us know in the comments section.

Flurry is a San Francisco-based analytics company that concentrates on the mobile space. They’ve recently released numbers indicating a sudden jump in iPhone OS development. Flurry tracks deployed and in-development applications through developers who incorporate their analytics package, a Neilsen system for apps if you will. According to a recent blog post entitled, Flurry Smartphone Industry Pulse, January 2010:

Flurry tracks over 20,000 live applications and over 2 billion user sessions each month. Applications that include Flurry Analytics have been downloaded to more than 80% of all iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices.
So if anyone has the pulse on the course of mobile application development its Flurry.

In the same blog post Flurry reveals they tracked 1600 new iPhone application starts in January. That doesn’t seem remarkable taken by itself. However, they tracked only 600 new application starts in December. That’s almost a threefold increase in application starts in the course of one month. The explanation, of course, is iPad anticipation.

Any successful person knows that to be successful you don’t merely follow the crowd, you lead it. The huge increase in new application starts just goes to show that not only were foresighted developers anticipating the iPad, they were actively pursuing the opportunities it brings. The coming months should see a new, virtual gold rush as developers move on the opportunities the iPad brings. The primary participants? At this point I think the developers really delving into the iPad will be those creating games, eBooks, and content delivery platforms. Those are the three areas really targeted by the iPad. Others will follow but these three areas will be the real veins initially mined in this new gold rush.

Will the iPad bring a new boom of development for the iPhone/iPad platform? Will this boom bring a noticeable stratification between iPhone and iPad applications? Will you be participating in the gold rush? Leave us a comment and give your thoughts.

By: Erin Peterson

With the iPad announcement come and gone, the anticipation around the device moves to its public availability and the games and apps that will come with that availability. Recently two of the major iPhone game development houses, Tapulous and Firemint, indicated they are already laying plans for gaming on the iPad. In an article on GamesIndustry.biz, both development houses expressed plans to expand current iPhone offerings as well as create new iPad-specific titles.

Tapulous and Firemint are leading development houses because they’ve successfully married enjoyable games (Tap Tap Revenge, Flight Control, Real Racing to name a few) with the touch enabled interface of the iPhone environment. It’s only logical that they want to move with the interface as it evolves and changes. The iPad provides performance and screen resolution differences that can only be truly appreciated through custom development. Although it is true the iPad will run iPhone applications natively, graphics developed for the iPhone screen may not translate up to the iPad screen well in all cases. Time will tell whether this produces dual version games or games that contain additional logic for determining the platform they run on.

Major iPhone development houses, EA and Gameloft had the opportunity to demonstrate iPad games at the introductory keynote. With an advertised lead time of two weeks, both companies created graphically intense and feature rich versions of Need for Speed Shift and N.O.V.A. Not only did these games look great in the larger screen and using the faster processor of the iPad, they also offered a glimpse of how developers will exploit the new environment to expand their games. For example, Need for Speed Shift gave the player the capability to tap the rear view mirror of the car and access a rear facing camera in place. N.O.V.A game the player enhanced controls that otherwise wouldn’t be available on the iPhone.

The public availability of the iPad development SDK should ensure a good selection of iPad games from Day One. The involvement of large gaming shops like Tapulous, Firemint, EA, and Gameloft should ensure the quality of iPad games meets and exceeds those of the iPhone.

Do you look forward to the introduction of the iPad and its inherent gaming capabilities? Is there a favorite game you hope gets ported and enhanced for the iPad? Are you developing iPad games?  Leave us a comment and let us know.

By: Erin Peterson