Last week I wrote about Google’s acquisition of AdMob, a mobile phone advertising network. This is the same company that Google outbid Apple for to the tune of $750M back in November of 2009.
Not content to come away empty handed, in January of 2010, Apple acquired another mobile ad firm, Quattro Wireless. Apple used Quattro’s technology to create their iAd advertising platform.
Google has AdMob, Apple has iAd, it looks like a level playing field, right?
Not so fast. Apple recently changed their terms of service for iPhone developers in such a way to restrict the data that developers are allowed to share:
The collection, use or disclosure is for the purpose of serving advertising to Your Application; is provided to an independent advertising service provider whose primary business is serving mobile ads (for example, an advertising service provider owned by or affiliated with a developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other than Apple would not qualify as independent); and the disclosure is limited to UDID, user location data, and other data specifically designated by Apple as available for advertising purposes.
In a nutshell, if AdMob is restricted from sharing data, AdMob will not be able to report on the metrics of their advertising spots when those spots are viewed on an iPhone.
With the iPhone currently holding a 28% share in the smartphone market, this is a huge blow to Google.
Whow know how all this will end, but one thing is for sure, the mobile advertising landscape is about to go through some major changes over the course of the next few months.
