Apple To iPhone Developers: Don’t Use Location-Based Info ‘Primarily’ For Ads
An obvious promise of mobile ads is that they can be location-aware; products can be pitched to people based on where they are. But Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) may have just limited that on the iPhone. In a short post on the iPhone developer blog, the company warns developers that if their app uses location-based information, that information must be put to “beneficial” use: “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.”
Lots of questions here, including how Apple will enforce the policy. An app developer could plausibly argue that ads — especially when they are location-aware — are “beneficial.” The conspiracy theories, by the way, are already on the rise. As ReadWriteWeb notes, “some people” hypothesize that Apple — which just entered the mobile ad market via its acquisition of Quattro Wireless — wants to have sole control of location-based ads on the iPhone.
Conspiracy theories make me laugh – I would suggest that Apple simply want to avoid the misuse of location based advertising by cowboy developers and ad networks within the apps published to their App Store. No one wants to receive an ad with every step they take and every move they make (nice opportunity ti use some classic Police lyrics! LOL)
Apple is laying the foundation for ROI on Quattro acquisition. I’m positive there will be ad APIs in the next version of iPhone SDK (location aware advertising will be built into the API)
Is there room here for FCC to look into monopolistic practices for mobile ads ? Net neutrality will look like a joke compared to what is brewing within the Apples and Googles of the world with their mobile advertising ambitions.
I’m interested to see how this thing will pan out and what Apple plans to do.
If you dont want the ads, dont buy the apps that allow LBA. Stupid simple.
If you’re a developer, dont allow scumbag advertisers. Stupid simple.
If the ad benefits me…like a $20 off $200 purchase coupon when I walk into Best Buy….there’s the idea of “Beneficial”.
I don’t understand what this is geared at doing. If someone doesn’t want a spammy app then don’t download it. Apple also needs to realize that displaying ads is how a lot of developers are paying for the apps development in the first place. So this may make 3rd party apps decline a little bit, which is why the app store has been so successful.
http://www.PhoneFreelancer.com