It seems that tension is raising high between two of the major players in the IT sphere. Google and Apple once stood together against the “evil” Microsoft. But with Google slowly entering Apple’s territories – as the market for Smartphone with Nexus, and maybe tablet market, as rumors suggest, problems appeared. Apple, currently having a big cut of the mobile device market, decided to strike back.. They began development of alternative ad platform to integrate in their iOS devices.
The so called iAd platform will be integrated in iPhone 4 in an attempt to defend Apple’s positions in the online ad market. It allows ads to be integrated in applications, and revenue shared between Apple and the application developer. It allows all kind of content to be included – even full screen video commercials. With such flexibility, developers are expected to like the new iAd very much.
Interesting fact is that in the disclaimer signed by all developers, a section exists which claims that apps which are optimized in any way by “any developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments”, can be disallowed any time from using Apple app store. Which means such app will most likely never make the revenue expected by it. Apple relies on such texts in the developer’s agreement to refuse access to app store for Google AdWords enabled apps.
Though Google has filed a complaint with the FTC (US Federal Trading Commission), and it has begun investigation, there is no certainty what the decision will be, and as this dispute is now in the hands of lawyers, it may take a while to reach an end.
Another sign of great trouble forming between ex-friends Google and Apple happened on the unveiling of iPhone 4. Steve Jobs invited his archenemy Bill Gates on the stage, showing that Apple will now support Microsoft’s Bing search engine, thus trying to make trouble for Google in its main business, search engines, too.
Statistics show that only 20% of applications downloaded from the app store until now were paid apps. Which means only 20% made money for Apple. And though the new iAd may help in making money from the rest 80%, it may also fail big time. People, who liked the, kind of, free lunch, will wonder if maybe Android powered phones are not the better option – applications number is rising slowly, but steadily, and no ads are included, well, in most of them anyway.
Only time will tell will there be place for two or more main players in the online ad business, and who will prevail in the battle of giants – the traditions of Apple and its new friend and ex-nemesis Microsoft, or the big, but still young Google.
