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Targeted ads seemingly off-limits on the App Store
There may be trouble ahead for iPhone apps (and mobile ad networks) looking to make use of location-based advertising.
In an 'App Store Tip' posted on its iPhone Developer website, Apple appears to have nixed the idea.
"If you build your application with features based on a user's location, make sure these features provide beneficial information," says the tip.
"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."
Of course, the grey area comes in the use of the word 'primarily'. If the main use of location in an app is for the app itself - think social location apps like Foursquare and Gowalla - is it okay to include ads targeted by location?
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How about sponsored listings within augmented reality apps like Layar? And, if we're getting really cat/pigeons about this, what does the ruling mean for Google's plans for location-based advertising within iPhone apps?
Apple has always made a point of stressing that consumers are its prime consideration when it comes to its App Store policies - including app approvals.
The new move can be seen as the latest example of the company trying to protect its customers from being pushed intrusive ads with no real benefit.
However, there's another angle, which is to wonder how Apple's new mobile advertising division - the recently acquired Quattro Wireless - will fit into this.
There's a page on the Quattro website covering its targeting and ad serving technology, which specifically mentions that campaigns can be targeted by "location and time".
The conspiracy theory already being discussed in the blogosphere is that at some point, developers wanting to use location-targeted ads will be forced to use Apple's own ad units - and thus not those of competitors like Google-owned AdMob.
Time will tell, but for now, the grey areas around what counts as 'primarily' using location for ads will be what concerns developers most.
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'Apple stressing that customers are their prime consideration'!!?? Wake up and smell the coffee. They want to control everything for their own commercial gain. iphone v1 didn't allow for texting; it still has Bluetooth OBEX scrambled. Their app store review team sounds like what China are doing to Google. Let's also remember that Verizon lost class action suits in California, New York and inbetween for infringing people's rights by disenabling Bluetooth OBEX file sharing. They were reminded that an army of ants can bring down an elephant.
Surely genuine customer focus is about people's freedom to choose what is good and relevant on their terms, from apps to location based messages and beyond. The brands that do it well will prosper, those that don't will be shunned. As in all other media channels.
Thus the problem with mobile marketing is too much technology, not enough fundamental good media business practice. Which of course is also the glowing opportunity...
This time, Apple has run afoul of 1st amendment, intermediate -tier protection of commercial speech. As long as the users opt in for the advertising communication, the FTC and Bureau of Competition, as well as the DOJ are going to have a big problem with Apple violating the constitution (and AT&T being a cohort in the action). Evidently, Apple wants to be in the headlines, not just for the iPad, but for being in a legal battle to suborn free speech. Can't wait to see this on Larry King, Andersen Cooper, and all the blogs.
That's not how I read that at all:
"If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. 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."
I think they're just saying that you can't use the the iphone location info just to serve up ads. I don't see this affecting apps like Foursquare at all.
And there is no 1st amendment issue here per the other comment. The first amendment says Congress cannot restrict speech. Last I checked, Apple is most definitely not Congress.
Re Todd's comment and Apple not being Congress:
1st amendment violations may occur even if neither Nancy Pelosi nor Harry Reid are involved. In 1st amendment jurisprudence, the word "Congress" has been extended to include any regulatory body, whether state or federal, and "state actors" which, at times, are private actors who are sanctioned under a government regulated (eg. FCC) monopoly (think phone lines).
The reason is somewhat straightforward. Let's say an arm of the government wanted a particular kind of speech quashed, but because of the 1st amendment, it cannot do it. If all private actors were exempt from 1st amendment related prosecution, then the state could simply outsource the censorship activity to a private part, realize it goals of censorship, and have clean hands. This would be wrong.
Dear abtfulmind,
Good call on freedom of speech and movement being compromised. This is rife within the mobile ecosphere as it has evolved in the US. A market large enough to sustain a number of short-sighted walled garden strategies from the likes of T-mobile and Verizon. They have surreptitiously compromised the broader functionalities of Bluetooth thus denying the people the full joyous benefits of this agnostic FREE connectivity protocol. Indeed, Verizon lost class action suits in CA/NY/OH from outraged customers who had their Bluetooth freedoms denied. Surely delighting your customer with popular features and benefits is more rewarding than operating a quasi-cartel to restrict their rights and freedoms...
Developer agreement or not....Didn't MIcrosoft get slapped with millions in fines deturing 3rd party developers from competing against their in-house products?
Wait until the FTC catches wind of this one. It won't stick...and it's going to hurt.
abtfulmind
I'm tired of liberal Americans using their own interpretation of free speech and other constitutional concepts to substantiate a point that's related to private business. An advertiser wants "free speech," then freely choose to not distribute the content via Apple. Get creative and use another distribution channel.
That said, I agree Apple has way too much control of several industry value chains and is heading towards anti-trust issues. (But, this point has nothing to do with a citizens right to free speech.)
