And Google has just released a statement on its Mobile Ads Blog addressing Apple’s apparent inclusion of AdMob: “Apple’s new terms will keep in-app advertising on the iPhone open to many different mobile ad competitors and enable advertising solutions that operate across a wide range of platforms.”
Apple’s developer licensing agreement in June allowed only “independent” ad-serving companies tol be able to serve ads. AdMob, because it’s “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” (i.e. Google), was restricted from serving ads on apps for the iPhone. AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui confirmed this inn an official response from AdMob. But as we learned in July, Apple didn’t enforce this policy, as AdMob was able to serve ads on iOS devices. This could have been because the FTC was rumored to be sniffing investigating Apple because of these anti-competitive practices.
If Apple was allowed to continue its exclusion of ad networks that are owned by device or OS manufacturers, the effects could have been disastrous for the mobile ad ecosystem.
But Google appears to now be in the clear and can fully reap the benefits from its $750 million acquisition of AdMob and this $1 billion market without the fear of Apple’s wrath.
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Authors: Leena Rao