Is Apple Planning A Free, Ad-Supported iPhone?
Jan 5th, 2010 | By James Lewin | Category: iPhone, Making Money with Podcasts 
All Things Digital is reporting that Apple has bought mobile advertising platform company Quattro Wireless for $275 million.
Why is Apple buying a mobile advertising company?
Here are four possibilities:
- Free ad-supported iPhones – Steve Jobs recently applied for a patent for an ad-supported operating system. Combine that with the purchase of a mobile advertising company, and it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine a future ad-supported iPhone.
- “AdSense for iPhone apps” – Apple has created a vibrant free app platform with the iPhone. An “AdSense for iPhone apps” would let them make some money directly off the deal, while encouraging more free app development.
- Apple sees mobile advertising replacing television ads – in the future, people will watch video anywhere they want to on mobile devices. If Apple can make it easy for video publishers to make money on mobile video, Apple could jump-start mobile television.
- Apple wants to monetize podcasting – Podcasts are widely considered to be under-monetized. iTunes is the de facto distribution channel for podcasters. If Apple could make it easy to add location-aware contextual advertising to podcasters delivered to iPods and iPhones, it could be a huge deal.
Could any of these be the reason why Apple is buying a mobile advertising company?
Let me know what you think in the comments!
I could see Apple throwing ads into iTunes so that podcasters provide all the content and Apple cashes in on it.
The backlash against Apple putting ads into the podcast section of the app store would be tremendous, so I could never see them putting ads into the podcasts. More likely, this is a way for Apple to offer an advertising platform on iPhone apps, or at least a (partially) standardized ad platform for iPhone apps.
They are not having a show on Nickelodeon! Liam said on a twitcam video that there was nothing going on with nickelodeon. The whole thing is a rumor from the press. The only thing is that the One Direction documentary will be shown on nickelodeon. that’s it.