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Google is bringing fullscreen ads to an app near you
Advertisers aren't always a fan of investing in mobile. Part of that reason is that the ads you see on phones and tablets don't command the same amount of attention that ads do on desktops. Google is working on new ad units though that could lure in the big brands, though users might find them somewhat infuriating. Of the four new designs, three are fullscreen ads and some are interstitial ads that would take over the screen at a "logical break point" while you're using an app. These ads could even include video or interactive elements, which pretty much turns them into in-app commercials. So, between levels three and four of the next Angry Birds licensing debacle title you could be watching a 20 second ad for Perdue chicken breasts. Or, you could just be blindly skipping by the ads that hijack your screen to sell paper towels, skin cream, or anything else. Update: And lest you think Google is about to single-handedly destroy the mobile app landscape, this is pretty similar to an initiative launched by Apple recently.
Google's new mobile ads help find apps that fit your daily habits
Ads for mobile apps are rarely personal; they're more often based on search keywords than your actual habits. Google is fixing this today with new ads in search and on YouTube that reflect your day-to-day app uses and purchases. If you regularly track your runs with fitness software, for instance, you may get ads offering to install a companion diet app.
Google adds confirmation click to mobile ads to combat accidental activation
Smartphone owners have learned to cope with the extra power drain in-app advertising can cause, but accidentally launching a web browser? That's a frustration that lasts forever. Google's hoping to mitigate the pitfalls of clumsy thumbs, however, by introducing two-step click-through for mobile ads. Text banners served through AdMob will now display a humble blue arrow on their starboard side -- clicking here takes the reader directly to the advertiser's preferred destination; touching anywhere else expands widens the blue square to coax users into giving the ad a confirmation click, just in case they fumbled the advertisement by mistake. The team's preliminary tests show that confirmed ad clicks sport a notably higher conversion rate, indicating that folks who clicked through the ad actually meant to. Google says solving what it calls the "fat finger problem" will be beneficial to the ecosystem as a whole. We prefer to think of our fingers as grand.
Shocker! Tablet ad requests up 700 percent during 2011
Good news: all those new tablets you see reported on these pages aren't being stolen by elves; they're entering the human population at large and -- most Christmassy of all -- they're displaying ads. Google told TechCrunch that its AdMob platform saw eight billion ad requests from tablets during the month of November, compared to one lonely billion back in December 2010. Total AdMob requests amount to roughly three billion per day, however, so tablet advertising is still sugary froth compared to that on smartphones.
Survey illustrates iPad's effect on PC market
A recent survey by Google-owned AdMob found many consumers are spending more time on their tablets and less time sitting at their personal computers, using their smartphones, watching television, listening to the radio or reading paper books. The survey highlights the rapidly shifting habits of customers in a tablet market that AdMob expects will reach 165 million devices over the next two years. Among the 1,430 tablet owners who participated in the survey, 77 percent admitted to spending less time with their personal computers after buying a tablet, 43 percent said they now use their tablets more than their personal computers, and 28 percent claimed to use a tablet as their primary computer. Most tablet users, 68 percent, spent at least one hour each day with the device, primarily for playing games (84 percent), searching for information (78 percent) or email correspondence (74 percent). The survey results didn't reveal any future buying decisions, but these new usage patterns may suggest a near future in which consumers spend less time and money on notebook and desktop computers. Are you spending less time at your personal computer since getting an iPad or other tablet device? Will it make you less likely to buy a notebook or desktop machine in the future? Let us know in the comments. [via BGR]
Survey: Games top usage on tablets, too
According to a survey done by Google's AdMob, games are the number one use of most tablet computers out there, including Apple's own iPad and iPad 2. As you can see from the chart above, 84% of tablet owners play games on their devices, a use that's apparently ahead of even email checking, search, or newsreading and social networking. That's interesting -- when the iPad was first introduced, Steve sat on a couch and read email and news, but it turns out that once you get these things in people's hands, the number one thing they're doing is playing games. Just like the iPhone, playing games are a big deal on these mobile devices, and they're also a big way Apple has been able to sell both apps and hardware. Additionally, 38% of respondents say they use their tablets more than two hours a day, and 82% have been using their tablets at home. Anecdotally, I'll guess that these are still supplementary devices, though -- people are using their tablets while watching TV or otherwise engaging rather than using them directly. Only 28% of respondents say the tablet is their primary computer, but 43% say they do use the tablet more than a traditional PC. Interesting to see how usage patterns on tablets are really inserting themselves into an everyday work flow.
Apple taking mobile ad share from Google, Yahoo, should have 21% by year end
Apple's iAd service is a relative newcomer to the mobile ads industry, which is probably why it's completely falling apart. No, sorry Carol, we're kidding -- Apple's service is doing extremely well, and it's already threatening established mobile advertising services like Google and Yahoo!. IDC claims that Apple will end the year with 21 percent of the market, which means that in less than a year's time, the company will have picked up almost a quarter of a rapidly growing and expanding industry. Google's share is dropping, and that's in addition to the AdMob purchase it made a while back as well. That is a phenomenal start for the iAd platform. And in fact, IDC is convinced that Apple's gigantic entry into the ads market has actually buoyed all ships -- even smaller advertisers like JumpTap and Millenial Media are growing, and even they cite Apple's entry into the industry as a marker for their popularity. Other cellphone and mobile platform creators are looking into their own advertising as well now, when before they would have just depended on a third-party service to run things for them. And yet despite the incredible growth, Steve Jobs is probably disappointed -- he said earlier this year that he wanted Apple to oversee half of all mobile advertising by the time 2011 started. That's unlikely to happen, but still, a quarter of a market that Apple entered less than a year ago is nothing to sniff at.
Android developer anecdotally claims AdMob brings home the bacon
In February 2009, Arron La's $0.99 Advanced Task Manager was one of the first paid apps on Android, allowing T-Mobile G1 users to do what was then a novel thing -- close applications. (We immediately bought a copy.) Today, the app is all but obsolete, its functionality baked right into Android's core, but Arron's still making thousands of dollars a month. Why do we bring this up? Because nine months after Arron released the pay-first version, he unleashed an ad-supported variant as well... and since that day, each has contributed about the same amount ($30,000) of money. It's not exactly an object lesson in what's possible on the 70,000-application-strong Android Market, as this gentleman obviously had quite the head start, but it does show that when it comes time to monetize your best-thing-since-sliced-bread app, there's more than one option -- ads can be an equally good revenue source. Find rays of hope for indie development (and several stormy clouds for comparison) at the links below. Update: Did we say 50,000 apps? We meant more like 70K and counting as of July. Thanks to the astute commenters who pointed this out. [Thanks, Shannon G.]
AdMob CEO says Apple isn't enforcing mobile advertising restrictions
They prompted some public outcry from competitors and a preliminary antitrust investigation from the US government, but it looks like Apple isn't even enforcing those new rules on outside ad networks -- at least not yet. That's according to none other than AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui himself, who said at the MobileBeat conference this week that "they haven't been enforcing" the new regulations yet, and that he's "very appreciative of that." If enforced, those regulations would prevent companies like AdMob from collecting some analytic data on ads placed in iOS applications -- data that Apple itself could collect with its iAd platform. Of course, it's not clear when or if Apple will start enforcing the rules, but Hamoui seems to be content with the current situation, and even went out of his way to praise Apple's own advertising efforts, saying that "anybody getting advertisers interested in mobile is a good thing. It's not at all a zero-sum game."
Financial Times: US antitrust regulators plan to investigate Apple's mobile advertising practices
There's not a lot of details on this at the moment, but the Financial Times is reporting that US antitrust regulators plan to investigate Apple's mobile advertising practices to see whether they unfairly restrict rivals like Google and Microsoft. As you'll recall, Apple recently revised its rules on outside advertisers and, specifically, their ability to collect analytics on ads for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, effectively cutting out Google's AdMob in the process -- something the company's CEO has publicly complained about. What's next? That's still not certain -- the Financial Times says that while US regulators have taken an interest, it's still not clear whether the FTC or the Department of Justice will handle the investigation going forward.
AdMob CEO comments on being thrown out of the App Store
Big surprise here, right? AdMob, freshly picked for purchase by Google (cue dramatic music) has been expelled from Valhalla, also known as the App Store, by a tiny change in the iOS developer agreement. Specifically, section 3.3.9 of the agreement, which precludes companies who do anything other than deliver ads from delivering ads on apps within Apple's precious, increasingly-walled ecosystem. On the AdMob blog, chief exec Omar Hamoui stated, "This change is not in the best interests of users or developers. In the history of technology and innovation, it's clear that competition delivers the best outcome. Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress." Hamoui said AdMob would "be speaking with Apple," although there's no indication that Apple will listen. I'd have to agree with Hamoui's statement. In fact, it's a little off-putting to see Apple react this way, considering it'll only lend fuel to the fire already raging around possible anti-competitive practices. No doubt Steve Jobs has a witty sentence in waiting for this one. Meanwhile, the thousands of developers using AdMob will now have to worry about deploying something else in their apps.
AdMob CEO responds to Apple's new advertising rules: 'not in the best interests of users or developers' (update: Greystripe responds)
We had a pretty good idea what Google and its AdMob division would think of Apple's new rules on outside advertising companies collecting analytics, but AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui has now spelled it out himself. In a post on the company's blog today, Hamoui says flat out that if the changes are enforced as written, they would "prohibit app developers from using AdMob and Google's advertising solutions on the iPhone." That, he says, would "not [be] in the best interests of users or developers," noting that "in the history of technology and innovation, it's clear that competition delivers the best outcome," and that "artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress." As for what Google and AdMob are going to do about it, Hamoui would only say that they're going to be "speaking to Apple to express our concerns about the impact of these terms." We've also reached out to Greystripe for comment -- which would also seem to be affected by the new rules -- but have yet to hear back. Update: We just got a statement from Adobe's partner Greystripe, which says Apple's new rules won't prevent it from operating on the iPhone and iPad. "We are pleased that Apple's new terms and conditions explicitly allow Greystripe, an independent ad network, to operate on the iPhone and iPad platforms. It confirms the value of 3rd party ad networks in enabling developers to earn great revenue with their applications." – Dane Holewinski, Director of Marketing for Greystripe
Apple revises iOS rules on outside advertisers, cuts out Google, Adobe by implication
Apple and Google's newfound rivalry in the mobile advertising space was already pretty interesting to watch as it stood, and it looks like things just got more interesting still. As expected following Steve Jobs' comments at D8 last week, Apple has now revised its rules on advertising in iOS to allow outside advertisers to collect stats for ads, but the company has included some language in the new rules that seems to effectively cut out Google's AdMob. While it obviously doesn't mention Google by name, only "independent" advertising providers can collect tracking stats, and Apple says that any "advertising service provider owned by or affiliated with a developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other than Apple would not qualify as independent." That would seem to not only affect AdMob, but Adobe and Greystripe's just-announced effort as well, considering it specifically mentions companies affiliated with "development environments other than Apple." We told you things would get interesting. Head on past the break for the complete relevant section.
AdMob releases iPad SDK
The Google-owned AdMob advertising network wants to make it easier for marketers to leverage the power of iPad (and also stay ahead of Apple's impending iAds frameworks in the process). The company announced today that its iPad App SDK is available for developers; this unified environment works with all iPhone OS devices, so devs can include ad code in apps for iPhone and iPod touch as well. The tool allows for the creation of text and image ads, but in the near future AdMob expects to provide HTML5 video support -- there's a snazzy preview over on the company blog right now. Video inside advertisements inside applications; whatever will they think of next? In a side note, the AdMob metrics for iPad are showing that 38% of the devices visible to the ad network's analytics tools (about 850K unique iPads) were being used outside the United States during the month of May. Pretty impressive, considering they only just went on sale in the rest of the world.
Google officially acquires AdMob
It was only a (brief) matter of time once it cleared the FTC's final approval last week (with a special thanks to Apple's iAd): Google is now the proud owner of one AdMob. According to Product Management VP Susan Wojcicki, the company is now integrating all the teams and products together. Full details are at the Official Google Blog, and after the break, check out an email purportedly from AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui.
FTC approves Google's AdMob buy, cites Apple's iAd competition
Google's attempt to swoop in and buy AdMob out from under Apple was looking like a Pyrrhic victory for a second there, as Federal Trade Commission approval of the deal hung in the balance based on concerns that El Goog would control far too much of the online advertising market. It's ironic, then, that Apple's acquisition of Quattro Wireless and the introduction of the iAd platform in iPhone OS 4 is what convinced the feds to let Google's acquisition go through -- the FTC says that Apple's entry into the market will provide significant competition to AdMob, regardless of whether or not it's owned by Google. That means Google's free to pursue all the ad-based initiatives in Froyo it announced yesterday at I/O, and it means we should see the already-heated rhetoric between Mountain View and Cupertino get another notch hotter. It's going to be a wild summer, folks -- get ready. Update: Here's a statement from AdMob founder and CEO Omar Hamoui on the deal -- he's got a fuller piece on his blog, linked below. "We are extremely pleased with today's decision from the Federal Trade Commission to clear Google's acquisition of AdMob. Over the past six months we've received a great deal of support from across the mobile industry – and we deeply appreciate it. Our focus is now on working with the team at Google team to quickly close the deal."
Apple under preliminary antitrust investigation over iPhone, triggered by complaint from Adobe
We'd heard a somewhat sketchy report from the New York Post yesterday that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission were considering launching an antitrust inquiry into Apple and its various iPhone-related practices, and now it's being confirmed by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, who say the inquiry was triggered by complaints from Apple's competitors and app developers -- specifically Adobe, according to Bloomberg. The DOJ and FTC are currently deciding which agency will take the lead in any inquiry, but if and when it gets underway there are a few issues at play: the first is obviously Apple's decision to block Flash and other middleware from app development, and the second is Apple's new iAd platform, which comes with its own changes to the iPhone developer agreement that could potentially lock out third-party ad and analytics services like AdMob -- itself under regulatory scrutiny due to the Google acquisition -- and Flurry. We'd also imagine regulators will take a close look at Apple's App Store policies in general, but from a distance looks like the focus is on mobile advertising: both Apple and Google have made aggressive moves into the space in recent months, and both have come under regulatory scrutiny. We'll just have to wait and see how this one plays out -- there's still no official word from either agency on what's happening, and the timeline of any potential investigation and lawsuit will be measured in months and years.
iAds could make a billion dollars, help Google make their deal
There's not a lot of details out about Apple's upcoming mobile advertising program, iAds, quite yet, but Broadpoint Amtech is already convinced it's a moneymaker. Analysts there say that the program could generate a whopping US$4.67 billion in revenue in just one year's time. Of course, that's a high-end guess, but even the medium figures are pretty amazing -- analyst Brian Marshall suggests that even conservatively, Apple could earn $2.48 billion. Realize what we're talking about here: this is more or less a from-scratch profit stream for Apple, and with developers receiving 60% of the revenue from iAds, Apple won't be the only company making money. In fact, Apple's good news may benefit Google, too -- CEO Eric Schmidt said that Apple's iAds announcement should convince those concerned that Google's deal with AdMob is good to go, and that the two companies will just be one big player in "a highly competitive market." Of course, Google has a bit more advertising experience than Apple -- it made most of its $23.7 billion revenue last year from its online advertising model. While iAds sounds big, it's not quite that big. Still, iAds will be big, and there's room to grow -- Apple is starting off with the mobile market, but don't forget that they've got a whole library of iTunes podcasts, and content space on AppleTV to sell as well. At this time next year, we might be reporting that Apple really has created a $2.5 billion-per-year income stream for themselves.
Steve Jobs: 'we tried to buy a company called AdMob'
We'd previously heard rumors that Quattro Wireless was Apple's consolation prize after a deal with bigger mobile advertising rival AdMob fell through, and Steve Jobs confirmed it on no uncertain terms at the Q&A session following today's iPhone OS 4.0 event: "we tried to buy a company called AdMob... but Google snatched it away." Indeed they did, though that deal hasn't yet been approved by the Federal Trade Commission while Apple's already up, up and away with its iAd solution, so it seems like everything shook out for the best -- if you're an iPhone developer, anyway.
Stats: iPhone OS is still king of the mobile web space, but Android is nipping at its heels
AdMob serves north of 10 billion ads per month to more than 15,000 mobile websites and applications. Thus, although its data is about ad rather than page impressions, it can be taken as a pretty robust indicator of how web usage habits are developing and changing over time. Android is the big standout of its most recent figures, with Google loyalists now constituting a cool 42 percent of AdMob's smartphone audience in the US. With the EVO 4G and Galaxy S rapidly approaching, we wouldn't be surprised by the little green droid stealing away the US share crown, at least until Apple counters with its next slice of magical machinery. Looking at the global stage, Android has also recently skipped ahead of Symbian, with a 24 percent share versus 18 percent for the smartphone leader. Together with BlackBerry OS, Symbian is still the predominant operating system in terms of smartphone sales, but it's interesting to see both falling behind in the field of web or application usage, which is what this metric seeks to measure. Figures from Net Applications (to be found at the TheAppleBlog link) and ArsTechnica's own mobile user numbers corroborate these findings.
