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Apple makes it official, acquires Quattro Wireless
Following up on last evening's rumor, Apple has pulled the trigger and made its acquisition of mobile ad network Quattro Wireless official. A sale price wasn't disclosed -- $275 million is the popular number being thrown around -- but the company's CEO Andy Miller has been immediately elevated to Apple's newly-minted VP of Mobile Advertising position. In a news post on Quattro's site, Miller says that its products and services won't change "for now" -- but considering that it offers tailored advertising across a huge bounty of devices and platforms, we have to imagine Apple's long-term strategy is going to involve making this framework more of an App Store value-add for developers. Time will tell, but one thing's for sure: this is good news if (and only if) it either makes life easier on devs that want to offer awesome free apps or finally ushers in the era of free, non-carrier-subsidized, ad-supported smartphones that don't suck.
Apple buying mobile ad network Quattro Wireless for $275M?
Now that everyone and their mother's got a smartphone, you've got a pile of sweaty capitalists pounding on the door trying to find every last conceivable way to turn the trend into cold, hard cash. One of the most obvious -- quality apps from a central clearinghouse -- is proving fruitful through countless official platform app stores, but targeted mobile advertising has to be a close second. Google saw the writing on the wall and snapped up AdMob not long ago; one of AdMob's competitors, Quattro Wireless, is now rumored to be locked up for a purchase by Apple for a cool $275 million as early as tomorrow. While mobile ads (or ads of any sort, really) aren't event remotely in Cupertino's repertoire, it's easy to see how this could give the company an opportunity to capitalize on the iPhone's vibrant free app ecosystem, centralize revenue for devs (while stealing a nice little cut for itself), and take back a cottage industry that's flourished since the App Store's debut. At this point, it's unclear what this means for iPhone users -- or would-be tablet users, for that matter -- but seeing how this jibes with recent Apple IP, this tie-up might actually make a frightening amount of sense.
Norwegian ski billboard gets snowy when texted
We've certainly seen mobile-activated bus stop ads before, but the cool factor on this one was just too impressive to overlook. Tryvann Winter Park, a ski resort that sits just 15 minutes away from downtown Oslo, was searching high and low for ways to better market itself to residents of the bustling Norwegian city. In order to do so, it turned to JCDecaux, who conjured up the brilliant idea you see to the right. Essentially, this advertisement packs a few internal fans and a bucketful of faux snow; whenever it starts snowing up at the ski resort, someone sends a text to the billboard and the flurries start to fly. This way, residents and workers in Oslo can easily see when conditions are good some 500 meters up. We're told that Tryvann "loved" the campaign and the resulting crowds that came, though there's no mention of whether it'll be implemented next season or elsewhere in the world.[Via textually, thanks Charles]
Fox joins with Third Screen Media for mobile advertising
Third Screen Media has been making bigger inroads to the mobile advertising scene in recent years as mainstream news properties and companies realize the simple arithmetic of having more mobile screens in use compared to even TV sets. Fox, not one to miss the trend, has agreed to partner with Third Screen Media to ensure it has the best advertising presence possible on all those mobile screens. With YouTube starting to get itself onto those same screens as well, Fox News is even reportedly likely to add video advertising and other forms of advertising on mobile screens sometime in the near future. Are we all ready for ads to take over our mobile web browsing experience? One thing is for sure -- consistent high data speeds will be a must for all that mobile video advertising to work optimally, right?
Nokia to enter mobile advertising arena by end of 2007
As cellphone hardware margins dwindle downwards (ask Motorola about this), Nokia has tried to get its revenue diversified beyond just that phone you may have holding in your hand right now (unless you are typing). The world's largest handset maker has said that it will be entering the mobile advertising biz sometime this year with a few new software platforms just for the occasion: "Nokia Ad Service" and "Nokia Advertising Connector." Will Yahoo!, Google, MobAds and other mobile ads companies become a little miffed? Doubtful, but with a customer now being a competitor, who knows. We like the Nokia Advertising Connector best, which lets advertisers target different types of mobile ads to the actual handset model being used.
MSN, Ingenio team up to launch pay-per-call advertising
In the ever-expanding world of mobile searches, we knew it was simply a matter of time before revenue-hungry mega corporations dug in and gave the impulse caller in us all one more irresistible temptation. While Google's AdWords have already landed on mobile search screens, Ingenio has now inked a deal with Microsoft to enable location-based advertisements to appear atop MSN's "Windows Live searches" made via cellphones. Although Ingenio already has a similar agreement in place with AOL, this partnership will allow users who search for local "businesses, restaurants, and services" to see a single banner ad which will automatically ring up a nearby supplier with just a click. The oh-so-coveted ads are being "auctioned" to interested parties willing to shell out the most dollars to get their plugs listed first, fetching "$2 to $4 each" for typical entertainment clicks, while demanding "$20 or more for things like financial services and real estate."
