Google mobile ad chief fires back at Apple lockout

Google's mobile-advertising chieftan is none too happy about a recent tweak to Apple's developer agreement that locks his service's ads out of Cupertino's iPhone OS iOS devices — "magical and revolutionary" or not. "Let's be clear. This change is not in the best interests of users or developers," writes AdMob's founder and CEO …

[Anonymous Coward]

Hypocrites

"Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developer"

How about Google artificially promoting companies that pay a fee to the top of search results.

Or are they trying to suggest this has no effect on the non paying competition.

Hypocrites

[Obvious Robert]

No...

Google give you the OPTION to pay and don't block non-payers from their search results. In fact, anyone with any sense automatically filters the sponsored links and moves straight to the 'real' ones anyway.

Apple are blocking AdMob totally with no option to allow them in. You may not think it's a big deal, but I happily used some fantastic free apps on Android (e.g. NewsRob) funded by ads. Apple really are the new Microsoft and the sooner the EU slam their balls in a vice the better.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Obvious Bobby

No - apps can still embed AdMob ads, they just can't send Google data about the user for them to provide more targeted ads.

[Anonymous Coward]

Jolly good of apple & google

The EU will surely have by now squandered the $1.3bn Microsoft kindly donated. Now we have both apple (anticompetitive business practice) and google (illegal sniffing with intent) offering themselves up for a full walletectomy.

Should keep the bubbly flowing in Brussels for a while.

[Steve Roper]

Fine...

If Apple refuse to play along, and they will, then the solution to this is for every other company that has a stake in online advertising to play hardball straight back, and block access to all their sites and services from any Apple device. If Jobs wants his fucking walled garden let him have it. Let's see how long the Apple fanbois stand by their toys when they can no longer access Google, Street View, Google Maps, GMail, YouTube, Blogger, Bing, Hotmail, Facebook, MySpace, LiveJournal, IMDb, CNN, News Corp and ABC. I don't think Apple would last long in the face of concerted firepower like that!

[DZ-Jay]

Fine...

Good luck with that! While you and a few others were bitching rather loudly about Flash been blocked from the iPhone and the iPad, the rest of the world--at least the important parts the people care about--has been submissively re-working their sites to support these devices and their lack of Flash support. Why? Because that's where the users are.

-dZ.

[uninventiveheart]

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I think Apple is trying to challenge their loyalists (developer, user or otherwise) to see how far they're willing to go with them.

Sounds like Gates is running things, doesn't it?

[BillyBoy]

iAds

Is it just me or is there somthing wrong with this statement? "if you're interested, to sign up for iAds"

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe explains

My iPod touch now has yahoo as the default search engine (it didn't ask me if I wanted to change it). I also note that the results page is in a /apple/ folder. They are watching me. anybody want to buy an ipod touch

[Anonymous Coward]

No Thanks....

... I dont want your your touch...Anyway moving on...

Typical Apple though we are in control behaviour. Nanny know best.

Bring Back Steve Gibson! IT IS MY DEVICE!

Google are on to a real winner if they up the rates to developers, why will want to develop for Apple if they[Apple] keep all the cash? If google pay more then that is where the developers will move to. Simples.

[Slartybardfast]

Gibson

I hate to say this but Steve Gibson loves his iPad.

How the mighty have fallen.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry to have to point this out...

but while it may be YOUR DEVICE, it's not YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM OR SOFTWARE. You have but a license to use it.

[Tim Bates]

License

You have a license to use the software... At least until Apple decide to revoke said license.

[Steen Larsen]

What if: Google lockout?

I wonder what HRH Jobs would think if the Googleplex decided that their wast number of services were off-limits to Jobsian devices suc as iPhones, iPads, Mac, iX ??!

IMHO this is yet another Apple app rule which is not in the interest of neither iPhone developers nor iPhone users.

[Neil Greatorex]

Insignificant

Apple's real share of <insert market here> is not that significant, despite Apple's constant manipulation of market share stats. and the consequent media orgasms. (And I'm looking at you too Elreg.) If his Jobness farts it makes the front page

I don't think Google should be too worried just yet, losing 0.01 or 0.02% of their ad revenue probably won't see them losing sleep.

If iphone4 is a yardstick on the "smartphone" (the smart bit must be something to do with the phone, as it certainly doesn't describe the owners) front, then the new HTC has not only hurdled it, it's galloping off past the water jump.

[Atonnis]

You WHAT?!

"Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress."

That comment, in this context, is possibly amongst the most self-serving, idiotic statements I've heard this year.

It's an ADVERT-DELIVERY PLATFORM. It's not in the interests of any of the end users whatsoever, and with the excessive repetitiveness, tiny array of advertising companies and the regular cr*p we see Google's search engine returning to people whilst simultaneously stealing their personal information it's starting to become a wonder that people even bother with the d*mn thing at all.

Hmm, I just had an idea...

[Obvious Robert]

"not in the interests of any of the end users whatsoever"

It's most certainly in the interests of end users who want decent apps free of charge - and we're not just talking about cheapskates who don't like paying for stuff here (which includes myself, I might add), we're also talking about people who for whatever reason CAN'T pay for apps - e.g. paid apps aren't available in their country.

Providing an ad funded version allows people to use an app which would be otherwise completely unavailable to them, while still allowing the developer to be paid for their work. If you could explain how that's not in the interests of any of the end users whatsoever, I'd be most grateful.

[Anonymous Coward]

surely

The point is that they can use ads, and as yet we don't know how the two ad platforms compare in terms of a ctr and pay off. If apples profit the developer more/same then they will stay. What apple doesnt really like is the huge amount of data stored to be analysed by a third party.

Anyone who has used google analytics can tell you the intrusiveness of googles platform. I have made thousands off of google and love the adwords platform and its tools, its great from that perspective, but it definitely isnt in the user or developer interest, only the advertisers.

If iAds is as profitable/more profitable than adwords then the devs will stick with it and make their apps free still..

[Jimmy Floyd]

Short-term Steve

"...unless Google/AdMob can bring in the US Federal Trade Commission to pinch hit for them..."

The likelihood of the FTC calling it for Google would be based on whether or not the mePhone has the right to be a closed platform. So far, Steve is banking on the fact that it is, and it has.

Eventually, however, that argument will be broken. And it will only have to fall apart once, on one aspect of the law, for the rot to have set in and Apple's closed-platform philosophy will begin to unravel.

It is, at best, a short-to-medium term strategy. It may have worked over the past few years but it is utterly unsustainable.

[Justin Clements]

Google = Hypocrites

I do find it odd that someone at Google talks about competition and openness when they penned the $125m agreement to scan books in the US with a built in clause that gave them better terms than all the other projects doing the same thing.

[Kay Burley ate my hamster]

Simple answer

Hey Google! Are you searching this page? Listen up!

Apple has a nice looking standardised mobile hardware platform called iPhone, how about you release a version of Android for it? You only need four hardware profiles!

Then we can both sit back and laugh. :D

[Paul Bruneau]

Anti-competitive behavior

Oh, you mean like Google buying Admob anti-competitive? Oh well, that's just fine, that.

[Anonymous Coward]

hypocrites indeed

google, PR machine is turning sour and quite frankly, they spell disgust.

they like to pretend they're all jolly good, open and don't play evil . My A** - How about google ending its BS statement campaign ?

.Funny how a few months back everyone was against this idea of incorporating ads on phones, now it's apple's fault for wanting it all. some nerds are so objective they make sheep look and sound more intelligent.

[Anonymous Coward]

What about Google's own Apps?

I guess that means an end to Google Earth and Google Maps on adOS then doesn't it?

[Henry Wertz 1]

Oh Jobs...

"How about Google artificially promoting companies that pay a fee to the top of search results."

How about it? Google doesn't refuse to list everyone else, there's merely a paid results section on top of the real results. This has nothing to do with Apple locking out competing ad networks.

@DZ-Jay: Whatever. The "important" sites are not kow-towing to IPhone restrictions, and the "important" *users* are going to Android phones.

"Sorry to have to point this out... but while it may be YOUR DEVICE, it's not YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM OR SOFTWARE. You have but a license to use it."

Well, that's a good reason to get an Android phone. *Your* device, *your operating system or software*. Google lets people modify Android how they want and redistribute these modified copies freely. They have told people they cannot put a few of the Google apps into a mod'ed OS image, but have provided a utility so the user can back up these apps off their stock phone, put on the mod'ed OS, and then put those apps back on. I'm not saying Apple should be forced into this, I just wonder why people keep buying devices with so much artificial crippling crammed into them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh fuck the lot of them..

When companies come out with this self serving bullshit of "You can have anything you want as long as it's from us and you pay for it" - it's time to dump them and their self serving bullshit.

Do you know how nice it is NOT to have to carry a mobile, an "I pood", a black berry, an android, and to be forever hunting Wi Fi hot spots., etc....

And do you know how really great it is to have a one way only VOIP - with no no number and no way to call in?

:) No more arseholes selling me scam shares in horse racing software, no more fucking telemarketers, no more fucking surveys....

I like being in total control of my own communications., and I like having total say so over who I talk too and when I talk to them.

No more having to call up to have my number listed on a "Do not call" registry....

And to think that all these losers getting sucked into the ultimate mu$t have telecommunications are killing themselves to be fed this DRM version of an operating system and never ending marketing campaign.

Spare me.