Apple yesterday announced its highly anticipated tablet PC – the iPad. It was well received and there is now a huge interest in the tablet computing device.
So what impact will iPad have to the mobile advertising industry?. Will it be a positive or a negative impact. We will try to review the impact of the iPad launch to mobile advertising.
Support for iPhone Apps and this means the mobile ad networks have a head start
Apple has enabled all iPhone apps on the iPad. What this means is that several of the mobile advertising (via iPhone SDK ) supported apps that we and the other players in the Industry will continue to be served on the iPad.
This means that the mobile ad networks such as ours (http://zestadz.com) have a head start and will continue to grow as existing iPhone developers know these mobile advertising SDKs and when they branch out to develop exclusive iPad apps, they will continue to use the same SDKs as mobile ad networks have always in general offered better publishing ROI when compared to Online ad networks.
Applications driven business model
The applications driven business model is already an extremely successful model for Apple.
It has been able to demonstrate that apps can be sold independent of Carriers and built a massive ecosystem around it. It is likely to continue to grow and consolidate this ecosystem in the PC world with the iPad.
Mobile advertising has played an important role in the applications ecosystem as many free mobile apps have been able to monetize themselves through mobile advertising. This trend is likely to continue with the iPad.
Lucrative market of the iPad driven by Gaming, eBooks, Music and Apps will grab the attention of Online Ad networks
There are many useful applications of iPad. And unlike generations of smart phones or other tablet devices which pretended they could do things such as edit Office documents, the iPad actually does all of them and that too very well.
That is enough to grab the attention of online ad networks who definitely do not miss the opportunity out.
Mobile Ad Networks will extend their services to iPad
For mobile ad networks like ZestADZ it is apparent that they will extend their services into the iPad space as it will be an extension to what they are already doing with iPhone and Android. Especially because a similar model for iPhone has worked very well.
It is also because the iPad (atleast some versions) comes along with 3G connectivity making it the ubiquitous device the iPhone has become.
Blurring of the lines between Online and Mobile Ad Networks
Will the online ad networks adopt an Apple centric strategy for advertising like many mobile networks have already done (think – iPhone campaigns, iPhone SDK, Click-to-App store)? Or will they simply let this game be dominated by mobile ad networks?.
Well whatever happens, we can tell you that iPad launch is definitely going to do one thing. It is going to blur the lines between online ad networks and mobile ad networks and there is going to be increased competition for customer attention.
There are three ways to integrate iPhone SDK with iPhone applications.
