Apple slashes the entry price for the third time to just $100,000

Feb 15, 2012 12:53 GMT  ·  By

Hoping that the third time may be a charm, Apple has again slashed the amount of cash advertisers are required to deposit to feature campaigns on Apple’s iAd platform on iOS devices.

Apple’s iAd for Developers program is marketed as “a great way for developers to promote their paid or free apps to millions of iPhone and iPod touch users around the world.” Sadly, that didn’t pan out quite as expected.

The minimum amount required by advertisers to run ads on iPhones and iPads is now down to $100,000, according to Ad Age. Previously, the fee was $500,000 and prior to that it was a cool million. Steve Jobs had high hopes for the iAd platform - too high, apparently.

In addition to easing off the imposed fee for running iAds, Cupertino is also boosting the amount it pays mobile app developers, who will now receive 70% of the revenues - previously they only got 60%.

Last, but not least, Apple is changing the way it charges for ads. The company, so far, has charged a fixed rate for every 1,000 ad impressions, plus an additional fee for every tap on the ads. “Apple will now charge only the cost-per-thousand rate,” according to the report.

Apple declined to comment on the matter, but the move has been confirmed by developers and advertisers who received official word from Cupertino that these changes were taking place.

In January, this year, the California-based Mac maker appointed former Adobe exec Todd Teresi to head the iAd division.

Replacing Andy Miller who had arrived at Apple from his CEO position with Quattro Wireless (the mobile-ad network acquired by Apple), Teresi was still listed as a VP and GM of Media Solutions at Adobe at the time of his hiring at Apple.

Prior to working for Adobe, Teresi was Chief Revenue Officer at Quantcast. He had arrived there from Yahoo, where he had held an SVP position.