14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is planning to unveil its revolutionary advertising platform, which, in typical manner for the company, will be called iAd, MediaPost’s sources inform. These people allegedly say that the iAd announcement "will be every bit as important as other recent marketplace introductions, including the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad launches."
The new ad platform would be the brainchild of Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless, an advertising company, in January this year. Set to be officially unveiled to Madison Avenue on April 7th, the platform has been described as "revolutionary" and "our next big thing" by Apple chief Steve Jobs, according to executives familiar with the plan, MediaPost reports.
The site includes a statement from Josh Lovison, the mobile lead at Interpublic's Emerging Media Lab, who said, "Everyone will be following this very closely," adding that, "Given the way that Apple is able to package things up, with very slick presentations, it will be interesting to see what they do with advertising."
MediaPost proposes the obvious scenario where Apple will offer "a hypertargeting capability that would enable advertisers to target ads to consumers based on their geographic proximity, paving the way for a new generation of location-based advertising." With Google retaining rights for this kind of technology, some speculate this spells trouble for Apple, mentioning the tense relationship between the two giant companies.
However, a recent Gizmodo report includes photos of Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google’s Eric Schmidt sharing a coffee in Palo Alto. Gizmodo's tipster allegedly overheard Jobs say, "They're going to see it all eventually so who cares how they get it," (this in reference to web content, the tipster notes) and, "Let's go discuss this somewhere more private."
Apple is also known to be looking for an expert in mobile advertising. Earlier this month, Softpedia reported that Apple was looking to create a new framework for third-party advertising on cell phones, according to a new job opening on its website. The listing said that Apple wanted to "redefine the advertising on mobile devices."