This post is also available in: Spanish

Apple iAd

Apple has begun to offer its new advertising product iAd mobile to agencies (source: Gizmodo). The prices- $10 CPM and $2 CPC-  are not exactly cheap for a product that’s just been released, although Apple will surely have no trouble running “a few” campaigns.  Later, if necessary, they can always lower (or raise) their prices.

Apple had acquired the mobile ad network Quattro a few months ago, and it looks like capacity for segmentation will be one of the main advantages of the new product: the user will be able to interact with iTunes and the app store and of course, the user can be geo-targetted much better than with their IP address, thanks to GPS.

Because of this more accurate segmentation capacity, the user will see a campaign according to the purchases he makes on iTunes or the type of apps he has on his iPhone.  This could, of course, raise the ire of privacy advocates.

Apple will handle all of the information regarding the campaigns; that is, agencies or advertisers will put their trust in the date sent to them from Cupertino, and won’t be able to compare with their own stats.

And the competition? Google also recently acquired its own mobile ad platform, AdMob, just a few months ago, for$ 750 million.  Android phones will also have their own, and most likely exclusive, ad server.  For the time being, Google is lagging slightly behind, in a race with millions of dollars in prize money to the winner.