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You would think after the announcement of Apple’s iAd basically saved Google’s AdMob buyout from being canned by the FTC that CEO Omar Hamoui would have some appreciation for the platform, but after stipulations were uncovered in the terms of the recently renamed iOS (the iPhone operating system) that prevented companies other than independent ad agencies from collecting user data, Hamoui is feeling quite snubbed. With the discovery comes the effective block of AdMob from Apple’s mobile products. Even though iAd was viewed as a source of healthy competition, it seems the exclusion of AdMob from iOS will do nothing but stifle growth.
Let’s be clear. This change is not in the best interests of users or developers. In the history of technology and innovation, it’s clear that competition delivers the best outcome. Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress.
That’s Hamoui’s take on it anyway, and I’d have to agree. But try as everyone does, there is no hope to break through the impenetrable wall that is Steve Jobs’ closed ecosystem. Let’s face it: if Apple doesn’t want you on the iPhone you aren’t getting on the iPhone.
I wonder if the AdMob buyout would have gone through had this little bit of information been known at the time.
[via Gizmodo]
“Let’s face it: if Apple doesn’t want you on the iPhone you aren’t getting on the iPhone.”
-Then how do you explain Google Voice on the iPhone?
“I wonder if the AdMob buyout would have gone through had this little bit of information been known at the time.”
-This is even MORE reason that it would have gone through.
I am a fan of Google and Android, but come on… this makes us look like crying babies!
@Ratnok – Agreed and agreed. The only reason the Admob deal got approved by the FTC was because of this. Is this article trying to create news out of nothing? What am I missing here?
@ratnok
maybe i am misunderstanding your post… but google voice ISNT on the iphone. a couple of gvoice apps were removed by apple and the offical google app for it was rejected from their store.
if you want to use gvoice with the iphone you cannot use a application you have to use the browser method.
atleast this is my understanding of the matter.
Apple really is turning into the new Microsoft. Cannot compete on merit, so simply denies competitors access to their platform. The developer terms should relate to development issues, not as a means to protect the parent company’s business models. It reminds me of how great newspapers are when the sales department has editorial control over the content writers.
It’s big news, because it’s blatantly targeting Google. They’re pretty much saying “everybody can use our service, unless they also happen to compete with us in any way.”
It’s the same thing as, selectively, rejecting applications because they claim it duplicated a function already on the iPhone, or preventing developers from using third party tools. Heck, they even threaten to remove apps from the App Store if a developer even mentions Android in the description!
Apple is attempting to put rules into place to target specific companies they see as a threat.
I miss the days when Apple was the scrappy underdog, fighting to stay afloat after getting sent to the brink of extinction by Microsoft. Now, it’s like a villain from an Ayn Rand novel.
Apple is like communist China or maybe more like North Korea. Google represents the free world. See the picture?
@Ratnok … um… Google Voice is a perfect example of an App that Apple arbitrarily decided to block for its users. There is no GV for iphone.
Letem have it. Its not like its going to be the ONLY platform out there like it was before. They can do what they want now and no one should care because theres an alternative.
This is just ANOTHER example of how closed Apple’s devices actually are – now developers will have to use iAd instead of being able to choose from other ad vendors. I’m sure the same thing will happen when other music/book content providers pop up – they will be blocked from Apple’s devices so Apple can force users to use their services. Nothing really new, just another example of Apple being Apple.
This smacks of bundling your web browser with your OS, and we all remember how that turned out, don’t we microsoft?
Well… What more to say, Apple sucks… They have some awesome ideas, but each their product simply must have a little Steve Jobs inside lifting his middle finger on either users, developers and corporations.
Apple just wants to create more hatred. They could have made an app store that said “we’re not afraid of other ideas as long as it isn’t buggy or malicious.” The iPhone would be very attractive if they did that.
It is totally in their right to be a total SOB but it just emboldens everyone else to fight back harder.
I don’t understand why Google does anything for the iPhone?
Probably because they can make alot of money off iPhone users
not anymore it seems
Most of their choices turn out to be for completely sane reasons in the end. 99% of the problem is their delivery method. They like to deliver the news “oh and this is not allowed” and then walk away. Then later you get a snide remark from Steve Jobs. Punch him in the face already. If they made a proper announcement in a non-dick-headed manner then I am sure everyone would just accept it as a business choice and less as an attack against Google or anyone else.
I find this kind of humorous. Apple controls the iphone, but Google controls the internet. what good is an iphone if it has a gimped internet experience…. seriously… If apple continues this road much further, Google will end up bringing apple to its knees because when you strip out all the google apps/access from the iphone, you no longer have a very competitive phone… Although steve Jobs could shine up a pile of dog crap and sell it to the technically challenged users out there, you can only sell it to so many people without the smell getting attached to your name. Honestly, apple’s best bet would have been to embrace google and its apps and try to keep google producing for the iphone, that way there would be less of a reason to jump to an android phone. Google doesn’t care too much so long as their are getting the advertising… This seriously was not the brightest move on apple’s part.
I am so sick of Apple!!!! I used to like them some but ever since about a year or so ago they seemed to be getting more and more…aggressive? cheating? dicky?
This is simply anticompetitive. Surely, there must be a way in the US law to prevent such anticompetitive behaviour. The recent activities of Apple make Microsoft of the past look like a dove. Apple’s draconian practices are designed to lock in customers and developers and lock out competitors and vendors. It is time the anti-trust advocates woke up to these atrocities.
Part of the blame for this blatant behaviour by Apple should also go to the American media which quite literally plays fanboy to Apple’s products and practices. For them, Apple could do no wrong. These same people would fall on Google or Microsoft like a tonne of bricks on slightest of hitches. Its also time for the American media to show some impartiality in their coverage.
No need for the govt to get involved. But there’s no reason for Google to invest time with apps such as Google Earth for iPhone if this is the payback.
@Alan Gerow
You are wrong! Apple is far worse than Microsoft. Microsoft never stopped competitors from using their platform. Microsoft may not have published APIs that their applications made use of, made sweet deals with computer manufacturers to include Microsoft products, and used the ownership of the operating system to promote their own products. Even with all this, the user always had the option to use what they wanted.
Yes, Apple is far worse. They don’t want you to have choice. Pretty ironic when you consider they used the 1984 metaphor when they introduced the Mac. It seems Apple has taken over as Big Brother.
This is just one more illustration how out of touch apple is with customers. Google has literally become a household name, to exclude them is completely isolationist in approach. I don’t think it’s the end of apple, but you can start to see it on the horizon.
Before Microsoft, you could only get a proprietary computer: IBM, Apple, Commodore, etc. Microsoft allowed anyone to make their own PC and all the apps would work.
Apple is so cute and feisty aren’t they. This story inspired me to write a …
New iPhone slogan: There’s a License Agreement clause for that!
I have a whole TV ad concept at the iKidNot blog
I can see where Apple are coming from. Their app store is more lucrative for successful developers than other app stores, so they think no developer will dare go against the new iOS Terms, for fear of being kicked out of that money-making walled garden. So they can dictate terms to ensure that only iAds get the ad business. That way, they earn the money, and lock Google out of the whole iOS platform. This will cost Google a lot of income. As far as I can see, the best way for Google to respond would be to make Android even more attractive to consumers and to developers. For the latter, that means urgently opening up paid Market apps to as many countries as they can push through. For the former, it means making the OS even more attractive. Having some Google apps and services that can only run on Android. Getting their act together regarding support for enterprise and corporate use of Android phones. As soon as possible, having their own Content stores (music, ebooks) that are easier to use and to buy from, such that iTunes will be shown to be the clunker that it is. I think trying to use legal means to force Admob and Google ads back onto the iOS platform isn’t going to work.
I say Google should take this fight to a new level. Just make your Ads the sweetest deal for every page in the internet, and then let Apple block every internet page on the iPhone. And write some more awesome apps for Android already, but backward compatible apps! And make the damn GV work in other countries too.
Google decides they want to get into the smart phone business. Their first Android phone looks remarkably like an iPhone. There was never any other device that even remotely resembled the iphone until the iPhone was introduced. Now all the new smart phones coming out are COPYCAT devices that can accurately be called iPhone Knockoffs. This includes the Nexus One, the Droids, the Evo, Storm, Palm Pre and soon Windows 7 Mobile. Those other companies have basically ripped off Apple’s product ideas and turned them into competitive products. Google is at the head of the CopyCat line.
Apple previously cooperated with Google on many levels. They even had Google’s CEO on their Board of Directors until the Android phone raised it’s ugly head.
So you expect Jobs to just hand them the keys to the kingdom?
Steve Jobs strikes me as a pretty normal sort of guy. You’re welcome in my house until I catch you stealing the silverware. After that, I’m going to lock my doors and watch my back. You want to go into my business and compete with me? Fine! I think I just might take a look at the ad business. We’ll see where this goes.
“Their first Android phone looks remarkably like an iPhone.” Yeah, because the iPhone already had the ability to multi-task, change your wallpaper, had “home screens” to add shortcuts to, had a full hardware keyboard, was open-sourced, could send picture messages, had the ability to view multiple notifications at a time, and even had removable batteries and storage before the G1 ever came about huh?
@deroy
Oh my god, so I am not the first to see Apple as a closed state. I call them the North Korea of companies. Actually, this may be insulting to North Korea or communist countries, at least communism is an ideal method, that doesn’t work. Apple isn’t ideal :P
@davesmall
Proper old smart phone :P
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Ericsson-P910i-SIM-Free/dp/B00066LQ4W