Apple has officially unveiled its new mobile advertising platform, iAds, the “seventh pillar” of the new iPhone OS 4.0.
The new iAd platform, which we learned about just two weeks ago, will be built directly into the iPhone OS interface. During today’s iPhone OS 4.0 unveiling event at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, CA, Steve Jobs stated that the company is looking to change the face of advertising. Jobs wants to conduct the ad experience within apps and is looking “to change the quality of the advertising as well.”
How will that work, you ask? Apple’s CEO pointed to what he believes is a flaw of both standard online advertising and TV advertising — the combination of interaction and emotion. The key is that ads will keep users within an app, rather than redirecting users to a browser window. When you click on an iAd advertisement, it will take up the screen using HTML5. Once it is open, you can explore the ad. Apple demoed an advertisement for Toy Story 3, demonstrating the ability to not only see information about the movie, but to watch trailers, play games and more — all within the same application from which you launched the ad. You will even be able to buy products within ads. Just like the iPhone app store, there will be a simple revenue split. Developers will keep 60% of revenues, however, rather than the 70% they are awarded for iPhone apps. In return, Apple will host and deliver all of the iAds.