June 29th, 2010 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Ad Funded Gaming, Platforms: iOS | No Comments »
According to a story on AdAge.com, Apple’s iAd service is going through a rough start as advertisers don’t seem ready when the platform launch this Thursday.
One of the main reasons is that Apple wants to build most of the iAd content in-house (while iPhone developers also have access to the iAd toolkit). Building those ads in-house is good for Apple’s internal revenues, but also puts stress on Apple’s development capacity. As a result, a lot of advertisers are still in the concept phase.
At the same time, Apple also announced to advertisers that iAd will not be available on iPad yet. The platform will, for now, be focusing on the iOS 4.0 devices. The iPad is likely to be supported in November, in time for the Christmas sales. Though this is a small setback for advertisers, it also means for iOS developers that switched to the iAd platform for their iPad titles, that revenues are still far away. Even developers of iPhone games are likely to be hit by a weak fillrate.
Meanwhile, advertisers are already spending big bucks on the iAd platform. A small campaign starts at $1 million while $10 million buys an advertiser segment exclusivity. This means that for example Nissan is the only automotive client while Citi is the only bank that will advertise on iAd. This is another element that could have major impact on fillrates.
