Is anybody else concerned about iAds??

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I am very serious about getting a new iPhone, but I don't like the idea of having my phone hijacked by Apple endorsed advertisers. I'm getting my phone to communicate with those whom I deem appropriate, not the companies who pay Apple for my details.

Am I overreacting or can someone allay my fears? I really don't want ads to be popping up on my phone all the time
 
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I am not concerned about iAd in any way. I think it is brilliant in any way. I just hope the individual advertisers get a fair % of the advertising revenue from it. Otherwise I love it. Apple took a necessary evil and turned it from a lemon into sweet sweet lemonade.

I will not be as bad as you think it is. And if you think you an eliminate advertising from your life completely, you are kidding yourself. They are here to stay. So might as well make them good.
 
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I certainly share your sentiment in that I don't like my "info" being shared with the likes of advertisers, but I do think you might be a tad misinformed, and someone I hope will correct me if I'm wrong. I think that the only way your 'info' would be shared, is if you actually clicked on an ad, and decided to participate in an advertiser's campaign, such as a contest to win a prize. But even then, I think that the only thing being shared (I'm not positive about this though) is your name and zip code.

I haven't read about iAd in depth, and am getting this info based off of Steve's keynote address, where he demonstrates iAd and shows the contest which Nissan is hosting.

I'm also with you in that I don't want to see ugly adds on my screen, which might detract from the apps natural graphic flow, but you might be able to 'x' them out and close them, not sure about that either.

There is one thing for sure though, in a world of smart phones, you'll be really hard pressed to find an OS which hasn't opened its self up to adverts, and I'd personally rather deal with the way Apple is handling the way they're presented than any other manufacturer right now. Ads on the Android system might actually pose a threat to the user, considering the nature of the OS they're running on, whereas with Apple's iOS 4, you know that everything is being scrutinized in order that it benefits the advertiser AND the user.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't need to deal with advertisements, but the fact is that the world where tech goods are manufactured, bought and sold, are totally consumerist, and that falls in line with making as much money as possible. Apple's simply making the most out of it for everyone involved, in the best way they know how. And I'm really certain that they wouldn't put the millions of users they have at risk in terms of having their personal information in dangerous hands.

If you're very concerned, it's pretty easy to find Steve Job's email address. Why don't you shoot him an e mail with your concerns and ask some questions? I bet that he, or someone representing him directly will answer you sincerely. If you ask specific questions, they have to be transparent about the answers, since they're in teh public eye and have a lot to lose if they're hit with a law suit involving a case such as misuse of private/personal information.

Doug
 
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Ads on the Android system might actually pose a threat to the user, considering the nature of the OS they're running on, whereas with Apple's iOS 4, you know that everything is being scrutinized in order that it benefits the advertiser AND the user.

What threats are there with advertisements and the android system?
 
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I'm so happy about iAd's! I'm fed up of crappy little adverts that look rubbish and ruin the appearance of the app. And as steve jobs said developers make no money from them because people don't click them as they take you out of the app. These new ad's will really improve the quality of free apps :)
 
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But the big question is:

Would the advertising revenue from iAd be enough such that they can lower the price of their Apps and use the iAd revenue to cover their costs? If that was the case it'd be really cool.
 
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What threats are there with advertisements and the android system?

I second that question.

People are so freaked out about iAd. I have said this before it's nothing new, Apple has to stay competitive, Android has been doing this for a while and if you have ever used Cydia on your iPhone then already familiar with these type of ads.
 

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I second that question.

People are so freaked out about iAd. I have said this before it's nothing new, Apple has to stay competitive, Android has been doing this for a while and if you have ever used Cydia on your iPhone then already familiar with these type of ads.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but what makes iAd any different from the ads currently displayed in a great many of the free apps out there right now? In my cursory glance at the product, it just looked like an improvement to the design of those ads.
 
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#1 Easier for developers to implement
#2 Easier for developers to get paid, uses same method that they get paid for there apps with
#3 Dosnt take the user out of the app
 
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Maybe I'm missing something here, but what makes iAd any different from the ads currently displayed in a great many of the free apps out there right now? In my cursory glance at the product, it just looked like an improvement to the design of those ads.
Exactly.

Download any free app today and you'll probably see ads in there. The only difference is that these ads will most likely look a bit nicer and Apple gets a cut.

Don't want iAds? Then don't install free or low-cost apps that use them - it's that simple.
 
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Don't want iAds? Then don't install free or low-cost apps that use them - it's that simple.
That's pretty much what it comes down to. It will be mostly free or low-costing apps that will have ads. As it's true for a lot of things...if you don't want to see ads then you have to pay for it. I would only be mad if I paid a good price for an app and it still had ads. The app makers have the choice whether to have ads or not even the free ones but I'm assuming the free apps will use iAds so they can make some money.

Class77 is concerned that the ads will hijack his iPhone but if he/she watched the keynote then they would realized that it's not much different than other ads in software and sites you go to like this forum. The difference is that iAd allows the users to be more interactive if they choose to click on the ad. Instead of the ad taking to you to their website like most ads do the ad itself allows to you interact with it without leaving your opened app.

From my understanding of what Jobs said at the keynote iAd has two purposes. The first was to make a better advertising experience so that users will click on them more often. The second reason was to encourage more free and low priced apps. As mentioned if you don't like ads then pay for the higher priced apps. It might be wise for the app makers to offer a paid version and a free version with ads. You get what you pay for. ;D
 
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You get what you pay for, yeah... Who is saying that they will not stick the ads in the paid apps as well? If it is so efficient and easy to get paid why not? Looks to me as if it will be ads all over the place and no chance to block them since Apple controls all the apps that you can install. Maybe a reason to jailbreak?
 
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Who is saying that they will not stick the ads in the paid apps as well?
I don't believe there is anything that blocks ads from any app but that is the same with all computer software you buy no matter if it's Mac, Windows, or iPhone. Most of the time users will be very angry if there are ads in their paid software so most software companies choose not to add advertising. You are paying them yourself so unless they are super greedy there is no reason for them to use ads.

Usually the only ads on computer software are in the free ones. Apple is not forcing any iPhone app creator to add advertising. It's there if they want to use it so if they choose to **** off the customers with ads on a paid app then they can do so at the risk of most likely losing those customers. Even the free apps can still choose to not use iAds if I understand it correctly.

I personally will never pay for software that has advertising. If it's free I don't mind ads as long as the ads are not obnoxious and get in the way all the time like pop-ups.

I don't know why people are so defensive about this. It's like Google ads and other website ads. Some websites choose to use them while others don't. It's not like you will get blasted with ads all over your iPhone. As mentioned above the simple solution if you don't want ads is to not use apps that contain ads. This usually means you have to get paid apps to be ad free.
 
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I think that the iAds that were kind of shown off by apple are brilliant. I just hope that they are all interesting and get the user involved, otherwise, any other, useless info advertisement would be a waste of iphone screen landscape!
 
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Can I just say to everyone that keeps saying "Apple controls the ads". They control what is displayed... nothing else. The developer picks where the ad is positioned and if and when to display it.

Apple has no more control and the ad agencies current displaying ads in apps.
 
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I don't know why people are so defensive about this. It's like Google ads and other website ads. Some websites choose to use them while others don't. It's not like you will get blasted with ads all over your iPhone. As mentioned above the simple solution if you don't want ads is to not use apps that contain ads. This usually means you have to get paid apps to be ad free.

There certainly are some websites today where you get blasted with ads, but you can choose to block them out. This will obviously not be possible on the iPhone since Apple would never approve a ad-blocking app.

Since the iAds has been labelled as such a "great" experience, it just seems to me that they will show in paid apps as well, but I guess we will need to wait and see....
 
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There certainly are some websites today where you get blasted with ads, but you can choose to block them out. This will obviously not be possible on the iPhone since Apple would never approve a ad-blocking app.

Since the iAds has been labelled as such a "great" experience, it just seems to me that they will show in paid apps as well, but I guess we will need to wait and see....

I have no doubt there won't be a hack to block them in time.
 
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There certainly are some websites today where you get blasted with ads, but you can choose to block them out.
Nobody is forcing you to go to those websites just like nobody is forcing you to use apps with ads, but the point is that those website are usually free. How many paid websites you go to still have ads once you paid? How many paid software for your Mac have ads? If they still do then you really shouldn't be paying for them.

If a paid app still has ads they will lose my business very quickly. App developers aren't naive about this. They know they will annoy their paying customers if they choose to add advertising to paying customers. If they don't know this already the app developers will learn very quickly as do the websites who blast their viewers with ads. I don't know about you but I generally avoid websites that blast me with ads. I only go to the free sites that don't have obnoxious ad blasting techniques. ;)
 
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I just hope there's a way to tell if the app includes iAds or not before purchasing. Like Jobs said, this is also helpful for people with "low cost" apps. But that's a subjective idea since most apps, even those without ads, are $1 anyway. I'm like most people and don't want to see any ads even if I'm only paying a buck, so I will want to know before buying it if I'm going to have to deal with ads.
 

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