Apple Seeks Patent On Operating System Advertising

Yeah this one makes me say *** apple, really do you really need to go that low.

Source

gagnerants said:

Yeah this one makes me say *** apple, really do you really need to go that low.

Source

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Many many companies are always trying to get patents on things, or get specific brand related attributes trademarked...it's called "barriers to competition"....and it helps protect "intellectual properties".

Just like what happened when the Mac OS was basically copied to a certain degree when Windows was first written & introduced. Apple was not legally protected as much as they could have been...and thus Apple lost the lawsuit when they challenged Microsoft as to the many similarities between the Mac OS & the Windows OS back in the mid-80's.

If you got "burned" like that...you would want to protect yourself as well!

- Nick

I understand the reasoning to protect their stuff from others, but if any operating system was to do advertising on the system, ie popup for iWork software, that would make me want to drop that OS in op of someone who does not.

Is stops your work while the ad plays? No way. I hope this article is wrong or being taken wrong. No one is going to stop my work.

gagnerants said:

I understand the reasoning to protect their stuff from others, but if any operating system was to do advertising on the system, ie popup for iWork software, that would make me want to drop that OS in op of someone who does not.

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In my post above, I was primarily responding to why companies apply for patents.

But reading the article you mentioned...I agree with you (if I read the article correctly)...that Apple wants to broaden where & how they insert advertising. Which basically means more irritating "pop-ups" for us to deal with!

This would certainly not be an "experience" improvement for the end users!

- Nick

Nick, I read it very carefully and it even said the ads would stop the OS from responding till they were completed. Can you imagine playing a song and having it freeze while this ad plays or even more important, right in the middle of an important job and you have to pause while the ad plays.

I am hoping someone got something wrong.

I can definitely see this coming to something like a "pay as you go" iPhone.
Let's say AT&T wants to add an iPhone option to their GoPhone program.
Well, the cost of the phone would have to drop considerably or nobody would want it and in an effort to recoup the cost, advertisers pay to pick up the slack.

The GoPhone iPhones would have all of the functionality of a standard iPhone, but they would also be the only ones with the "special" version of the OS that runs the advertisements. The ads would run periodically here and there.
If you run out of minutes or paid time, then the ads would run full time until you put more cash in the account.

It's the price one would pay for having a super-fancy iPhone at the fraction of the cost.

I don't think this is created to run on every OS, I think it's only for specific items such as netbooks and smartphones to lower their unit price or their monthly service price. It reminds me of those free internet providers that make you watch add every now and then. It might offer good deals on whatever they introduce

dtravis7 said:

Nick, I read it very carefully and it even said the ads would stop the OS from responding till they were completed. Can you imagine playing a song and having it freeze while this ad plays or even more important, right in the middle of an important job and you have to pause while the ad plays.

I am hoping someone got something wrong.

Click to expand...

Yes...that would be very very irritating!

I was actually thinking about this...and thinking how could this sort of advertising to "taken to the next level"...since the advertising would or could be OS based & not just application based.

Give this theory a "whirl":

If you're in Safari browsing the internet, you get hit with various "pop-ups" to close or have to suffer through 15 seconds of some sort of advert. before you can actually see the webpage content.

If this patent Apple is seeking is OS based...what if the advertising wasn't limited to an application like Safari...but because many of us are connected to the internet 24-7 via cable modem or DSL...we could get hit with pop-ups while we are in the middle of:

- working on a word processing document
- excel spreadsheet
- playing a hard drive based game (not an MMORPG)
- viewing of personal photos
- computer maintenance.

This would certainly be an invasion of privacy of some sort (I would think)...but then this could be compared to the automatic software update notices we already get hit with at various times (Mac OS & Windows).

Thus the only solution would be to turn off your internet connection if you didn't want to be bombarded!

Just a theory...hello 1984!

- Nick

D3v1L80Y said:

I can definitely see this coming to something like a "pay as you go" iPhone.
Let's say AT&T wants to add an iPhone option to their GoPhone program.
Well, the cost of the phone would have to drop considerably or nobody would want it and in an effort to recoup the cost, advertisers pay to pick up the slack.

The GoPhone iPhones would have all of the functionality of a standard iPhone, but they would also be the only ones with the "special" version of the OS that runs the advertisements. The ads would run periodically here and there.
If you run out of minutes or paid time, then the ads would run full time until you put more cash in the account.

It's the price one would pay for having a super-fancy iPhone at the fraction of the cost.

Click to expand...

Very true!...this would certainly be a much more "palatable" & less "ominous" way of implementing this sort of advertising method...then what I described above.

- Nick

As it has been said just because Apple own the patent doesnt mean they will implement this. It could be to stop others doing it or to take a cut if they want to.

This will never be implemented. If Apple ever did this, they would lose so many customers it wouldn't be funny. I would ditch Macs in no time.

The benefits to be gained from ad revenue would not be offset by the loss of customers. Implementing this in any fashion would be the worst possible decision a company could make. Sure, it could be used to drive down the price of a product but the it is hard to believe that the number of customers gained would outnumber the large group of customers who would leave.

I have the funny feeling DB hit it right on the nose. That could work with a pay as you go iPhone.

It could be for a pay as you go iPhone but at what point does the value of the iPhone become secondary to the advertisements? How "trendy" (for many, the iPhone is a trend statement) would the iPhone be if it was plagued with ads? Not only that, there is the potential for the ads to interrupt usage. At what point do ads and cost savings actually become "costly" in terms of usage and practicality?

If I wanted a smartphone, I would likely get an Android device or a BlackBerry. Apple adding ads to the iPhone isn't going to make the iPhone more attractive despite perhaps a more attractive price. Now, I realize pay as you go is inherently different than being on a contract but having ads doesn't negate the fact that...well...you're phone would have ads. I see enough ads in a day and I don't need another source of information about products that I probably won't use. Can you tell I'm not a fan of ads?

vansmith said:

It could be for a pay as you go iPhone but at what point does the value of the iPhone become secondary to the advertisements? How "trendy" (for many, the iPhone is a trend statement) would the iPhone be if it was plagued with ads? Not only that, there is the potential for the ads to interrupt usage. At what point do ads and cost savings actually become "costly" in terms of usage and practicality?

If I wanted a smartphone, I would likely get an Android device or a BlackBerry. Apple adding ads to the iPhone isn't going to make the iPhone more attractive despite perhaps a more attractive price. Now, I realize pay as you go is inherently different than being on a contract but having ads doesn't negate the fact that...well...you're phone would have ads. I see enough ads in a day and I don't need another source of information about products that I probably won't use. Can you tell I'm not a fan of ads?

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There would of course be some app to turn that off too, eventually... wouldn't it?

Can anyone else see this being used for like, public terminals? You can get free internet access on a nice snazzy looking iMac in a public terminal, and in exchange, you watch an ad.

vansmith said:

It could be for a pay as you go iPhone but at what point does the value of the iPhone become secondary to the advertisements?

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That depends greatly on the individual.

How "trendy" (for many, the iPhone is a trend statement) would the iPhone be if it was plagued with ads?

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Much more than you might think.
Being "trendy" is a huge thing to a multitude of people, shallow as that may be.

Apple adding ads to the iPhone isn't going to make the iPhone more attractive despite perhaps a more attractive price.

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And that is a big deal to lots of people.
The cheaper it is, the more people that would buy it.
Why do Windows machines have the greater market share? Because they can be had for considerably less than even the least expensive Mac.
They don't know about or even care about the advantages or disadvantages of one OS over the other.
The bottom line for many is simply the price.

iPhone is seen as the innovator, it's already a household name.
It is the trend and face of the smartphone today.
It's also seen as being extremely expensive... not just for the actual device, but also for the plan needed to actually use it.

Sooooo.... If'n Jim-Bob can go to the Wally-Mart and git himself one of dem 'der iPhones with no contract for under $50 an it's only gonna cost him a teensy $20 calling card a month to use... well, he's a gonna fix to goin' an' gittn' one fer himself.
Yessiree... he's a gunna be teh hippest, trendiest sonnofagun in the whole trailer park.



Bottom line, the general public doesn't care about much of anything but the price... money talks. Nobody is going to care about some lousy ads if the price is right.
Especially in the current economy, price trumps just about any other factor.

Plus, Apple/AT&T have already been paid by the advertisers and they just got the ~$50 from Jim-Bob so what do they care?

Now, I realize pay as you go is inherently different than being on a contract but having ads doesn't negate the fact that...well...you're phone would have ads. I see enough ads in a day and I don't need another source of information about products that I probably won't use. Can you tell I'm not a fan of ads?

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I agree. Most members here would probably agree with you. But we tend to be more rational and knowledgeable about tech items and the 'tricky' way that solicitors attempt to hawk their wares.

Sur3Mac said:

There would of course be some app to turn that off too, eventually... wouldn't it?

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You're probably right... but you can bet that Apple would be quick to follow that with a buzzkill for that.

I agree that most people feel that being trendy is more important than many other things but it is very possible that the "wow" factor or trendiness of the iPhone will be tarnished if someone was using an ad supported one. True, it would still be an iPhone but it would be a "cheap man's" iPhone and I believe that this would tarnish the value of such an iPhone. This is like buying a Porsche - sure, you could get a Boxster but people will always know that you have the cheapest possible Porsche. In that case, the only reason you have it is because it's a Porsche. Going back to the ad-supported iPhone, people would know that you had the cheapest possible iPhone. Sure, it would still be an iPhone but you would have had to make very visible compromises to get it.

Especially for Apple, a company that prides itself on producing high quality products with a level of "technical sophistication", this is problematic. Having an ad-supported iPhone tarnishes that reputation and cheapens the brand name. I believe this is why the Mac Mini is still fairly expensive despite being the cheapest Mac you can get.

As we both know, when things get too trendy for their own good, they start to fizzle out. Part of the allure of having something trendy is that not everyone else has it. Providing really cheap iPhones could very well threaten its trendiness.

BTW, I use Pay As You Go on my iPhone. I bought the phone used from a friend for $300. It was worth it to me for all the other things the iPhone does. I could have bought a touch but it's handy to have the camera and the phone all in one device when I am say downtown or with friends.

I just don't use a Cell that much at this time to justify a normal monthly plan. I pay every 3 months.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against pay as you go. In fact, I think it's a great idea. I just don't think ad-supported iPhones are the way to go about offering it to people who want PAYG with an iPhone.