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AdMob founder whines about Apple’s new iOS developer terms

“Apple proposed new developer terms on Monday that, if enforced as written, would prohibit app developers from using AdMob and Google’s advertising solutions on the iPhone. These advertising related terms both target companies with competitive mobile technologies (such as Google), as well as any company whose primary business is not serving mobile ads. This change threatens to decrease – or even eliminate – revenue that helps to support tens of thousands of developers. The terms hurt both large and small developers by severely limiting their choice of how best to make money,” AdMob founder Omar Hamoui writes on the AdMob Blog. “And because advertising funds a huge number of free and low cost apps, these terms are bad for consumers as well.”

MacDailyNews Take: Hey, you will still be on iPhone – in the browser, as always. If you wanted to be on iPhone in a special way, you should’ve taken Apple’s offer instead of Eric T. Mole’s. You decided to take Google’s overpayment and you got one your one big payday. And, now, you pay. Actions have consequences, Omar. Apple doesn’t have a monopoly, so go advertise on other smartphones. AdMob and other third-parties have long had access to far too much in-app critical information regarding and emanating from iPhone OS devices. Only Apple should retain access to such in-app data for competitive reasons.

Hamoui continues, “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.”

MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s innovating, as usual, and they don’t need AdMob or Google to do it. BTW, will oh-so-open Google be allowing Apple’s iAds to be integrated into apps the run on their fake iPhone OS? Hello? Omar? And, why would Apple allow a direct mobile device competitor like Google to have access to information about iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users, including location data from the devices, along with numbers of units in use, among other things? Answer: Apple wouldn’t and shouldn’t. Does Amazon allow Barnes & Noble to gather information about how many Kindles access the network, their locations, and which books they’re buying and reading? Of course not.

Hamoui continues, “Since I started AdMob in 2006, I have watched competition in mobile advertising help drive incredible growth and innovation in the overall ecosystem. We’ve worked to help developers make money, regardless of platform – iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, Blackberry, Windows, and others. In the past four years, AdMob has helped tens of thousands of developers make money and build real businesses across multiple operating systems.”

“I’ve personally worked with many iPhone app developers around the world, including one who created a fun and simple game in the early days of the App Store. He built the app because he was interested in the challenge. He built this single app into a multi-million dollar advertising revenue stream with AdMob, hired a whole team, and turned a hobby into a real business,” Hamoui writes. “We see these stories all the time. We want to help make more of them, so we’ll be speaking to Apple to express our concerns about the impact of these terms.”

MacDailyNews Take: Again, Omar, you chose to take Google’s overinflated offer. You are now Google, so stop your whining. Google wanted a war with Apple. They got one. Go innovate on Google’s platform and any others that’ll have you. May the best solution and the true innovators win.

Source: AdMob Blog

MacDailyNews Note: We dumped AdMob for Quattro Wireless on our mobile (iOS-only) site on Jan. 5, 2010, the day that Apple bought Quattro. Our transition from AdMob to Quattro was completed in late February with the release of MacDailyNews 2.0 app.

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