Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has made it more difficult for third party advertising networks such a Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) AdMob to operate on its IPad and iPhone devices.
Apple has quietly changed the terms of service for the iPhone developer agreement on Monday along with the release of the developer version of iOS4. If interpretations of the new agreement are correct, AdMob will no longer be able to share ad analytic information with its customers who have placed ads in applications on the iPhone, making those ads far less valuable.
The new agreement says that ad networks can only share data if “The collection, use or disclosure is for the purpose of serving advertising to Your Application; is provided to an independent advertising service provider whose primary business is serving mobile ads (for example, an advertising service provider owned by or affiliated with a developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other than Apple would not qualify as independent); and the disclosure is limited to UDID, user location data, and other data specifically designated by Apple as available for advertising purposes.”
AdMob, now owned by Google, would initially appear to fall out of Apple’s accepted use cases, meaning AdMob would be unable to tell its advertisers how often their ad was being clicked on by iPhone and iPad users.
