Apple to shut down iAd App Network on June 30

Apple on Friday announced plans to cease iAd App Network operations at the end of June, ending one facet of the company's six-year play at the mobile advertising market.

While Apple is no longer accepting apps into the ad network, developers with existing campaigns will continue to generate revenue until the June 30 end date, the company said in a post to its developer website. Content creation via iAd Workbench is now limited to currently active campaigns.

The news is in line with a report on Wednesday that said Apple plans to exit the ad selling business, but will retain iAd's scaffolding to support advertisements created, managed and monetized by publishers. Apple will no longer take a 30 percent cut of generated ad revenue as part of the deal.

It should be noted that today's announcement makes no mention of a complete iAd platform shutdown. Instead, Apple appears to be closing down the mechanism by which developers buy ad space to market their own App Store products.

In a discussion about the iOS 9 News app earlier this week, SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue said Apple is developing a self-service ad-buying tool for publishers expected to launch in the next two months.

Apple launched iAd in 2010 as an in-house advertising platform designed to leverage the iOS platform's massive installed customer base. Some analysts had high hopes for iAd, saying it was a billion dollar opportunity, but initially high ad slot pricing and heavy-handed restrictions prompted a lukewarm response from would-be advertisers.

26 Comments

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

About 8 years ago

Not to be too snarky, but Apple could probably sell the iAd network to Google for a healthy profit.

tallest skil 43086 comments · 14 Years

Hmm.

I still like the idea of video iAds (ads with interactivity) for the Apple TV’s cable/satellite replacement. Make the viewer play a game (or give them some actual information to browse) and they won’t notice the time they spend throwing your garbage in their face quite as much.

Not going to happen now, though.

Dan_Dilger 1584 comments · 13 Years

SpamSandwich said:

Not to be too snarky, but Apple could probably sell the iAd network to Google for a healthy profit.

Google already copied everything about iAd Producer with its Web Designer in 2013, no nothing really to sell. http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/30/google-web-designer-chases-market-established-by-apples-iad-producer

stevie 956 comments · 14 Years

This is a good move. iAd was a bungled mess since day one.

It is better to just cut their losses and move on.

rogifan_old 725 comments · 9 Years

stevie said:

This is a good move. iAd was a bungled mess since day one.

It is better to just cut their losses and move on.

Is there anything under Eddy that isn't? An article just came out about merchants not signing on to Pay. Apple took for granted that merchants would just sign on and they haven't. Whole Foods is the only merchant that has Pay in every one of its stores. I love it but I've got maybe 2 or 3 stores where I can use it. And they're all grocery stores.

http://www.pymnts.com/news/2016/apple-pays-merchant-problem/