Apple reminds developers of impending iAd App Network shutdown, APIs to be deprecated
Apple in an email blast on Wednesday reminded developers of the impending iAd App Network shutdown that will bring an end to monetization revenues and app promotion on June 30, as scheduled.
In the message, a copy of which was obtained by AppleInsider, Apple thanks developers who utilized the iAd App Network and related services, adding that the service will be discontinued next month. The email stands as written notice that Apple intends to terminate all Developer Advertising Services Agreements on June 30, 2016, at 11:59 a.m. Pacific.
Apple announced the impending network closure in January, but a poorly worded explainer caused confusion as to what, exactly, was shutting down. Some reports claimed the closure was limited to the iAd App Network, the mechanism by which developers buy ad space to market their own apps, while others said the entire platform would be discontinued.
An Apple support webpage notes developers should remove the deprecated iAd.Framework classes from their respective apps as no ads will be served starting July 1. Inclusion of deprecated assets shouldn't cause app crashes, but will likely result in Xcode error messages.
With the deprecation of iAd related APIs and the iAd SDK, it seems Apple is indeed terminating the monetization network -- banner ads, interstitials and pre-rolls -- for third party developers. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Apple's support document says revenues generated through iAd advertising are expected for payout by Sept. 30, 2016, while campaign performance reports will be available on iAd Workbench until December 31, 2016.
With the iAd network closing down, developers reliant on the service must move to third-party ad publishing networks and direct ad sales.
Apple's iAd platform launched in 2010 as a means of leveraging the company's massive installed customer base. While investors had high hoped for the service, a series of strategic fumbles, from expensive pricing tiers to burdensome restrictions, drove potential advertisers to competitors. In January, shortly before Apple announced the iAd App Network closure, BuzzFeed reported that the company planned to exit the ad selling business, and would dramatically scale back iAd operations.
In the message, a copy of which was obtained by AppleInsider, Apple thanks developers who utilized the iAd App Network and related services, adding that the service will be discontinued next month. The email stands as written notice that Apple intends to terminate all Developer Advertising Services Agreements on June 30, 2016, at 11:59 a.m. Pacific.
Apple announced the impending network closure in January, but a poorly worded explainer caused confusion as to what, exactly, was shutting down. Some reports claimed the closure was limited to the iAd App Network, the mechanism by which developers buy ad space to market their own apps, while others said the entire platform would be discontinued.
An Apple support webpage notes developers should remove the deprecated iAd.Framework classes from their respective apps as no ads will be served starting July 1. Inclusion of deprecated assets shouldn't cause app crashes, but will likely result in Xcode error messages.
With the deprecation of iAd related APIs and the iAd SDK, it seems Apple is indeed terminating the monetization network -- banner ads, interstitials and pre-rolls -- for third party developers. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Apple's support document says revenues generated through iAd advertising are expected for payout by Sept. 30, 2016, while campaign performance reports will be available on iAd Workbench until December 31, 2016.
With the iAd network closing down, developers reliant on the service must move to third-party ad publishing networks and direct ad sales.
Apple's iAd platform launched in 2010 as a means of leveraging the company's massive installed customer base. While investors had high hoped for the service, a series of strategic fumbles, from expensive pricing tiers to burdensome restrictions, drove potential advertisers to competitors. In January, shortly before Apple announced the iAd App Network closure, BuzzFeed reported that the company planned to exit the ad selling business, and would dramatically scale back iAd operations.
Comments
iCloud file management is a bad copy of Dropbox and still wants us to store files in 'app folders' by default. Syncing status is unclear.
iTunes is a mess. Ow and it's called Music on iOS. I guess. It requires iTunes Match to sync downloaded files, and mixes my library with streamed music. Over-complex.
Mail hasn't been innovated on since iOS1.
Their pro apps are being neglected and/or abandoned. Roadmap entirely unclear.
Hey, but Photos for OSX is actually quite good.
And here's yet another service that Apple rolled out to huge fanfare... and is now folding.
It would show a random splash screen pulled from multiple advertisers, matched to the app being launched for better conversion rates. To get more info about the ad, tap the info button, otherwise tap anywhere to dismiss. This wouldn't load when multi-tasking but it would load every time the app is launching the first time or at least once every set period of time e.g once every half hour at most each time the app is made active, even if the app had been left open and the device wakes.
This is so much simpler for advertisers too as they just make a single cool looking splash image, possibly animated if they want and have the info button as a link to their website or app or it can popup a text box to give info about a promotion, new product or whatever they want. It can optionally have a button in the popup to allow the buyer to pay to turn off ads.
People will sign on for something that's simple and you can't get much simpler than saying to a developer, write whatever app you want and click a single check-box on submitting the app to earn money. It might not make as much money as other ad methods that would perhaps show ads more frequently but developers wouldn't need to learn a single API and it would be an ad setup that doesn't interfere with the app usage like a banner taking up a portion of the display and distracting the user. It can be used alongside other ad setups if the developer wanted more.
This could be used for their News app too where on loading an article, these same splash ads are shown.
Developer earnings would be around $1-5 per 1,000 views. Apple has 1 billion active devices. If each user sees on average two ads per day, that's $2-10m per day in earnings for developers or $0.73-3.65b per year. Apple pays out around $10b to developers per year so it's lower than IAPs but IAPs are not a one-click solution and are harder to encourage users to pay for.
The analytics sites suggest ad revenue is just below IAP revenue and sits around $20-30b for multiple platforms:
If Apple is paying out $10b, their platform revenue would be ~$14b. They'd only make a portion of the available $20-30b ad revenue that aligns with their userbase size. Completely abandoning ~$10b potential ad revenue isn't necessary, they can just scale it down to a one-click solution that will offer a portion of that revenue. It's easy for developers, easy for advertisers and it will make money without much involvement.