AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui has responded to the recent change in the iOS developer agreement which precludes ad companies owned by Apple competitors in the smartphone arena from collecting the same user statistics available to third-party ad agencies and Apple’s own iAd.
Not so surprising? He’s not thrilled about it.
On the official AdMob blog, Hamoui wrote: “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.”
Hamoui went on to say that AdMob would be speaking to Apple about it.
I’m finding it hard not to agree with Google-owned AdMob here. Apple has basically drawn an arbitrary anti-Google line in the sand, which not only limits the options of developers, but reduces the requirement on iAd to innovate as a direct response to the sort of competition that only one of the biggest mobile ad companies out there can provide.
One thing’s for sure: we doubt the update section 3.3.9 of the developer agreement is going to do Apple any favors with the DoJ, who have already been investigating Apple for its perceived anti-competitive practices. A showdown’s coming.
