Apple to Acquire Mobile Ad Platform Quattro Wireless for $275 Million | Hacker News Reader

Apple to Acquire Mobile Ad Platform Quattro Wireless for $275 Million

mashable.com

30 pointsAjJi11 comments

If I had to guess, I'd guess that Apple will be using Quattro's relationships to roll out an advertising service for free iPhone & iPod Touch applications - in exchange for their 30% cut, which is about right for an ad network.

I suspect Apple figured there was simply too much free-app monetization going on to escape untaxed, especially when they're bearing the costs of free application delivery. Perhaps Apple also realized that other parties were getting a bit too much insight into their marketplace through advertising.

If I'm right, this could be very unpleasant for advertising-related startups in this space that aren't Quattro. Now that Apple's got an iPhone app ad company, there's no reason why they won't make it the iPhone app ad company.

Slightly more charitably, perhaps Apple recognized that for many app manufacturers who offer both paid and free versions of an app, Apple already has an existing financial relationship with them, so allowing Apple to handle the ad payments from the free version of the app is going to be more convenient.

Of course, there's no reason it can't be both.

Apple & Google maintain their collision course with this announcement.

Amazing that a few years back Eric Schmidt was on Apple's board and was not see as a competitive threat.

Months, not years. Five, to be exact: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/08/03bod.html

I stand corrected. That is nuts.

I'm not sure that I'd go as far as to say there's a conflict of interest going on here (and in the Google/AdMob camp). However, it definitely feels uncomfortable.

So... which search engine are they going to buy?

Search engines are a bait to bring users to advertisers, and to study user behaviour. Apple already has the users, not just by through their bookmarks, familiarity or desire, but by their actual physical devices.

A google user can quit google. An apple "user" can't quit apple without a significant investment. By their minority status in the market, they're able to do what Microsoft always wanted to do with the majority, without incurring the wrath of the law for monopolistic practices. Apple diversified itself as well; they're the largest desktop minority platform, but also the largest smartphone minority platform, largest music store, MP3 players, soon tablets, etc. They have a finger in a lot of pies, and they're weaving all these disparate platforms and devices into a giant, highly lucrative meta-platform.

A google user can quit google.

I think this is true in roughly the same sense that an English speaker can quit English -- not strictly speaking impossible, but it requires a significant investment and wrenching adjustments to the way you have done things for years.

Try going cold turkey on Google for a week. I have attempted it before and I can't even make it 24 hours. And most damningly, I'm generally not even aware I'm failing at it -- the fingers type google.com for my navigational needs before my brain even gets involved in the loop.

Six months ago I would have said that was a stupid question, but Apple has bought a mapping company, now an ad network, and a gigantic server farm in middle America -- it's really only a matter of time before it begins to make sense for them to expand that server/advertising combo over to the web, at which point a search engine becomes a sensible purchase. Maybe they'll buy Ask?

Anyone able to ballpark how much the founders would clear from this deal?

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