Apple could make its iAd service free for mobile publishers

Six years ago, Steve Jobs announced the iAd service designed to allow mobile publishers to serve up unobtrusive advertisements on iOS. However, due to Apple's standard 30 percent cut on anything sold via the iOS platform, prices were quite high and the service never really took off, which means that now Apple might be changing its iAd business model.

According to a report from Buzzfeed which cites multiple sources familiar with Apple's plans, the company will soon make the iAd service a free platform for mobile publishers to use and turn it into a largely automated system.

Apple executive, Eddy Cue had previously confirmed that soon the company would be launching a self-service advertising platform, meaning that Apple would not be taking part in creating or selling iAd units, instead leaving that up to the mobile publishers. This report does seem to fall in line with those comments making this change a likely one.

Obviously, part of the hope here is that by taking a step back Apple will be able to make its ad platform more popular, particularly compared to competitors like Google.

KitGuru Says: Apple hasn't really been able to compete with the likes of Google when it comes to its advertising platform so a bigger change was likely needed. 

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