NEWS FROM WORLD: Articles, News, Comics and Extras - iPhone dev disputes iAds gravy train claims, but sees strong start for Apple service

iPhone dev disputes iAds gravy train claims, but sees strong start for Apple service

iPhone developer, Kenneth Ballenegger, has come out to argue against yesterday’s report which suggested iAds revenue are already beating up the cash gained from inclusion of AdMob spots.

The developer of iLaugh said the figures -- which claimed an astonishing $1,400 in revenue in one day -- need to be put into perspective. He writes, “the reality is iAd generates less revenue than my previous first option, Google AdSense for mobile.” He claims an eCPM of between $10-$15 per day.

Developer Jason Ting has an app which turns the iPhone 4 LED camera into a flashlight. He has published figures showing $1,372.20 in iAd revenue on 9,300 ad impressions with a click-through of 11.8 percent. That’s an eCPM of $147.55. (eCPM is the effective cost per thousand impressions a developer receives for inclusion of an ad).

Ballenegger points to some other current limitations within Apple’s model. “Most competing ad networks refresh their ads every 30s. iAd does it every 3min. Thus, for the time it takes iAd to display one ad, another network gets to show 6.”

He then argues that the eCPM revenue needs to be adjusted with this in mind, suggesting its true value to be $1.60-$2.50. This is still higher than competitors, however, leaving the developer to concede: “A solution would be to run iAd as a first option, and fall back to another network for failed requests.”

However, as Apple continues to retool iTunes iAds for more personalized recommendations and as more advertisers get their spots into Apple’s system, I’d anticipate ad fill rates and ad refresh rates will improve.

Apple will be hoping that delivering high-quality, infinitely targeted ads will tempt many apps users to tap on the ads iAds chooses to serve up to them. Should its dream of engaging ads content on mobile become a reality, it will be interesting to watch Google’s Android response for AdSense.

We now have two sources which do confirm one thing: iAds are off to a strong start and eCPM income from the service presently exceeds that won from other ads services for mobile, meaning Apple's move into becoming an ads firm is off to a strong start.