15 Apr 2010
Ads are what will keep many iPhone and iPad apps free, and iAd appears to be an engrossing, elegant way to do it. Some advertising is better than others—people watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, and movie trailers are often better than the films they promote. The Toy Story 3, Nike, and Bed Bath & Beyond ads that Jobs demo’d in Cupertino belong in this superior category. Even though they were simple efforts, dummied up in a limited amount of time, they’re engaging—you actually want to interact with them. Compare that with the sorry state of Web advertising. Assuming you don’t have ad-blocking software installed, when was the last time you gave more than a glance to a display ad on a Web page? Have you ever felt anything other than exasperation as an “interstitial” prevented you from accessing a news article online? Clearly, there will be a great many annoying iAd ads. (That’s going to get tiring to say.) But in a way that the Web has never delivered on, advertising on the iPhone and iPad has the potential to be a fun and engrossing experience.
— Summers, on Apple’s iPad ad platform (via newsweek)
