Apple may be planning an ad exchange system


In theory, an ad exchange would work by allowing advertisers to target users as they enter the Apple eco-system on their iPads, MacBooks, various web sites and apps. The system would alert advertisers that an Apple user arrived. Any advertiser tracking that user with a cookie (a piece of software that records previous web sites you've looked at) could then bid to serve an ad targeting that user.

This would be a departure from Apple's polished iAds system, but could be a boon for iOS developers. As Tim Cook said at D11 conference this week, the reason Apple entered the ad business was to help iOS developers make money via ad-supported apps. At the time Google was ideally positioned for the ad-supported app model with Android. That may or may have not fallen to the wayside a bit, but strategically Apple shouldn't want to rely on chief competitors when it comes to developer revenues.