Report: Apple backs away from its iAds business


John Paczkowski for BuzzFeed:

Now, six years after launching iAd, Apple is stepping back from it. Multiple sources familiar with the company's plans tell BuzzFeed News that Apple is getting out of the advertising-sales business and shifting to a more automated platform.

The report states that Apple will continue selling ads through its iAds, but will no longer curate the process. Instead Apple is shedding its sales force and will allow publishers to sell and manage ads through Apple's system.

To me, iAds was a counter to Google. Google was making a lot of money on mobile advertising, most of it on Apple's iOS. This ad business could also potentially give Google leverage on its own platform. So, iAds was a way to get the premium slice of mobile adversing.

Apple could still achieve that, but now simply through providing a great platform rather than through controlling the whole process.