Do you think that you have the right stuff to become a great product reviewer for Apple's New Mac App Store? Well, it appears that Apple wants to upgrade their app reviewing process to provide a real community-based predictive ranking system for products that small business owners and productive consumers could come to rely on for rich reviews beyond just paid hype. However it's a double-edged sword because the public reviewers will also be compensated for their work in a number of ways. Apple's system could be interesting over time, as this system is based on the number of accurate reviews over time. This is a complicated system but one that marketers and commissioned salespeople could understand. But if you think you're cut out for this, then it may be worth investigating.
Apple is at it again. They've apparently acquired yet another target marketing patent and now that they're rolling iAd out aggressively, there's no turning back. Some believe that iAd could eat up half the mobile ad marketin the future while most think that Apple is really out to challenge Google. More importantly perhaps is that actual paying customers of iAd's services, like Nissan, have seen their ad time-traffic soar ten-fold. All the more reason why Apple is seeking to further fine-tune their target marketing capabilities - and in today's patent report we'll take you on a short trek through the mindset of the ad industry as it schemes to further burrow their tracking technology into Apple's iOS devices like only Mad Men could.
Apple's new advertising centric webpage states that "iAd rich media ads bring motion and emotion to mobile advertising through branded experiences that entertain and inform. With the iAd logo on each ad, your target Apple audience will know a great experience awaits them behind the banner." Yeeeesss, Apple is taking Target Marketing seriously – very seriously. In fact we learned just yesterday that Apple has recently acquired a new powerful geo-location patent that packs quite the punch. It's focused on delivering informative content proactively rather than reactively in response to a person's manual query to a service or human. Beyond delivering advanced marketing retail services, the patent provides us with a series of other feasible life-based scenarios. For instance, the new service could give home users the ability to announce a Garage Sale that they're having to anyone in a given vicinity or send emergency live Amber Alerts to your iPhone along with photos of the missing child in question. Advanced geolocation services could go far beyond just commerce.
Earlier today we presented you with Apple's new Virtual Closet application. That application had a cross-over element to it for shopping online. This second report follows through on yet another Apple patent that was published today aimed at driving consumers to fashion retailers specifically. Apple is obviously working with Ralph Lauren and other designers and fine clothiers to drive sales their way. Those designers and clothiers involved in the program will be able to send out invitations, promotions and cross sell into accessories like jewelry and so on and so forth. It's also a vehicle for Apple's new high-end iAds. The new app will provide a social networking aspect to it as did the Virtual Closet. Apple has thought differently here and is well on the way to delivering a new kind of application that will be the first of many to follow no doubt.
On May 20, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals various concepts behind a newly advanced targeting advertising system that is likely associated with Apple's forthcoming iAd service. Apple's patent generally relates to providing dynamically priced advertisements to all manner of electronic devices. The new targeting ad system describes relationships between advertisers, an infrastructure owner and a user that may be the target of advertisements from the advertisers. The heart of the patent details the system itself and then provides us with examples of how it will be implemented. Many of the scenarios involved in the patent are based on a future iPhone with built-in NFC capabilities.
Within four of Apple's social networking patents that have come to light in 2010, the most prominent trend of all has been that of location awareness technology. There have been a number of articles written on the dangers of such a feature, one being "PleaseRobMe and the Dangers of Location-Based Social Networks." During Apple's iPhone OS 4 event held on Thursday, Scott Forstall took to the stage to discuss a number of features coming to the iPhone – with multitasking being the most interesting of all. Within this segment, Forstall focused on a new feature-set relating to "Background Location." This report focuses on this brief yet very important feature-set that is directly related to consumer security. As location awareness technology and social networking apps explode on the market over the coming years, you're going to want to know that the iPhone has safeguards in place for you and your family's protection.
In October 2009, Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Prepares to Rock the Market with Hardware Subsidizing Program" and when All Things Digital decided to post my report - it took off like a bat out of hell. The report was clearly about subsidizing hardware in exchange for having users watch advertisements on their system which would happen to include some interaction with a few ads so that the advertisers would help to flip the hardware bill. Fair enough. Well, some noses got out of joint with that news – In fact, Robert X. Cringely took on Apple's proposal - calling it a Patently Crazy idea. That report seemed to ignite some kind of negative undercurrent or cult that culminated in the recent "Cracked" report titled "5 Reasons You Should Be Scared of Apple" that has since racked up more than 1.13 million hits! Hmm, how a simple, logical idea about subsidization turned into Apple being an evil empire is beyond me. So I could only imagine how the crazies will react to today's patent report that carries along on that very same theme of free television programming coming to computers and portable devices that will – yes, enforce ad participation. Yet for those of you who understand how the real world works - today's patent could actually shed some light on what Steve Jobs could have discussed with the networks when proposing Apple's new 99 cent content deal. The patent in fact points to a multiple tiered ad content system that could be set to a sliding price scale. And lastly – the patent indirectly provides us with some insight into how Apple could utilize their recently acquired Quattro Wireless ad service in the future.
In October 2009, Apple stunned many in and outside of the Mac community with a patent about an Apple hardware subsidizing plan that would in effect consist of an enforceable ad program mechanism.The straight forward deal would be simple: if you want a subsidized iPhone or even a free one, for example, then you'll have to abide by some rather basic rules involving interaction with ads that would periodically appear on your system. Why this initiative-to-be upset so many people is still a mystery to me. Then on December 21, yet another patent surfaced indicating that Apple would put ads on media players accessing Apple's App Store. On January 4, AllThingsD, Kara Swisher - broke the news about Apple buying Quattro Wireless which quickly spread throughout the Mac community via sites like MacSurfer, 9 to 5 Mac, MacDailyNews and others. In hindsight, we now see that Apple's patents actually provided us all with a clear heads-up on a new direction that Apple was considering for internet services. In context, yesterday's published patent added yet another twist in the wireless ad game. While the patent begins with providing touch screen based media player users with a rather valuable method of creating highly functional contact icons for their home page, it quickly shifts to exposing Apple's ulterior motives relating to ad placements. Though to be honest, it could end up being a nifty idea, really.
The US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple today that reveals various concepts behind a newly advanced service in development that entails subsidizing an incredible array of hardware from Apple. The hardware ranges from their sizzling hot iPhone to Apple TV - the set top box - to an actual television, notebook, iPod touch and more. The subsidization could also cover software from Apple or third party developers. What's the catch? You'll have to endure a very complicated and savvy advertising scheme that makes sure that you're paying attention. If not, the system can freeze the user out until compliance is met. This isn't for everyone, especially if ads in your face are something you want to avoid at all costs. But for the mass market, this is a whole new ballgame! Steve Jobs is noted in Apple's credits for this patent and we could be assured that his name all but tells us that this program isn't a fantasy of an Apple engineer.The implications of such a marketing move could rock the industry.
Apple introduced their next generation iPod Nano yesterday which comes with a new marketing feature called "iTunes Tagging." This nifty little feature is going to be hot and one of the most appreciated features over the years. We've all been there. We hear a tune on the radio and missed the DJ's description of the tune – or they ripped it off too quickly to catch. Yikes – it's a tune you want, a tune you can't get out of your head and you just can't find the name of that tune. Well, for those buying the new iPod Nano, that's an inconvenience of the past.Apple's new iTunes Tagging allows you to see the metadata pertaining to that tune and allows you to tag it so that when you get home, the tunes information is simply sitting in a file on iTunes ready for you to review and buy it. Tagging is simply a click of the iPod's click wheel. Apple's latest feature has been in the works at Apple for years. Apple finally executing on this feature fulfills one of their 2008 patent applications which richly details the advances of tagging and where it could be going in the bigger scheme of things.
