Patently Apple

Apple's Mac App Store May Provide Incentives to Product Reviewers

 
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's Mad Men are focused on Tracking You

 
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 market in 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, Taking Target Marketing Seriously

 
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.

Apple Reveals Fashion App to Drive Consumers to Online Retailers

 
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.

 

iAds: An Apple Patent Focuses on a New Targeting Ad System

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.