It’s Canada Day, and that can mean only one thing in the Apple world: The company’s first iAds debuted on iOS 4 iPhones today. For instance, Nissan’s Leaf ad (see the company’s demonstration video below) began appearing, and we found an iAd for Paramount Pictures, the movie studio, in one of our favorite pattern matching games, reMovem (free) (see the screenshot below).
Screenshot from Paramount’s iAd
iAd is Apple’s new mobile ad network, a service that competes with Google’s AdMob and other mobile device advertising services. Apple’s approach is to offer comprehensive, interactive ads within an app, ads that can be explored without leaving the confines of the app itself.
This contrasts with iAd competitors, which take the user to a Web site, in a browser, if the user taps on it. With iAd, users can explore the advertising message without leaving the app itself.
Apple announced the service earlier this year as part of the company’s newly named iOS 4, the operating system that drives iPhones and iPod touches, and will soon drive iPads. The company is charging advertisers a premium with a million dollar contract necessary to be among the first advertisers, and sharing revenue with app developers that embed the service in a 60/40 split (in favor of the developers).
In reMovem Free, we found the iAd for Paramount included among many ads from AdMob. Tapping on an AdMob ad took us to a browser, but when the iAd spot came up, it behaved as Apple promised.
Stephen Reinhardt has begun compiling a list of apps that are using the service.
Nissan’s Leaf iAd demonstration video