This has one major implication: killing ad networks. Or, more specifically, killing ad targeting and CPA.
Advertising is not going away. Let's face it, people are just not willing to pay when it comes to the type of games that are popular on the iPhone. That's in large part a result of the race-to-the-bottom environment Apple created with App Store. Advertising is what makes this economy work.
Whether it's ultimately a good thing or not to kill advertising is a debate I'm not going into (tho, I'd personally err on the side of it being a good thing long term). But, good ad targeting and CPA has the effect of improving the ad experience for everybody: making more money, and seeing more relevant ads.
Admittedly, I'm biased since I'm part of a mobile advertising startup, but I think Apple fucked up here. Having a way to uniquely identify a device across apps is very important. I'd suggest creating a unique identifier on device installation, and formatting the device would reset a new identifier. I know for a fact that if we were to play by Apple's rules, and this goes through, we're going to be very hurt by this change.
This has one major implication: killing ad networks. Or, more specifically, killing ad targeting and CPA.
I for one won't be shedding any tears - as a woman that spends a lot of time on tech (and hence nominally male) websites, I am decidedly over getting ads for dating sites telling me how I'll be able to hook up with young women with no complexes...
Another classic - I hang out on some atheist sites, so of course I'm vitally interested in some Christian alpha course or what not - after all, I spend time on sites talking about religion, don't I?
The model is flawed. I find that so called targeted ads are almost entirely out of phase with my interests, almost comically so. That being the case, I'd rather not be giving unknown people the ability to more easily monitor my online behaviour.
This is completely backwards - you're complaining about untargeted ads, based only on the rough context of the page you're on.
Properly-targeted ads would know you're a) female and b) an atheist and show appropriate advertising if any was available.
Removing the UDID does nothing to prevent the type of ads you're complaining about - they work off of context, and context is always available to the ad server - but it does prevent ad targeting from getting better.
Mobile or web advertising does not rely on the ability to track users across apps or across websites. Mobile and web advertising would still exist and would still be almost as profitable without that capability.
The loss of privacy for everyone which occurs when organisations can arbitrarily track people across sites or apps at will, is too high a cost considering the tiny benefits for both the users and the advertisers.
I'm not 100% sure they already do, but will Apple continue using UDIDs in iAds? Because if they do that would grant them an incredible competitive advantage against all other ad networks...
Advertising is not going away. Let's face it, people are just not willing to pay when it comes to the type of games that are popular on the iPhone. That's in large part a result of the race-to-the-bottom environment Apple created with App Store. Advertising is what makes this economy work.
Whether it's ultimately a good thing or not to kill advertising is a debate I'm not going into (tho, I'd personally err on the side of it being a good thing long term). But, good ad targeting and CPA has the effect of improving the ad experience for everybody: making more money, and seeing more relevant ads.
Admittedly, I'm biased since I'm part of a mobile advertising startup, but I think Apple fucked up here. Having a way to uniquely identify a device across apps is very important. I'd suggest creating a unique identifier on device installation, and formatting the device would reset a new identifier. I know for a fact that if we were to play by Apple's rules, and this goes through, we're going to be very hurt by this change.