There’s an article on PocketGamer.biz entitled ‘Apple to ban geo location adverts on iPhone and iPad‘ which has caught my eye (thanks Greg for the tip off). The author, Spanner Spencer (is that for real?!) I think has been a little quick off the mark here in his ‘I hate ads’ allegations – either that or it is an early April Fools joke.

He states, “Apple has posted a surprising notice on its Dev Center News and Announcement Blog informing developers that geo locational adverts won’t be allowed on iPhone much longer (and won’t be allowed on iPad at all).”

I did a little digging around myself on this ‘surprising’ view, and went to another article ‘Apple prohibits App Store devs from using location-based ads’ which was less ‘harsh’ but equally laded in as much as it is pointing that Apple is reserving the right to hold targeted ads up their sleeves for their own uses, and not for use by others.

Both these articles are seriously misguided; “Bans”. “Prohibits”. The actual post on the Apple developer’s blog doesn’t actually say anything of the sort!

What it does say is that Apple doesn’t want apps that are ‘primarily’ focused on pushing location-based ads, and especially without any obvious benefit to the end-user…

So to set the record straight, after reading Apple’s text myself;
a. Apple is not ‘banning’ location-based ads, just adjusting focus.
b. Ads in apps are already here, location-based would make them more relevant not ‘bombard’ people more.

If anyone else has any more info, feel free to share.

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