The Steve Rubel Stream

If you look just below the surface of all the hype around the iOS devices (the iPads, iPod Touches and iPhones), there’s a dirty little secret. Apple might be positioning the platform as a Trojan Horse that reshapes digital advertising as one man—Apple CEO Steve Jobs—thinks it should work. While this messianic zeal benefits users, it could conceivably create a competitive moat for Apple and its partners.

Jobs has more than a passing interest in online advertising. He co-authored a patent filing in 2008 called “Advertisements in Operating System.” Now Apple has put into place systems that handicap existing dominant formats like rich-media ads and interstitials.

Case in point: Safari. On June 7, the day Apple unveiled the new iPhone, it also shipped Safari 5. The browser, available for both PCs and Macs, has a feature called Reader that neutralizes multipage articles and interstitial ads by giving the user the option to read an article in a new clean view that strips away all but the text of the article.

A primary benefit of the new Reader view is that it allows a user to consume a multipage story without having to endure multiple clicks, interstitials and a new set of banner ads. This sounds great but it may rob publishers of ad impressions.

Now, granted, no one is saying that Safari is a powerhouse. It has a minuscule 10% share, according to Net Applications. However, keep in mind this feature is found only in the desktop version of Safari today. There’s no reason why Apple wouldn’t bring Reader to the growing armada of iOS devices—which commands an 60% share of all mobile browsing, according to Quantcast. The end result may be that more publishers will flock to the App Store and iAds.

Equally troubling is Apple’s posture toward rich-media ads. In the April open letter “Thoughts on Flash” Apple and Jobs clearly outlined why they are not allowing Adobe to push forward with its plans to bring the technology to the iOS ecosystem.

Most of Jobs’ arguments were primarily based on technology issues and user experience. Ads were only mentioned briefly. However, if you read between the lines, there may be another motive. Apple could be trying to pave the road for the success of iAds. (Disclosure: Edelman, my employer, is Adobe’s PR agency.)

The takeaway here is that as iOS devices grow in popularity, the platform encourages advertisers to increase their iAd budget and/or develop their own apps. This benefits developers and iAds advertisers. Now, I’m no lawyer, but it’s conceivable that if the iOS platform one day achieves any kind of dominant position the way Windows has, this may be viewed as an anti-competitive move.

No single company will ever control the Web. However, as Apple’s power grows and it begins to push into advertising with new formats, it must not put up roadblocks to other formats as it has done in the case of Flash or could do with its Reader view. Pressure from CMOs and others in the industry like the Association of National Advertisers and the IAB will ensure that even as Apple devices gain share advertisers will have the same freedom of choice in how they advertise in the post-PC age that they did in the previous era.

Seemingly overnight the Information Superhighway (does anyone call it that anymore?) became littered with potholes. In the last week Apple sold nearly 500,000 iPads, none of which support key technologies that we have come to rely on, including Adobe Flash, Windows Media and others. (Adobe and Microsoft are Edelman clients.)

For the last week I have been using my iPad as my primary device. I enjoy the slate format and think it’s the next big thing for computing – one that will see lots of winners. Unfortunately, this comes at a cost. I don’t get to experience the web like I used to, but a version of it that only Apple approves of – one that’s peppered with potholes that turns it into the swiss cheese web. The above image is what our own web site looks like on the iPad, which proudly uses Flash for certain features.

This poses a challenge for Web developers – one that Josh Bernoff so eloquently details on his post on the “Splinternet.” Should one develop the most robust experience using the best technologies on the market or should they kowtow to Apple’s vision for the Internet? Tough call.

In the end we believe that marketers should develop for the masses – the common denominator that unites the broadest universe of consumers. Right now, that’s desktop browsers with plug-ins. However, if developers need to start coding different versions of their site for different platforms, then we have trouble ahead. Standards are what made the web become a mass consumer medium.

Edelman Digital calls on Apple and all companies to support consumer choice – to allow consumers to have the same experience they are accustomed to on the desktop. Where once mobile devices were not powerful enough to run rich media technologies, that’s no longer the case. Why ban Flash and WMVs yet support Quicktime and PDF – two other standards. It makes no sense.

The Swiss Cheese Web ain’t the real web. At minimum Apple and others need to convey this up front (a disclaimer in their ads would be a nice start). However, it is our hope that they will open more and embrace the same standards that have allowed online innovation to blossom.