Apple's Brilliant Assault on Advertising - and Google

This is a really interesting article that looks at two Giant companies, and how their overlapping capabilities affect each other. On one hand, Apple is known for its user experience and ease, while Google's revenue model is heavily driven by advertising. Ad blocking has been an interesting source of discussion in the media industry, because advertising it is such an important driver of media, yet a huge irritation for consumers of media.

Essentially, Apple is allowing (and also encouraging) app developers to add ad blockers, via the app store, to consumers' browsers. Knowing that if they added ad blocking on the iPhone browser themselves, they would definitely get sued by publishers for infringing on their 'Terms of Service.' Hence, making this a feature for app developers to make, rids them of this liability in a clever, but slightly shady way.

It's also interesting to note that Apple launched its own 'Search Ads' program in 2016, so this move might be the next step towards Apple competing with Google for online ad revenue.

I'd be interested to know what you all think of this: Do you think Apple could be encroaching into Google's space and posing a potential threat? And do you think ad-blocking might be the next big innovation in media?

https://medium.com/@jason/apple-s-brilliant-assault-on-advertising-and-google-6ba71dcec83