Apple’s iAd is their mobile ad delivery platform that was created after acquiring Quattro Wireless in March 2010, Apple announced this service officially at WWDC in June 2012. The USPTO confirmed that Apple has been awarded a registered trademark for its iAd service on March 20th 2013 after a period of 21 months from the date of filing as spotted by PatentlyApple. Apple plans to compete Google, the current leader in web ads and mobile ads with it AdMob service since July 2010. Google specialises in ad delivery platforms which is the major source of its revenue stream. Apple has been struggling to monetize its iAd platform since launch and has been trying various methods to make it more attractive to developers and companies to display their ads.
iAds is different from other general ad platforms in the way it provides interactive full screen ads. To make use of this distinctive feature, Apple has been charging a premium from companies that plan to go for their iAd service with a minimum amount of $1 million in commitment. Since then Apple has reduced the minimum price requirement to half but after witnessing a bit of traction it hiked the amount back to $1 million again. Apple has also been charging a premium of 40% from developers for providing the iAd service integration into their apps but in April 2012 it increased the developer revenue to 70% and cut down its share to 30% as in the case of App Store.