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Friday, September 28, 2012

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s new ad tracking system has glitches


Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s new operating system iOS6 has a new ad tracking system that doesn't work for many users.

The Advertising Identifier that replaces the earlier Unique Device Identifier allows marketers to track the owners of phone and watch their activities so that they can deliver ads targeted towards them.

The feature does not work for those phones where the operating system has been updated via a wireless network instead of from iTunes on a desktop.

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Marketers and advertisers increasingly are looking at ways to deliver ads to consumers that coincide with their interest and have tied up with handset makers to track their activities online.

While this may sound creepy and there are privacy issues involved, it is a huge market. It is all the more so in the case of mobile devices such as the iPhones and iPads which are seen as rich channels for mobile marketing.

Forbes, which wrote about the problem, said that if advertisers are no able to identify and track users they will not be able to track whether those ds produced a sale.

“It’s crucial for the advertising market,” Ravi Kamran, CEO of the apps marketing platform Trademob, which discovered the problem, told Forbes.

 “It drives the whole ecosystem.”

This glitch could have a significant impact for Apple as advertisers may be discouraged from placing their ads on the platform.

According to Forbes, the Advertising Identifier shows numerical IDs that are zeroes instead of the usual sequence of numbers.

Those who do not want to be tracked may be happy about this development but marketers and advertisers are definitely not.

1 comment:

  1. wow. Apple is on a roll. First iPhone 4 with antenna issues; then iPhone 4S, which barely improves on iphone4; IOS5, which all but cripples the iPhone 3GS and causes fragrmantation all over the iPhone range with differing functionality; Siri, which doesn't live up to half its hype (and is still more of a hindrance than useful); then iphone5 which doesn't address half the major issues that Apple users requested (many of which were promissed/hinted-at); then maps, which suck (but Apple insists on putting in just to hurt Google, even at its users' expense); and now this.
    Through all this, though, Apple devotees (also known as fanboys) still buy Apple's products in droves. Really, guys...how much abuse will you put up with just to look cool?

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