Apple vows to reject location apps geared for mobile advertising

Apple is warning iPhone developers that applications built with features based on user location must provide "beneficial information," adding it will reject apps that incorporate location to deliver targeted advertising. A post on the iPhone Dev Center website encourages programmers to enhance their iPhone and iPod apps via the Core Location framework, which enables software to pinpoint users' whereabouts and deliver information like local weather and restaurant recommendations. "If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store," the post promises.

The iPhone Dev Center post is all the more interesting in light of Apple's January acquisition [1] of mobile advertising network Quattro Wireless, a deal reportedly valued at about $275 million. Apple rival Google, which itself scooped up [2] mobile advertising network AdMob in late 2009, called local services "hugely important [3]" to the future of the mobile user experience during its recent Q4 earnings call, with Google product SVP Jonathan Rosenberg forecasting that location-based services will more deeply integrate with mobile advertising and commerce services in the "not too distant future."

Asked how local services tie into Google's mobile vision, Rosenberg touted the possibilities of location-based ads and commerce: "In mobile we are seeing that when phone numbers and coupons are offered people are much more likely to click on the mobile ad. Well, imagine if [a store's] inventory information is there so they can actually consummate a transaction locally. As that information becomes available, local is going to be much, much more powerful."

For more on Apple's perspective on location apps:
- read this iPhone Dev Center post [4]