Without providing any reason, Apple has told developers it will not accept iPhone applications that use the smartphone's global positioning system to distribute location-based advertising. Knowing Apple, we're thinking there's a good rhyme and reason for this ban-we're going to go ahead and guess Apple's acquisition of Quattro Wireless may have something to do with this new ban. Quattro's platform is quite keen on distributing mobile ads, which is probably why Apple scooped it up. The Mac-maker is famous for its secrecy and for preferring to keep things "in-house." Apple is kind of like Robert DeNiro's character in the movie Meet the Parents-it has its "circle of trust" and once you're in, you're in.
"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," Apple says.
At the rate that people buy and download apps for iPhone, location-based advertising is looking a lot more promising to developers-and now it looks a little clearer as to why Apple put the kibosh on that.
