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Apple stops serving iAds in kids apps for iPad

9to5 Staff | May 11 2011 - 4:19 am PT

Apple has temporarily ceased filling ad slots in iPad apps for children with adverts from advertisers that participate in Apple’s advertising network dubbed iAd. MacStories pointed at an email message developer Mike Zornek received from the iAds team. Zornek, who is behind Dex, a free Pokèmon browser app for iPhone, published contents of the message on his blog. Emailing Apple over iAd fill rates in his app which dropped to a single-digit territory, he got this response:

Hello Michael,

We periodically review the apps in the iAd Network to ensure that all apps receiving ads are aligned with the needs of our advertisers. Currently, our advertisers prefer that their advertising not appear in applications that are targeted for users that are young children, since their products are not targeted at that audience.

We appreciate your understanding.

Best Regards,

iAd Network Support Apple, Inc. 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014

Attempting to drum up iAd amid a rocky start, Apple recently cut the minimum spending in half to $500,000. They followed-up by releasingiAd Producer, a Mac app designed to take the pain out of producing iAds, and recently updated it with new features.

Apple, which began serving iAds inside iPad apps recently, also published the free iAd Gallery app for iOS devices that allows everyone – even users outside territories supported by the iAd network – to browse and interact with the latest iAds from big advertisers.