When Google opens their wallet, big buyouts follow, and this time it’s iPhone/mobile advertising company AdMob for $750 million, and VoIP startup Gizmo5 for about $30 million.

AdMob is an obvious choice for Google, as it’s built mobile and in-app advertising (especially on the iPhone) into a $100 million a year business, enough to get Brin and Page personally involved in the courtship. Says TechCrunch:

Google is gunning hard to dominate mobile Web advertising and AdMob has an early foothold in the display side. [...] Google’s purchase price tells us it thinks the opportunity for mobile display ads is in the billions of dollars, at the very least.

Gizmo5, rather than advertising, could help round out Google’s services portfolio. Again, TechCrunch has the details:

Google Talk allows voice calls between users but has no PSTN link to allow incoming or outbound calls to real phones. Gizmo5 does this well already. [...] And Google Voice is a great VoIP and phone identity service, but they have no endpoint for calls. Gizmo5, which by the way already integrates with Google Voice, is a soft phone end point for Google phone users.

Of course, Apple will have to stop considering/reverse the rejection of Google Voice, or Google will have to deliver that killer web app version, before iPhone users benefit from that…

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Google Buys AdMob and Gizmo5

We all know Google isn’t a search engine company, they’re a company that makes googzillions of dollars monetizing search (and trying to monetize other things) via their AdSense advertising platform. For iPhones, this was previously constrained to the browser window of Mobile Safari (or Chrome Lite for Android users). Now, however, the Official Google Blog announces:

AdSense for Mobile Applications allows developers to earn revenue by displaying text and image ads in their iPhone and Android applications. For our beta launch, we’ve created a site where developers can learn more about the AdSense for Mobile Applications program, see answers to frequently asked questions and sign up to participate in our beta. Advertisers can also learn about the benefits of advertising in mobile applications.

Advertising lets Google and others supply lots of free services to users. Will it be as successful embedded in apps as it is in the browser? Developers, are you interested in Google AdSense monetizing your apps? Users, would you put up with Google advertising if it meant cheap or free apps?

[Thanks to Icebike for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Google Announces Adsense for Mobile Applications for iPhone

Okay, if you buy an empty iPod Classic, have never owned a CD or bought a piece of music in your life, and are determine to immediately fill that 120GBs to the brim, then $30K iTunes will cost you.

However, if you’ve already got a sizable CD collection, or music collection of any kind — even your own compositions — or want to carry around class lectures or other forms of audio or — hey — video maybe, well, it can cost much, much less. Maybe even less than the $15 a month Microsoft would rather you cough up to them for a ZunePass subscription.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the subscription model. I don’t think it can hold a candle to the iPhone and iPod touches coup de grace — online streaming music for (pretty much) free — but for some users subscription is the way to go. (Especially now in the DRM-free world where Microsoft shutting down PlaysForSure didn’t threaten to destroy large and dearly-paid for music collections, right Microsoft?). What I am against is bland, ultimately not compelling advertising. Ars Technica lays it out:

As of November 2008, the Zune Pass allows its users to keep any 10 songs per month. In other words, if you wanted 30,000 songs for keeps, just like the iTunes Store, you would have to wait 250 years. The cost would be a whopping $45,000, however. In other words, it’s only really worth it if you’re OK with the fact that you have to keep paying the monthly fee to keep access to the songs that you don’t yet own. Otherwise, iTunes (or any other à la carte model) is the way to go.

And again, the iPhone and iPod touch (for which Microsoft has no competitive offering since they keep denying the ZunePhone and Zune HD is still vaporware) can do better, cheaper with free internet radio apps.

Unless you want an extra $15+ bill tacked onto your monthly services overhead?

(Thanks Matt for the tip!)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Microsoft Says iTunes Costs $30K to Fill an iPod? Ars Says ZunePass Costs $45K!

It’s interesting to see how developers try to monetize their work in the iTunes App Store. With the downward pressure towards $0.99 or free apps, many turn to advertising to make up the difference, but users are getting increasingly oblivious to advertising at the same time.

i.TV, as part of their recent update, has tried to make advertising more compelling by making it more interactive. It’s an interesting strategy:

: i.TV introduces the world’s first “shakable” ad. This limited release “Shake-down 2 Get Down” campaign from Dockers features Dufon, from the dance expressionist group “Circle of Fire.” When you see the ad pop up, just shake your device to make Dufon dance!

Even if that loses its appeal after the first few times, it will likely still make a stronger impact than static text or banners. Can developers keep the pace of advertising innovation in line with that of the apps themselves? That remains a question.

The i.TV update also includes a dedicated tab for Comcast subscribers, the world’s first “shakable” advertisement, AT&T U-verse listings and major performance improvements.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

i.TV Makes Nice With Comcast, Shakes Up Advertising

We get it: Apps are the new Internet. If the recent TV commercials weren’t hint enough, if redesigning the Apple Stores to put them front-and-center wasn’t crystal clear, Apple has sent out an email reminding us that the iPhone Apps, they are good!

Over 15,000 (20,000 but most counts), Apple focuses on ZAGAT TO GO, Flick Bowling, Allrecipes.com, Weightbot, and iHandy Level.

Apple has long said that software, not hardware was their key differentiator, and they’re certainly making sure everyone else knows it as well.

Is it working? Are Apps hooking new buyers the way “just the Internet”-focused advertising hooked previous ones?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple iPhone Email Highlight Apps

This is a huge coincidence since we just had our App vs App: Shazam vs Midomi on TiPB. I love these commercials since they are so simple and really show what the iPhone can do. Well, since I think most carbon-based life forms know what the iPhone is, it is time for Apple to show how the App Store’s apps can make a difference in your life. 

Apple has had a recent sting of new ads from baseball to finding a place to eat. This ad deals with [iTunes link] Shazam, a free app that allows you to hold your iPhone up to a music source, and Shazam will tell you what the song is and give you links to videos and even a link to the song on iTunes.

How cool is that?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

New iPhone Commercial: Shazam

iPhone ads show cool things being done easily. Case in point, the latest spot featuring Loopt.

Stay in touch with your friends. That’s the iPhone. Done.

Maybe that’s why the iPhone ranks #1 in satisfaction?

Check out the add via Apple.com

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

New iPhone Commerical: Loopt

We’re never going to let Crackberry Kevin, editor of our sibling site Crackberry.com live this down. Never EVER.

And if you think that’s bad, wait until Steve Jobs gets finished giving the WuShi finger to the advertising geniuses over at Vodafone and RIM. We’re talking the greatest mellow harshening “Skidoosh!” in the history of the tech industry, no doubt.

Whyzat? Said genii decided to advertise the iClonic Blackberry Storm as an actual iPhone, complete with Home screen and Mobile Safari browser.

Was this the last, desperate surrender to iPhone envy? Were the guilt-laden strings of Marimba playing over and over again in their psyche, forcing them to confess themselves to the world?

Sadly, once the images get yanked, the cronies blamed, and the incident swept under the blogs, we’ll never know for sure. But they’ll still be hearing endless Marimba in their dreams…

Meanwhile, Engadget and Gizmodo got their hands on the little whole-screen-is-a-button-and-has-cut-and-paste-but-no-WiFi monsters, and they seem pretty happy with the solid Blackberry foundation gaining a little iPhone inspired tech. Our view? Anything that forces Apple, and the industry, to stay competitive and keep on innovating is a boon for all of us.

Right?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Tell Tale Art: Blackberry Advertises iClone Thunder as… the iPhone?!

Disappointing. Disgusting. Shocked. Offended. You pick the negative emotion and we’re pretty much feeling it right now. I mean, how could they, right? How could Virgin Mobile Canada stoop so low…

…As to carry the Crackberry?

What? Oh, you thought we meant the blatantly misogynistic, awkwardly pandering, positively Neaderthal-eque pseudo-sexual advertising that rankles the puritanical roots of Americans but barely raises an eyebrow across the pond in Europe?

Yeah, if Fake Steve were still around, he’d be all over this. Might even suggest who to call for a little competitive escalation.

All we can say is for shame Virgin Mobile Canada. For. Shame…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Virgin Mobile Canada Stoops to New Low…