Coming on the heels of Apple’s latest endeavor into the mobile ad space, Apple has posted a note to all iPhone OS developers telling them their apps will be rejected if they include location aware advertising and don’t use Core Location for any other functionality on the app. If the app uses Core Location to find weather, restaurants, ATMs, etc, Apple will let the app through the App Store even if Admob is connected to location services. Many developers rely on Admob to make revenue on free applications, and Admob uses the user’s location in order to provide ads. This move by Apple seems to indicate that they have plans for this space, most likely related to their purchase of Quattro and their plans to integrate the company’s advertising system into the iPhone SDK. Google’s Admob getting tossed is just a bonus. A workaround is currently available for developers willing to remove the location frameworks and code from their applications.
