I’m far from surprised that Apple is buying Quattro Wireless. But as tech companies get into media, we’re going to need to stop thinking in terms of technology-industry absolutes…and enter the fuzzy grayness of media co-opetition.
Perhaps it’s because it drives clicks and sells newspapers. That’s probably why the Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times chose to write about Apple’s purchase of mobile advertising network, Quattro Wireless. The article appeared with this teaser: Aiming at Google, Apple Buys Quattro Wireless, an Ad Company.
I guess it isn’t sexy to say that Google and Apple found themselves in adjacent businesses tied together by the glue of emerging mobile media. Yes, Google was waiting to buy a mobile advertising network, and they did that back in November with AdMob. And yes, the App Store has become critical in driving value for Apple, a company that justifies its higher-than-normal-priced laptops, telephones and media players by making the integration between the platforms appear simple and seamless.
And it’s become absolutely clear that the mobile context isn’t exclusively mobile web browsing. The App Store has shown that native applications on a mobile device (especially the iPhone) can provide Internet-connected functionality that is far better than a web browser on that same device.
Since consumers are only willing to pay so much for so many mobile applications, there’s a point where the application sale revenues will flatten, and the next source of revenues will be advertising driven from within the applications themselves.
Now this may seem obvious, but it’s not exactly as easily said as done. We’ve seen similar issues with online video advertising — which is effectively advertising delivered to a specific player (application) running within a web browser. Everyone involved in Internet video figured out that they could control the environment more effectively in a proprietary manner, and the industry created a mind-bending set of combinations and permutations of online video advertising. This, and the ensuing internet video advertising standards movement, was driven by guess who? The advertising networks.
The only challenge in phrasing Apple’s purchase of Quattro Wireless as a move against Google…is that there are many more players in the mobile advertising network space, and that’s expected. In the media industry, co-opetition is both accepted and normal.
And this is where technology meets media, and media wins. This is a reversal of a decades-long trend in which technology trumps media at each and every turn (VCRs, Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, file sharing, digital music, the digital transition, Internet vs. newspapers, and so on and so forth).
The way media wins is that even Google and Apple will need to play nice with media companies and competitng advertising networks. Will Google be able to drive the Google Store and will Apple be able to drive the App Store if each company forces software developers to pick sides? To sign exclusive advertising deals with one mobile (app) advertising network or another?
The genie is already out of the bottle, and Google and Apple will be hard pressed to turn the mobile media industry into yet-another-technology-holy war: you’re either with us…or you’re against us!
The media industry learned a long time ago that it just isn’t possible to get one’s knickers in a knot about cross-platform and cross-media exclusivity. Sure, there’s a level of integration of promotion between commonly-owned media properties (movies, television, music, gaming, concerts, etc.); but at some point, you’ll see a broadcast television interview with someone who’s promoting a program or movie that will appear on a competitor’s cable network. And MTV (used to) push videos from a variety of record companies, regardless of whether they’re owned by Viacom.
The point being that Apple will deliver advertising to Google Android Devices, and Google will deliver advertising to Apple iPhones. This will continue as advertising gets integrated into mobile applications and other media.
It’s media co-opetition, and it’s time for those of us in the technology industry to get used to it.