The story began with Apple’s acquisition of mobile ad platform, Quattro Wireless, back in Jan 2010. Soon after in April, the company announced iAd, a new interactive ad network for iOS devices. The network went live just last month. Interestingly, there has already been reports of the iAd platform, generating as much as $1400 in a single day.

“The emotion of TV, the interactivity of the web, the power of mobility” – this is how Apple defines the iAd. iAds can delivers interactive and video content ads without taking viewers out of the application they are currently using. The Toy Story 3 and other demo ads built by Apple beautifully illustrate the variety of interactive options possible.

Having said that, let’s look at the major ‘takeaways’ for the different segments.

For the average iPhone user:

• Mobile ads can be more enjoyable and less frustrating. Unlike in browser-ads, the user is not taken to a different web page and can get back to his current app easily and quickly.
• An iAd ad opens up in a app-like environment and taps into all major OS features of the phone. Users can therefore buy iTunes content from within the ad, share branded content across social networks or save branded images as wallpaper.

For the app developer:

• With 60% of the advertising revenue coming to them, developers might find it an interesting way to monetize their apps while keeping them free.
• Moreover, developers can purchase iAd advertising to promote their own apps to millions of users across the iAd Network. iAd JS and supporting documentation available through the iPhone Dev Center will aid developers in designing and creating high-impact, motion-rich ads.

For the advertiser:

• iAd holds immense marketing potential with its reach of over millions of iPhone and iPod touch users around the world.
• The kind of integrated experience the iAd promises could result in more viewer-ship and more effective advertising.
• Standard targeting options like demographics, movie and television genre interests, location, application preferences, etc., could mean the ad is delivered to consumers most likely to be motivated by the message.

And Finally For Apple:

• As the company that hosts and sells this new kind of ads, it is definetly a source of revenue.
• It is also a novel approach to incentivize App store development.

However, the biggest truth of all is that iAd is a subtle attack on Flash and a more direct strike at Google’s AdSense from the house of iOS devices.

So, what makes iPhone 4.0 superior?
Why should I have it?

1) Multitasking
A simple task switcher (might remind you of a windows task manager plus app switching ability) can be used to see all running applications while allowing user to switch between running applications. For now, the multitasking is limited to audio streaming, VoIP and GPS applications. Other applications can be suspended in the background. The question of whether it is actually multitasking is valid. To the user, it is, but under the hood, all system resources are available to all applications, with the system assuming the role of a traffic controller, giving preference to some tasks and less preference to others as needed. Obviously, the question of RAM involved will be raised — but it is to be remembered that iPhone does not load the entire application to the memory; only that part that accesses the service is loaded. Hence, there will not be an issue of slower performance on devices with lesser RAM.

2) Information Safety and security
From the perspective of an IT manager, the number one feature of iPhone 4.0 is that the device pass key is used as an encryption key to protect email messages and attachments stored on iPhone 3GS. This security enhancement means that business critical information is safe even if the device is compromised.

3) Resume or fast application switching
With iPhone’s multitasking, actually, certain functions of applications (GPS lock or video stream) can be “paused” so that it gives the feel that the application is running the background. When the application is re-opened, they are restored to exactly the same state they were in when they were closed/switched.

4) Alerts and notifications
Would you like to know when your farm is ready to be harvested when you are using another application on your iPhone? Since the iPhone does not have a start bar or a dock-type interface, it might be assumed to be difficult. Well, rejoice! Notifications will be sent between applications on the phone and not just from remote servers. In other words, if something important or fun happens in an application you have opened and moved away from, a notification will pop up in the application you’re using at the time.

5) Better Mail
This is a feature that makes iPhone 4.0 so much better than its predecessor. The OS allows users to set up multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts and now works with Exchange Server 2010. The new unified inbox feature allows users to see messages from all their email accounts conveniently displayed in a single inbox, or they can quickly switch between inboxes to see messages from any single account. If users receive an attachment that they want to save or edit, Mail now lets you open attachments with compatible apps from the App Store.

6) Application sharing
Apps can be updated without requiring users to connect to their computers or go through the App Store. iPhone OS 4 enables enterprises to securely host and wirelessly distribute in-house applications to employees over Wi-Fi and 3G. This is bound to increase popularity of iPhone OS 4.0 in enterprises.

Pushing past the observation that there seems to be a 4 application limit, the point that not much RAM will be used may not be all that great after all. Lets say, iPhone comes up with a device with enough RAM, it might never be used. It is questionable how much it will benefit a user, which means Apple may have no need to give users more RAM. The penalty is that developers are more limited to what they can do in the background.

QBurst Technologies has already starting working on the iPhone OS 4.0’s development kit (SDK). If you wish to know more, do not hesitate to contact us at: bdg@qburst.com

The device is expected to deliver a combined functionality of an iPhone and Mac Book. However, it remains to be seen whether the device is compatible with the existing apps available through the App Store.

The rumors with respect to the price tag is speculated to be around $1000 / £600. Another uncertainty is that the Tablet is said to feature an OLED screen which alone would cost  $400. There are also rumors that iSlate will be available in more than one version, even with an LCD touch screen.