David McManus says Apple makes blatant move to monopolise marketing

Figures show that we are browsing the web on mobile devices more than ever.

The huge smartphones that many of us now carry were initially derided for looking absurd when held against the head, even though making actual calls on them is a minor part of their usage.

Those larger screens mean we can now more comfortably peruse our favourite sites wherever we are and that has major appeal.

In reality, however, the experience of using the mobile web can fall some way short of a fully pleasurable experience because of the poor placement and irritating persistence of obtrusive advertising.

If we are ever annoyed by a flashing ad on a full-size computer screen, that annoyance is amplified when the content takes up most of our mobile screen, and often even prevents us from being able to read what we are there for.

Modern websites also contain huge amounts of tracking code that gets loaded behind the scenes.

The new trend in responsive design – a technique that lets sites deliver exactly the same code to any size of screen – means that even on a smartphone we are still downloading much of the same data as we would on a desktop.

We may not care when the data is being delivered over our wifi, but once you wander away from home that data is instead delivered over phone networks, which costs money.

Software that blocks adverts has been available on desktops for a decade or more, and its use has steadily increased over time.

Naturally, this is bad news for web content providers as the majority of operating costs are paid for through advertising revenue.

Until now that revenue has been relatively protected on mobile devices, where advert blocking is much less prevalent – but that is all set to change.

Apple has added functionality to its next version of iOS on iPhones to allow third party companies to create software that will cut out the advertising on the phone’s Safari browser.

Just as with other things the company does, it is by no means the first to make this possible – Android phones can already do it easily – but the popularity and ease of use of the iPhone could see blocking software really take off on mobile devices.

The mobile advertising networks are in a state of panic over Apple’s move and many, as you might expect, are crying foul.

Aside from the possible impact this will have on the ability for many sites to stay afloat, there is a more sinister concern that Apple is going to find hard to counter.

At the same time it is introducing ad blocking to iOS, the company is also rolling out its News app, allowing websites to send their content to Apple so it can appear in a specially-curated single location.

The News app will carry advertising provided by Apple’s own iAds platform, which will be immune to blocking.

It’s a pretty blatant move which could see Apple dragged before various monopoly boards around the world.

Google will likely have plenty to say, their entire business is based around selling ads online – this move will hit that model directly.