Apple today announced that starting in September Quattro Wireless will be shut down, allowing the company to focus 100% on iAd instead.
“As of September 30, we will support ads exclusively for the iAd Network,” read a statement posted on the former Quattro home page. Apple said it will no longer accept new campaigns for the ad network and will wind down existing campaigns across different devices and platforms, effectively ceasing the once thriving independent mobile-ad network.
Even though iAd has seen some rough patches since its inception, Apple still has high hopes for the concept. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Apple doesn’t want to invest more time and effort in keeping Quattro running as it did. “I think it all comes down to resources,” said Phuc Truong, who leads mobile marketing efforts in the U.S. for Mobext, the mobile marketing arm of Havas Digital. “Given the focus they’ve chosen, Apple must have a very rosy view of where demand for iAd is going.”
Competing ad-networks can rejoice as well, as Quattro once held a 7% share of the mobile advertising market before its acquisition by Apple in January, and that stake is now up for grabs. “This will create new opportunities for other ad networks, especially for inventory Apple represented on Android devices,” said Boris Fridman, CEO of mobile ad technology provider Crisp Wireless. He suggested mobile publishers have already been looking to switch to other mobile ad networks because of a loss of confidence in Quattro as a cross-platform ad network.