Forbes: The new iPad will change the online advertising landscape

On March 8, 2012, the online version of Forbes magazine published a commentary article saying that with a clearer screen, faster network and running speed, Apple's new generation iPad will revolutionize online advertising.

The following is the main content of the article:

Since the first iPad was launched two years ago, advertisers have been talking about the potential of tablets as a new advertising platform. They want to run not only banner ads and mobile ads on tablets, but also magazine-style content-rich ads and even TV-style ads that will consume a lot of advertising budgets. Jason Baptiste, CEO of Onswipe, a tablet content publishing and advertising platform company, said, "Tablets are modern TVs, which perfectly combine the sophistication of print and the scale of the Internet."

But revenue from tablet advertising is modest to this day, as advertisers haven’t adapted to a medium that didn’t exist a year or two ago. “Mobile advertising hasn’t gotten its fair share of ad budgets, especially on tablets, because it lacks the same standards that print and online advertising have,” said Rex Briggs, CEO of marketing analytics firm Marketing Evolution.

Today, however, a new iPad was announced, and will be available on March 16. It has the potential to change the entire advertising landscape. The new version is not very different from the previous two generations of iPad, so it is unlikely to change the landscape of this nascent market on its own, at least not yet. But there are several new features in the new iPad that are likely to accelerate the development of tablet advertising this year.

Better screen

The iPad's screen is the right size for a magazine, and with a display better than an HDTV, it opens up even more possibilities for ad formats. Suddenly, traditional magazine ads and TV ads become attractive for the first time on a computing device. Baptiste said Onswipe's analysis shows that tablet ads, even if they are just remade versions of magazine ads, can have an engagement rate 100 times that of banner ads.

Advertisers can run colorful brand ads on iPad, which has never been done well on PC, because PC is not as comfortable as iPad touch. On PC, you have to click on the ad to see or run it, while on iPad, you can open the ad with just a touch or swipe, which is a world of difference. In addition, the advertising format of tablets will allow you to see more ads than any size PC, because unlike most banner ads, they can usually display ads on the entire page like magazines.

So far, advertisers have not fully exploited the advertising possibilities of tablets. Although standard ads in digital form will be familiar to readers, this also means that they are much less likely to be ignored. One survey last year found that people were 59% more likely to buy after seeing iPad ads than after seeing print ads.

Faster network and operation speed

The new iPad is faster. It supports 4G networks and has a processor that's twice as fast. Both are critical, especially for the new interactive ads that advertisers are starting to adopt. Baptiste said that with the faster iPad, Onswipe has recently asked publishers and advertisers to submit high-definition versions of print ads because now they will run quickly on the iPad and won't be annoying for readers.

In addition, video ads will become more feasible, people will not have to wait for them to load, and they also provide more options for traditional brand promotion. "A lot of advertisers are trying to make ads that look like print versions, but can be played like TV ads when touched," said Tony Nethercutt, general manager of North America for mobile ad network Mojiva.

Faster networks and higher bandwidth pave the way for advertisers to offer more interactive ads. So far, I haven't seen particularly convincing examples, but that's because advertisers and ad agencies haven't adapted to the rapid popularity of tablets. They're not sure what to do, so they're tightening their spending on tablet ads. Briggs said, "That's a mistake. Advertisers should prioritize targeting the tablet platform."

Lowering the price of older iPads

The new iPad allows Apple to lower the price of the old iPad. The iPad 2 now starts at just $399, which for many people is more attractive than any amazing new features, and it means that tablets will be in the hands of more people. Finally, brands with big advertising budgets will be able to target a wider audience. Apple's mobile device users are already staggering, with cumulative iOS device sales reaching 172 million units, and 62 million in the last three months of 2011 alone. If this trend accelerates further, which seems likely at this point, tablets will become the next big advertising medium that advertisers can't ignore.