Within minutes of the grand unveiling of Apple Watch last fall, speculation mounted that the greatest new platform for mobile marketing was upon us.
And while we are likely still at least a few months away from Apple Watch going live, no shortage of leading mobile ad exchanges and platforms are gearing up for the opportunities afforded by Apple Watch.
But will Apple Play ball? That’s the burning question of the hour — and one that is being asked more than usual this week following an announcement from TapSense Monday that its plans for Apple Watch may not materialize as expected.
Despite touting what would be the first programmatic ad platform for Apple Watch, TapSense was compelled to temper its enthusiasm just a few days later.
TapSense has now begun to put the brakes on its amply hyped-up ad platform pledges. The firm even revised its formal announcement regarding Apple Watch to make a few things clear. For starters, they won’t be able to directly integrate with Apple Pay as previously suggested. TapSense also won’t be able to put ads directly into watch faces. And lastly, it’s quite possible that Apple’s rules and development policies could prohibit the distribution of ads in any fashion to the wearable device.
So why is TapSense scaling back its stated plans? “It would seem to us that Apple may not be pleased with all the talk of ads coming to Apple Watch,” proposes tech journalist Randy Dhalke of NativeMobile, noting that the “prospect of incessant ads” won’t help sell Apple Watches in the early days of the product’s availability.
According to Dahlke, Apple may prefer “to gradually introduce ads to consumers via Apple Watch, not inundate them right out of the gates.”
“So, in fact,” he says, “TapSense may not need to tap out to pressure from Apple. They may just need to be patient enough to play nicely with Apple’s preferred timeline for making Apple Watch a mobile advertising platform — a reality that seems all but inevitable at some point after the product is released.”
