I really have to wonder what some advertising companies are thinking when they come up with ideas like this one:


Looks like it already blew up in one developers face when he updated his app with it.

I wouldn't want to use a program that did this but I can see how the developer wouldn't care about annoying people they aren't making any money from anyway.

If you really want annoying try the ad supported version of Angry Birds.

You've got that right. The utter morons who developed that game decided that putting ads in the bottom-right corner, where they only covered the ground wasn't enough. Instead, they decided to cover the top-right of the screen, which most of the time BLOCKS ACTUAL GAMEPLAY. Friggin idiots.

The problem with the strategy of shifting to a more annoying system is that it may lead to a vocal minority starting enough of a review revolt to push users away who would have otherwise not been bothered by the ads. A modern developer looking to make some money off mobile apps needs to do more then just be a programmer. They also need to know how to market, or at least be able to have enough good reviews to bring in more users. More users means more income, be it for a paid app, or a free with ads app. If the app starts off successful, then does something to annoy users, it's worse then doing the annoying part at the beginning before the app had any traction.

Google has been very successful with ads due to their great balance between providing enough enticing features for free, while serving revenue generating ads that aren't annoying enough to detract from the free benefits. For example, I can't see Google moving to a model where they force users to watch or look at an ad before logging into GMail or when running searches. They do however go for that strategy in video, as users are already more accustom to that kind of ad with video content.

Angry Birds managed to also do well by generating a ton of hype from their paid iOS version, then going for an ad supported version on Android. Had they not been successful on iOS, I doubt they would have been as successful on Android based on how annoying the ads are.

Seems the behavior of putting ads in the notification area caused enough users to flag the app as malware, thinking something was wrong. Or enough users were upset that they intentionally did this to have it pulled down, a fate far worse then just receiving a bunch of one star reviews.

A solution that places ads onto a system while the app is not being used will not fly with any customers. This AirPush solution is going down in flames.