Apple patents method for ad-supported services

Derek Brush (lordbean) Apple has patented a system for subsidized hardware and software which will force users to watch ads by responding to prompts.

November 16, 2009 11:04 AM ET in News,

giantappleApple has recently requested a design patent that can not only display ads on nearly every kind of gadget they make, but could actually force the user to acknowledge they are paying attention.

The new patent describes advertisements with points that require the user to answer questions or a prompt. For devices with no screen, or devices with screens that are not always at immediate attention, an audio alert requiring a button push is also included in the patent request.

The prompts are designed to ensure that the user is paying attention to the advertisement at hand; proposed prompts include requiring entry of the current date, or requesting that the user enter the name of the company whose ad is playing. According to the patent request, this technique will actually freeze the gadget until the user responds to the ad.

Apple rival Microsoft has already begun dabbling with ad-supported software itself. As we previously reported, the firm is aiming to release a stripped-down version of Office that would be supported by ads. However, the user is not required to acknowledge or even click on the ads in Microsoft’s software.

Apple’s technique is certainly more aggressive. While the appeal of inexpensive subsidized gadgets may initially be high, the user may quickly find they cannot tolerate interruptions which lock their device until manually dismissed.

For now, Apple has merely requested the patent; it has not released any official plans to use the technology.

Reality check: The Apple patent very clearly states that the system is for subsidized hardware and software saying, “The presentation of the advertisement(s) can be made as part of an approach where the user obtains a good or service, such as the operating system, for free or at reduced cost.”

Let’s make sure that this story doesn’t turn into a scenario where users are battling adverts after every song on their iPod.

25 Comments:

  1. CB
    16 Nov '09, 4:10 pm

    I don't remember what it was called, but this reminds me of this service I used to use which allowed free long-distance calling, but only if the used first listened to some ads, and correctly answered questions about them. Did anyone else every use that?

  2. TiberiusLazarus
    16 Nov '09, 4:20 pm

    Sounds like a great chance for some "enthusiastic software developers" to get some cheap hardware, and then you know, implement a "superior user experience" into the device.

  3. Cliff_Forster
    16 Nov '09, 4:25 pm

    Talkster was doing something like that for VOIP. I think as long as you maintain option A and option B. If you find the ads intrusive and want to pay for a permanent licence then its a nice option to have.

    I remember going to the Breezewood PA truck station some years ago and the fuel pumps and ATM's played advertisements while you waited to fuel up or get cash. I don't mind edureing the adds if its going to extend me some value as a consumer. I suppose in the case of Breezewood they had allot of overhead to support in a truck stop community, and it was nice to stop there so I'll put up with it as long as it goes back into the product that I am supporting.

  4. AlexDeGruven
    16 Nov '09, 4:53 pm
    Quoting Cliff_Forster

    Talkster was doing something like that for VOIP. I think as long as you maintain option A and option B. If you find the ads intrusive and want to pay for a permanent licence then its a nice option to have.

    I remember going to the Breezewood PA truck station some years ago and the fuel pumps and ATM's played advertisements while you waited to fuel up or get cash. I don't mind edureing the adds if its going to extend me some value as a consumer. I suppose in the case of Breezewood they had allot of overhead to support in a truck stop community, and it was nice to stop there so I'll put up with it as long as it goes back into the product that I am supporting.

    Some Speedway stations here in MI have started doing this. I don't like captive advertising, and have taken note of the ones I come across. I make a point to not visit those stations again.

    Here's the thing: If I want to watch an ad on TV, I can sit there and watch it. If I choose not to, I can get up and leave the room or fast-forward.

    If I'm pumping gas, I'm stuck there for the duration. Safety dictates that I not reenter my vehicle while pumping, which would allow me to avoid the ads. I'm stuck there listening to their ads, whether I choose to look at the screen or not.

    That is bad advertising. Forcing consumers to listen to your message is the quickest way to ensure that they make a point to avoid your message.

    The Apple embedded advertising is, however, different. One chooses to be captive to these ads by paying a lower price. I'm ok with that. I'll gladly forego the discount if it means I don't have to be captive to their ads.

  5. Thrax
    16 Nov '09, 4:56 pm

    Every Speedway station in Michigan will soon feature those screens. They're under contract with Gas Station TV, a company in Oak Park to do it. I used to work for them.

    The same company is also working with Marathon and BP, while competing firms like FuelCast are working on the remaining major chains.

    All gas stations will have these TVs within 10 years; count on it.

  6. CB
    16 Nov '09, 4:59 pm

    In Ohio and Kentucky it's illegal to advertize to a "captive audience". I wonder if that will effect adoption of those GasTVs.

  7. AlexDeGruven
    16 Nov '09, 5:02 pm
    Quoting Thrax

    Every Speedway station in Michigan will soon feature those screens. They're under contract with Gas Station TV, a company in Oak Park to do it. I used to work for them.

    The same company is also working with Marathon and BP, while competing firms like FuelCast are working on the remaining major chains.

    All gas stations will have these TVs within 10 years; count on it.

    So, what you're saying is: I have less than 10 years to move to full-electric vehicles.

    If it came down to the choice of: Be stuck with gas ads, or sell my beloved Camaro. I'd ditch the car.

  8. ardichoke
    16 Nov '09, 6:08 pm
    Quoting AlexDeGruven

    So, what you're saying is: I have less than 10 years to move to full-electric vehicles.

    If it came down to the choice of: Be stuck with gas ads, or sell my beloved Camaro. I'd ditch the car.

    Tesla Roadster is cooler anyway All the stupid ad machines I've seen around Lansing are the audio only ones with a Mute button which I immediately hit.

  9. Cliff_Forster
    16 Nov '09, 6:34 pm

    I sit in the movie theater before the previews and see adds for things, and I don't find it particularly intrusive, but I agree, it can be a little annoying since you already paid for the tickets. I guess it comes down to this. If that revenue is used by the management to build a better business for me to enjoy, I'm down with it. If that advertising enables them to hire one more college kid to mop the sticky stuff off the floor, I'll put up with it.

    Hey, look at Icrontic. There are adds here, they are used to support the community to provide me with a service, I click on em from time to time. Advertising is not inherently evil.

  10. AlexDeGruven
    16 Nov '09, 6:41 pm
    Quoting Cliff_Forster

    I sit in the movie theater before the previews and see adds for things, and I don't find it particularly intrusive, but I agree, it can be a little annoying since you already paid for the tickets. I guess it comes down to this. If that revenue is used by the management to build a better business for me to enjoy, I'm down with it. If that advertising enables them to hire one more college kid to mop the sticky stuff off the floor, I'll put up with it.

    Hey, look at Icrontic. There are adds here, they are used to support the community to provide me with a service, I click on em from time to time. Advertising is not inherently evil.

    You can still choose to not sit through the ads in the movie theater. As I said, the gas pump ads are captive advertising: If you want to pump gas, you must be subjected to the ads.

    I'm all for businesses building revenue via advertising, I turn my adblocker off for Icrontic, even though some of the ads are rather annoying (still not the worst of the bunch by any means, for sure), and a few other sites that I choose to support that way.

    It's not advertising that's the evil thing in bad advertising, it's the implementation, and the lack of respect for their customers that is shown by marketing companies that's the problem.

  11. Snarkasm
    16 Nov '09, 6:41 pm

    Is it so hard to just ignore them? They had them in Wisconsin and Texas too... I just hang out, wait for the gas to finish, and leave. It's literally 6 minutes of your week, max. It's subsidizing keeping the place open 24 hours for your convenience.

    Is everybody's time so important that you would /quit buying gas over 6 minutes a week? Requiring interaction before it dispensed gas, sure. Screw that. But this is passive. You could sit there with headphones on. You could read a newspaper. You could see how far up your ass you could shove your fist. It's just background noise.

  12. Cliff_Forster
    16 Nov '09, 6:46 pm
    Quoting Snarkasm

    Is it so hard to just ignore them? They had them in Wisconsin and Texas too... I just hang out, wait for the gas to finish, and leave. It's literally 6 minutes of your week, max. It's subsidizing keeping the place open 24 hours for your convenience.

    Is everybody's time so important that you would /quit buying gas over 6 minutes a week? Requiring interaction before it dispensed gas, sure. Screw that. But this is passive. You could sit there with headphones on. You could read a newspaper. You could see how far up your ass you could shove your fist. It's just background noise.

    Whenever Snark and I agree it is imperative that I make note.

  13. AlexDeGruven
    16 Nov '09, 6:48 pm
    Quoting Snarkasm

    Is it so hard to just ignore them? They had them in Wisconsin and Texas too... I just hang out, wait for the gas to finish, and leave. It's literally 6 minutes of your week, max. It's subsidizing keeping the place open 24 hours for your convenience.

    Is everybody's time so important that you would /quit buying gas over 6 minutes a week? Requiring interaction before it dispensed gas, sure. Screw that. But this is passive. You could sit there with headphones on. You could read a newspaper. You could see how far up your ass you could shove your fist. It's just background noise.

    It's not about actual damages. Sure, nobody's harmed by the advertising, but it's not that.

    It's about the fact that these companies show so little regard for their paying customers that they'll try and squeeze every single drop of ad dollars they can in any way they see fit.

    Also, my time spent at the pump each week is more on the order of 30-40 minutes, as I have a 90-mile round-trip commute, and fill up quite often.

    I'm much more likely to pay inside, and patronize the store (which is where the real money is) in a venue without the ad players. In a place with the ads, the damage is twofold, as I will refuse to go inside and buy anything else, AND I write that station off as a never-visit-again.

  14. Snarkasm
    16 Nov '09, 7:09 pm

    I hate you break it to you, but guess what - advertising will follow you to the end of your days until the end of time. It's not going anywhere, not in our society.

    Have you ever gotten gas at 2am? Have you considered how the company can afford to keep the lights on and the doors open 24 hours? Maybe when gas was $4 a barrel and everybody was driving SUVs, but what's he supposed to do now?

    I don't envy your outlook. I'm not a huge fan of ads, but if they're passive, don't cost me anything, and make somebody else a couple bucks, what does it matter to me?

    :shrug:

  15. AlexDeGruven
    16 Nov '09, 7:16 pm
    Quoting Snarkasm

    I hate you break it to you, but guess what - advertising will follow you to the end of your days until the end of time. It's not going anywhere, not in our society.

    Have you ever gotten gas at 2am? Have you considered how the company can afford to keep the lights on and the doors open 24 hours? Maybe when gas was $4 a barrel and everybody was driving SUVs, but what's he supposed to do now?

    I don't envy your outlook. I'm not a huge fan of ads, but if they're passive, don't cost me anything, and make somebody else a couple bucks, what does it matter to me?

    :shrug:

    As I said, I don't hate advertising itself. I hate certain implementations of it. The gas-station TVs is the one I hate the most because you're essentially captive.

  16. Butters
    16 Nov '09, 7:52 pm

    I wouldn't consider filling up gas with your back turned to the ad as being captive. I think a movie theater as being a little more captive since it can be a pain in the ass to leave your seat and walk out out of the theater. Depending on how loud the ad at the pump is, yes it can be annoying, but I'd just leave it at that. You could clean out your car, look at your phone, clean windows, calculate your MPG, or stretch all while filling up and only be an earshot of the ads. I don't see this as being that big of a deal and sometimes ads can be mildly entertaining unless you've seen the same thing a million times.

  17. primesuspect
    16 Nov '09, 8:39 pm

    I actually don't have a problem with the gas station TV thing. I DO have a problem with movie theater advertising. You're already paying out the ass to see a movie and being absolutely EXTORTED at the concessions stand, the last thing I want after paying $30 to see a movie with my kids is to see ads for Coca-cola. That pisses me off and crosses a line. I've already paid my dues.

  18. Butters
    16 Nov '09, 9:02 pm
    Quoting primesuspect

    I actually don't have a problem with the gas station TV thing. I DO have a problem with movie theater advertising. You're already paying out the ass to see a movie and being absolutely EXTORTED at the concessions stand, the last thing I want after paying $30 to see a movie with my kids is to see ads for Coca-cola. That pisses me off and crosses a line. I've already paid my dues.

    I could only imagine sitting in the theater with kids and then a Candy or Popcorn ad comes on with Batman or whatever for the theaters own concessions. Then your kids are now crying because they want popcorn and candy right before the movie starts. What can you do?

  19. Timu-chan
    16 Nov '09, 9:05 pm

    Did anyone else notice how ridiculous the idea of patenting this idea even is? I think its time for reform on software patents, I'm getting tired of reading law-suites over who invented the plugin or how using OSX on non-mac hardware is a breach of the DMCA anti-circumvention laws.

    My point is, software patents are so incredibly cheap in that you can write something as simple as "a means for extending a program" and then proceed to sue anyone in the future that ever develops software with plugin support.

    Anyone have thoughts on this?

  20. primesuspect
    16 Nov '09, 9:11 pm
    Quoting Butters

    I could only imagine sitting in the theater with kids and then a Candy or Popcorn ad comes on with Batman or whatever for the theaters own concessions. Then your kids are now crying because they want popcorn and candy right before the movie starts. What can you do?

    heh, I do what most people should do:

    "Nope. It's too expensive. Deal with it."

  21. Thrax
    16 Nov '09, 9:16 pm

    ^ You tell them to gtfover it.

  22. Cliff_Forster
    16 Nov '09, 9:58 pm
    Quoting Timu-chan

    Did anyone else notice how ridiculous the idea of patenting this idea even is? I think its time for reform on software patents, I'm getting tired of reading law-suites over who invented the plugin or how using OSX on non-mac hardware is a breach of the DMCA anti-circumvention laws.

    My point is, software patents are so incredibly cheap in that you can write something as simple as "a means for extending a program" and then proceed to sue anyone in the future that ever develops software with plugin support.

    Anyone have thoughts on this?

    I fundamentally agree. Its the world we live in.

  23. CB
    16 Nov '09, 11:16 pm
    Quoting primesuspect

    I actually don't have a problem with the gas station TV thing. I DO have a problem with movie theater advertising. You're already paying out the ass to see a movie and being absolutely EXTORTED at the concessions stand, the last thing I want after paying $30 to see a movie with my kids is to see ads for Coca-cola. That pisses me off and crosses a line. I've already paid my dues.

    This is why they are not allowed to play unrelated ads after the movie start time around here. You'll see movie previews and stuff, but if your ticket says 8pm, then the Coke and Chevy ads have to stop at 8pm.

  24. ardichoke
    17 Nov '09, 12:43 am
    Quoting Timu-chan

    Did anyone else notice how ridiculous the idea of patenting this idea even is? I think its time for reform on software patents, I'm getting tired of reading law-suites over who invented the plugin or how using OSX on non-mac hardware is a breach of the DMCA anti-circumvention laws.

    My point is, software patents are so incredibly cheap in that you can write something as simple as "a means for extending a program" and then proceed to sue anyone in the future that ever develops software with plugin support.

    Anyone have thoughts on this?

    I wholeheartedly agree. You shouldn't be able to patent a concept in the first place. Sure, I agree that you should be able to patent your particular implementation, but if someone else does a similar thing without ripping your work off, to quote Thrax out of context, gtfover it.

  25. AlexDeGruven
    17 Nov '09, 2:07 pm
    Quoting Butters

    I wouldn't consider filling up gas with your back turned to the ad as being captive. I think a movie theater as being a little more captive since it can be a pain in the ass to leave your seat and walk out out of the theater. Depending on how loud the ad at the pump is, yes it can be annoying, but I'd just leave it at that. You could clean out your car, look at your phone, clean windows, calculate your MPG, or stretch all while filling up and only be an earshot of the ads. I don't see this as being that big of a deal and sometimes ads can be mildly entertaining unless you've seen the same thing a million times.

    The image is not the problem, it's the volume of the message. You can turn your back all you want, but you're still being bombarded with the ads. The only real refuge would be to re-enter your vehicle which is dangerous, hence the feeling of being captive.

    If the ads were actually entertaining or informative, I might actually detest them a little bit less. But unfortunately for us, they don't seem to want to spend real marketing dollars and scrape the bottom of the barrel for writing and production. So at minimum, 4 times/week, I'm stuck listening to inane drivel and pseudo-news bits about how the federal government has given Joe's Mortgage Shack $100M to help me refinance my mortgage.

    I'm the opposite of Prime in that I don't mind the ads in a movie so much partially because I know I can get up and go have a piss if I want to avoid them. And in our local theaters, at least, the ads are primarily for local businesses, who I prefer to support, anyway. Since my kids aren't old enough to go to movies yet, really, I don't have the same problems that people with tweens and teens do.

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