Technology

What's Up With Apple: Advertisers Organize, Amazon Drops Price on Mini, Apple Pay

Paul Ausick

Published: February 19, 2021 8:20 am

While Facebook may be the poster child opposing Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) planned ad-tracking feature, marketing firm Liftoff is forming an alliance of marketing and advertising firms to add their voices related to the roll-out of Apple’s Ad Transparency Tracker in the coming iOS 14.5 operating system update. The alliance includes Liftoff, Chartboost, Fyber, InMobi, Singular and Vungle and has created a website, No IDFA? No Problem, to explain what Apple is doing and what ad platforms can do to meet this challenge to their businesses.

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Unlike the public relations defense mounted by Facebook, Liftoff vice president of marketing Dennis Mink said the alliance will focus on how to live with Apple’s new rules: “With expertise from supply-side, demand-side, and measurement, we aim to ensure a smooth and successful transition into this new era, with the assurance that marketing can and will continue to be just as effective on iOS in this more privacy-centric manner.”

Liftoff noted that it has been preparing for the change by buying “large amounts” of limited ad tracking to train its machine-learning software to find high-quality consumers without relying on the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) program that Apple’s software has been designed to override. Limited ad tracking (LAT to the cognoscenti) metrics are not as all-encompassing as IDFA tracking and, therefore, presumably less expensive.

Implied in the alliance’s approach is a rejection of Facebook’s confrontational PR approach. None of these ad firms want to get in a scrum with the world’s most valuable company. Facebook can afford to do so and, in fact, must do what it can to protect its top line. If LAT does not yield the same revenue as full tracking, then Facebook makes less revenue and less profit.

Amazon is currently selling Apple’s Mac Mini for an all-time low price of $599.99, compared to a list price of $699. Amazon had been selling the Mini for $669. The new low price includes the Mini with 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of solid-state (flash) storage and Apple’s own M1 CPU. The Mini does not include a display, keyboard or mouse.

What makes this such a good buy, according to Engadget, is that the new M1-equipped Mini “has the chops to outperform Intel and AMD’s tech.”

Coming soon to an iPhone or Apple Watch near you (if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area) is the transit authority’s Clipper card. Apple is preparing to integrate a mass transit Clipper card with your Apple device and use Apple Pay on your iPhone or Watch to pay for your ride by just tapping the device. No Face ID, Touch ID, vending machine or card reader.

Apple Pay will work with all 24 agencies that currently accept the Clipper card. These include BART, Caltrain and the Golden Gate Ferry. If you live in the Bay Area and want to be notified when the service will be available, Apple has a website where you can sign up to be notified.