What is "iad"

iAd was a mobile advertising platform developed by Apple Inc. for its iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad line of mobile devices allowing third-party developers to directly embed advertisements into their applications. Announced on April 8, 2010, iAd is part of Apple's iOS 4, originally slated for release on June 21, 2010, the actual date was changed to July 1, 2010. iAd was announced at Apple's June 7, 2010 keynote, with an iPad version appearing in the fall. Hosted and sold by Apple, the iAd platform is expected to compete with Google's AdMob mobile advertising service.

Similar to AdMob, iAd facilitates integrating advertisements into applications sold on the iOS App Store. If the user taps on an iAd banner, a full-screen advertisement appears within the application, unlike other ads that send the user into the Safari web browser. Ads are promised to be more interactive than on other advertising services, and users will able to close them at any time, returning to where they left their app. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs initially indicated that Apple would retain 40% of the ad revenue, in line with what he called "industry standard", with the other 60% going to the developers. The amount paid to developers has since been increased to 70%. iAd is expected to benefit free applications as well. The iAd App Network was discontinued as of June 30, 2016.