Dear Apple: plan on iPhone OS 4 getting jailbroken because of the iAd system

Apple just announced their new iPhone 4.0 OS will come embedded with a new addition called iAd.

According to Macintouch, “a new “iAd” advertising system that Apple is building into OS 4 for in-app HTML5 ads with “emotion + interactivity” to the tune of 1 billion ad impressions per day.”

What? Seriously?

The idea behind this, according to the story on Engadget, is “…to keep users in the apps to see interactive, “emotional” ad content as often as once every three minutes — not to “yank” them out… — while developers are rewarded with a 60 percent cut of the revenue.”

Do I mind developers getting money? Absolutely not! That’s why I have paid for 100% of the apps on my iPhone. Every single icon has a receipt from either iTunes, Rock or Cydia.

Which is exactly why I have a tremendous problem with the iAd being implemented in the core iPhone 4.0 system.

I paid for the iPhone device, I pay for cellular and data service to the iPhone, and I paid for every app on the iPhone. Why, exactly, am I going to see ads on this device? Why should the bandwidth I am paying for be diverted to the downloads of advertisements I do not want to see? What more do I need to support since I already will have paid for the device itself, the service it runs on and any apps I wanted?

The iAd is nothing more than a overt cash grab by Apple. Saying the developers will be “rewarded” with “60%” for their work is just a diversion from the remaining 40% Apple will drop straight to their bottom line.

Apple has an interesting use of the word “rewarded” in their press release. The developers invested their own time and money to make the apps in the first place, so shouldn’t they get something along the lines of 80% of the iAd revenue for their work? 70% even? “Rewarding” them with little more than half of the income they will get from people using their product is a touch greedy.

I bet the iPhone 4.0 OS will be jailbroken soon after it will be released to disable the iAd system. You watch.

Besides, the iPhone 4.0 is just catching up to what I have already been able to do with my first generation iPhone that’s been jailbroken for over a year!

  • User-defined wallpaper? Got it. (Winterboard)
  • Multitasking? Got it. (Backgrounder)
  • Spell check? Got it. (Inspell)
  • Folder filing? Got it. (Categories)
  • Video Recording? Got it. (Cycorder)
  • Book sync? Got it. (Kindle, Stanza & eReader)

Plus, my iPhone has things the 4.0 OS still doesn’t!

  • Terminal access to the root of the device and to outside sources.
  • Firewall for controlling what apps can access the network
  • Custom lockscreen(s) with upcoming appointment information and weather stats
  • Printing through Bluetooth or WiFi
  • File transfers through bluetooth
  • Google Voice
  • Grooveshark
  • Custom animated backgrounds, ringtones, and custom icon sets.
  • Custom routing of calls based on CallerID
  • Custom fonts throughout the device
  • Full icon control (5 x 5 layout on an infinite-scrolling page)

Apple also announced the iPhone 4.0 OS won’t run on my first generation device, which is perfectly fine with me since I already have all of the 4.0 benefits without any of the wasteful overhead.

So thanks, Apple, but I’ll pass on the cash grab.

Imagine how far ahead of the game Apple would be if it actually had the nerve to truly open the iPhone to all 3rd party developers. Opening the app store to all the jailbreak apps on Cydia and Rock would not only give them a much higher income source than anything the iAd would generate, but also push their marketshare far, far ahead of the newcomers.