Marketers who want iAds on Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad may pay about $1 million, compared with up to $200,000 for typical mobile ads. But unlike typical ads, Apple’s iAd keeps the ad viewer in a mobile app rather than having to navigate back. For $1 million, Apple plans high-quality interesting ads that may qualify as entertainment.

Apple is looking to charge advertisers about $1 million to put their marketing messages on iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads — and maybe more to be first in line to leverage the unprecedented opportunity.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Apple is getting ready to promote its mobile-advertising play. The paper said Apple could charge as much as $10 million to be one of the few marketers that get to push ads over the devices at the launch of iAd, Apple’s in-app advertising platform. The typical cost is between $100,000 and $200,000, making the iAd platform the premium advertising product for mobile devices.

“This is an audacious and risky move for Apple,” said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. “Still, some advertisers will line up to be a part of the initial wave of iAd advertisers.”

High-Quality Advertising

Apple introduced iAd earlier this month. Apple said its new mobile advertising platform combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads. When users click on mobile ads now, they are almost always taken out of their app to a web browser, which loads the advertiser’s web page. Users must then navigate back to their app, and it can be difficult to return to exactly where they left.

Apple said iAd solves this problem by displaying full-screen video Relevant Products/Services and interactive ad content without ever leaving the app, and letting users return to their app anytime they choose. iAd works with iPhone OS 4.0, which lets developers embed mobile advertising within their apps. The ads are dynamically and wirelessly delivered to the device. Apple will sell and serve the ads, and developers will receive 60 percent of iAd revenue.

Forrester Analyst Julie Ask says Apple remains supportive of the developer community with the revenue splits. Beyond developers, she added, Apple is continuing its focus on the consumer experience.

“They are looking to protect the quality of the user experience by controlling the ad experience,” Ask wrote in her blog. “Steve [Jobs] has raised the bar on quality of mobile ads by keeping consumers within their existing application or experience. He anticipates that the ads will be engaging enough to be considered entertainment.”

Pennies Add Up

Advertisers will pay a penny each time a consumer views a banner ad, according to the Journal. It will cost advertisers more — $2 an impression — if a user taps on the banner and causes the ad to pop up.

The price is high, but the possibilities to reach a targeted audience of technology enthusiasts may be worth the price for some advertisers, as Sterling noted. Apple has sold 85 million iPhone and iPod touches, and ad-targeting technology will allow brand marketers to put their messages in front of people who are most likely to be interested in their products. The ads will be served based on a user’s iTunes preferences, according to the Journal.

Just days after the first unveiling of Apple’s iPad, some of the big players in the entertainment and mobile industry have thrown in their 2 cents worth on the device.

Satura Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo, criticized the iPad. He called the iPad “just a bigger iPod Touch”. He also stabbed Apple for not delivering anything new or innovative – after all, the iPad is just a combination of a tablet, an iPod and an ebook reader. This especially rings true as the iPad runs the same operating system as the iPhone, and is a lot less functional when compared to a laptop despite its decent specs.

Also in the gaming industry, Sega seemed very interested in the iPad, citing that such a technology can have a huge impact in the context of gaming possibilities. They were immensely successful with their Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone and is not about to let similar opportunities slip through their fingers.

Another major iPhone games developer, Tapulous, popular for their Tap Tap Revenge game, believes that the iPad will build upon the success of the iPod and iPhone. CEO Bart Decrem foresees the increasing presence of the iPhone OS in mobile devices and that it may be a start of a big shift towards mobile gaming on the operating system.

Bolt Creative, on the other hand, have a different opinion altogether. Despite having the best selling paid iPhone app on the market to date (Pocket God), they’ve expressed their disappointment on the device. They claimed that the multi-touch still have problems that prevented it from becoming a more robust gaming platform and that the iPad will most likely not have as big an impact on the gaming industry as the iPhone did.

Nokia too, had a problem with the iPad. Or to be more precise, Mark Squires, the head of Nokia’s Social Media was taken aback when he heard that Apple had claimed to be the biggest manufacturer of mobile devices. The current accepted usage for mobile devices does not include laptop and netbook, which was calculated in by Apple when they made the bold claim. In reality, Nokia still holds the title and no one is coming close at second at the moment.

Russ Wilcox, CEO of E-Ink, commented that dedicated e-readers will outsell the iPad, simply because there are many other readers out there that can outperform the iPad in its task.

Netflix did not really provide any direct comment relating to the iPad, saying that it’s not their priorities to bring their services to mobile devices yet. However, he did mention that they were looking forward to releasing an app for the iPhone. And if iPhone can run it, so can iPad.

The iPad was generally received well by most, especially in the gaming industry. However, it doesn’t seem to favour well with the rest. Just how well will the iPad perform?

We’ll have to find out come launch day…