If latest news are to be believed, another merger is in order; Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) has joined hands with Rubicon Project to work on its advertising unit. Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) wishes to move its ad unit iAd towards programmatic advertising. This shift of focus and strategy quite evidently points to efforts being made on Apple (NASDAQ:APPL)’s part to expand the operations of its small advertising business, so that it is fit to rival other competitors in the market, such as advertisement campaigns being run by Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). iAd has been in the market for four years now, but has been operating as a small unit.

Rubicon Project has released a statement on selected platforms on Tuesday, which circles around the idea of advertising on several mobile apps that come under Apple (NASDAQ:APPL)’s banner. Rubicon become a partner in this deal and supports by providing a platform that hosts direct command automation, accessible to all brands. This will work on global levels and enable buying and selling of iAd portfolio.

The advertisers who wished to approach Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) iTunes’s 600 million users through iAd had to depend on the iAd sales team, to purchase ads. This new strategy will automate the whole process and in turn speeds up the whole procedures and lets a buyer book ads through an online portal. Furthermore, buyers will have the choice of bidding on where their ads should be posted on apps and websites.

Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) has been quite restrictive of sharing its data with third part contractors in the past. However, with this latest partnership, it is quite evident that Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) has a more open approach to sharing its data with other suppliers. Most ad portals who host direct registration services for potential buyers find reclusive of the idea to share data with any other platform. This is due to the fact that this enable companies to have a closer study of type of buyers and then target them accordingly.

However, against its wishes, Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) had to widen the horizon due to criticism received from advertisers that the tech giant has been allusive about users data bank, that leaved advertisers a little vague of who their target audience is.

Rubicon Projects coins itself as a pioneer in the field of automated advertising, and have enabled customers to buy and sell ad spaces by participating in real-time auctions. This service is called RTB and contains several functional layers of advanced programming.

iAd was targeted to capture 50% of advertisement market on mobile platforms, as projected by Steve Jobs in 2010. However, it is still behind by quite a margin and has succeeded in capturing only 2.6% of the e-Market in mobiles subscribed to, in US.

Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) is hopeful that this partnership is bound to help the tech giant with furthering its ads business to get a bigger market share in mobile advertising.

The company has engaged in several ads and it does seem that Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) is looking to expand iAd.

Get Free Updates and Stock Alerts!

*We only send one email per week