LiveRail Brings Ads Into iPhone Apps (Great.)

LiveRail recently revealed their advertising platform for the iPhone, giving developers the option of adding short commercials to their applications, which would play whenever their app is launched. The positive spin: LiveRail gives developers the chance to monetize their apps without making them charge a premium price - meaning potentially more high-quality, free games and tools for iPhone users. The flipside: more ads, on our screens, all the time. LiveRail also implements a video streaming system that might not sit so well with Apple. As TechCrunch reports:

Apple takes a cut of all premium applications sold through its store, but it absorbs the bandwidth and hosting costs for free applications, charging the developers nothing. If these ads make the one-time payment model obsolete and more applications switch to “Free”, Apple may wind up changing this structure (or even ban ‘intrusive’ advertising entirely).

Developers can tag their apps with keywords to help pair them up with the most relevant ad content, and future versions of the platform will even offer location-based ad options. Watch the video below for more:

TechCrunch: LiveRail Lets iPhone Developers Put Commercials in Apps, Get Paid