Apple launches tool for creating iAd mobile ads

The new iAd Producer is geared toward advertisers and developers who want to design a mobile-ad campaign and offers an alternative to Adobe's Flash for building mobile ads.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer

Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.

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Lance Whitney

Dec. 21, 2010 10:21 a.m. PT

Apple has rolled out a new tool for developers looking to create ads for iAd, the company's mobile-ad platform.

Launched yesterday, the new iAd Producer is designed to help developers create, test, and launch mobile-ad campaigns to run under iAd. Freely available to any paid member of Apple's iOS Developer Program, iAd Producer runs under Mac OS X 10. (No word from Apple on a possible Windows version.)

The software presents a visual design layout in which developers can specify the device they wish to design for and then see how their ad would flow from page to page. Developers can choose from a variety of templates, components, and animations to build their ads. In the final stages, iAd Producer will validate the ad to track down any errors and then optimize the various files that make up the ad.

iAd Producer uses HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript as the technologies behind the ads. Less experienced programmers can stick with the basics to build their ads, while more advanced developers can tap into JavaScript programming and debugging to fine-tune the code behind.

By using HTML5 and CSS3, iAd Producer also offers an alternative to Adobe Flash Professional, which many designers traditionally use to build mobile apps and ads. Apple, which has made no secret of its dislike of Flash, has engaged in a word of words with Adobe over such issues as the use of Flash vs. HTML5 as the standard for rich Web content.