The tech giant has now patented a tool that would display advertisements based on how much money a user has.
Reports are now showing that Apple has patented a new tool that would make it possible for mobile ads to display only products and services that should be considered affordable to the individual user of that device, according to their own banks.
This mobile marketing strategy would target people based on their incomes and credit card balances.
It is already common practice for marketers to obtain information about the kinds of products that smartphone and tablet users have the greatest likelihood of purchasing based on the sites that they visit and other interactions that they have with their devices. Physical location, gender, and age can all play an important role in decision making when it comes to the types of products and services that you will buy, and they will also impact the kinds of ads that will be displayed on your device screen. However, this type of information could soon have an even larger influence on the mobile ads that you are seeing than has been the case in the past.
The idea is that the mobile ads won’t just be for the types of things that we want, but for what we can actually afford.
After all, if someone has a budget of $100 available to them, then serving them a mobile advertisement for a $900 outfit won’t do anyone all that much good; not the consumer and not the advertiser.
Now, Apple has received a U.S. patent in order to try to repair this issue. They intend to do this by checking into the credit card balance of a user in order to be able to display mobile marketing that is more appropriate to their available funds. The description and illustration of the patent that was granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, described it as a “method and system for targeted advertising of goods and services to users of mobile terminals.”
It looks as though it would have to be an opt-in program (though that is not necessarily confirmed), to ensure that those individuals will be shown mobile ads only for products and services that they will be able to afford, based on their own banking information.
