Apple, with unusually little fanfare, has released iAd Producer, a self-service development tool for Apple's mobile advertising space. Ad agencies can now create their own ads for use with the iPhone, iPod touch and, soon enough, the iPad. This should significantly speed the process of advertising deployment on these platforms, meaning more money to app developers, faster.
iAd Producer also opens the platform a little bit, something rival Android has used to lure developers away from Apple. Android is growing rapidly, increasing market share by about six points from July to October, 2010, according to comScore. This is alluring to developers, who have had a much easier time getting their applications - and advertisements - published on the open system, compared to Apple's notoriously scrutinized and comparatively closed environment. What remains to be seen with iAd Producer is if the approval process keeps pace with the open submission environment.