Interesting news being reported by TechCrunch today: according to an article by Sarah Perez, Apple is now rejecting apps that are using HTML5 cookie tracking from the App Store. While this may come as a surprise to some, the good news is that over time, the marketplace has developed multiple solutions to mobile ad tracking on iOS.

The confusing ecosystem for marketing attribution in iOS has long been a challenge for app marketers. Back in August of 2011, when Apple first announced that they were deprecating UDIDs, there was considerable concern among marketers. How would they track their marketing results? In the short term, multiple options emerged and gained prominence, including MAC address, digital fingerprinting, HTML5 cookies, Facebook's newly introduced tracking method, and more. In addition, UDIDs remained the dominant tracking choice for many marketers, although the transition to Apple's preferred Advertising Identifier is now well underway.

There are many trade-offs among these options, including accuracy, privacy concerns, user experience, and acceptance by consumers, ad networks, developers, and Apple. At Fiksu, our long-term recommendation has been that the best approach is to support multiple types of marketing attribution – and that is in fact what our SDK provides. There are three essential reasons for this:

• Future-proofing. Flexibility to use multiple types of tracking lets you adapt to changing market conditions, whether they come as new guidelines from Apple, changing consumer preferences, or new sources or advertising inventory, essentially future-proofing your app marketing strategy. In fact, the Fiksu SDK can simply and remotely disable most tracking methods that our clients choose to move away from.
• Broadest reach. Different mobile traffic sources use different tracking technologies, and there's no way to know which sources will perform best for your app marketing needs until you try them. Accessing all the best sources requires supporting multiple tracking systems. And Fiksu's Platform provides the ability to track and report and all of our clients' campaigns, including those they run independently, such as email, QR codes, social, and more.
• Optimal performance.  By supporting the maximum number of traffic sources, marketers are assured of always being able to work with the sources that drive he most effective cost per loyal user.

The picture isn't settled

It is important to note that there is no evidence – yet – that this is a unilateral action by Apple. Fiksu is aware of a couple of instances of very popular apps that have been rejected by Apple because of HTML5 cookie tracking. On the other hand, we're aware of at least 10 apps that use HTML5 tracking being approved by Apple in the last month, including a couple in the last few days, so it doesn't seem to be a comprehensive rejection – or if it is, it's very new.

So the situation remains unclear. While there have been some rejections, HTML 5 tracking remains a  viable and well-functioning form of marketing attribution for many app developers – one that closely mimics the long-established desktop standard for 1^st  party cookies. The key for app marketers is to support HTML5 tracking along with all other forms of attribution in case there are additional changes in the ecosystem.

While there's been no official comment from Apple about this situation, there are a couple of reasons Apple might chose to eliminate HTML5 cookie tracking.

1.The user experience of the "flip" – a brief switch to Safari to load the cookie, then back to the app – might not fit with Apple's vision of the iOS experience.

2.Having introduced the Advertising Identifier last fall, Apple could be eager to speed its adoption.

For more on the relative strengths and weakness of the various tracking technologies, read our ebook How Mobile Ad Tracking Impacts App Marketing Results. Fiksu is also offering a webinar on March 7 titled, "App Marketer's Tracking Dilemma: How your ad tracking choices will impact ROI." Learn more or register. 

It’s no secret that the UDID has been a topic of controversy in recent weeks. Recent reports that Apple is rejecting some apps that utilize the UDID have generated significant levels of confusion and debate. Exacerbating matters are conflicting reports and escalating rumors of what apps Apple is or is not approving leaving app developers and marketers struggling to answer the question of how best to grow their business in the face of UDID deprecation.

Our goal in this post is to fill you in on what the current situation is – what is known fact, what is rumor, and finally, to answer the question: “what’s an app marketer to do?” as our industry progresses beyond the UDID.

The Situation

Apple announced its plans to deprecate (retire) the UDID last August. Based on past Apple history, many in the industry interpreted this as an early warning, so UDID alternatives have not progressed much until recently. It now appears that Apple is increasingly utilizing the app approval process to influence UDID usage and how such usage is communicated to consumers.

The difficulty for developers is knowing what is and is not acceptable to Apple relative to UDIDs.

Kim-Mai Cutler of TechCrunch, who originally broke the news, about apps being rejected clarified what is acceptable in a subsequent posting. She cited the current confusion in the market, and provided an example of an actual rejection, in which Apple cites the use of UDIDs without disclosure as the cause for the rejection. She further notes that some apps are still getting through the approval process, even if they access UDIDs. “The distinction is that they need to disclose this fact to users and ask for permission.”

Getting Apps Approved  - Strategies for Success

In fact, most apps accessing UDIDs are still being accepted. What we’ve heard from our Fiksu clients, the media, and others in the industry is that apps that disclose the use of UDIDs to the user, provide opt-outs, and encrypt UDIDs are currently receiving approval. In addition, app developers are increasingly providing more comprehensive privacy policies and providing URLs to that policy in their app store landing pages. This lets consumers more easily review the privacy policy prior to downloading apps.

Flurry has also done a similar client audit, and VP of marketing, Peter Farago, was quoted as saying, “There is literally not one developer’s app that we could find that had a rejection due to UDID alone.”

So What Does This Mean for Mobile App Marketers?

It’s increasingly clear that the UDID is on its way out. What’s not yet clear is the exact timeline for elimination, which technologies are going to replace it and which will receive widest adoption. As such, savvy marketers need to manage multiple technologies during this difficult transitional stage.

Here is a review of the major technologies currently being proposed in the market:

• HTML5 1^st Party Cookie Tracking: This technique tracks ad performance by setting the Safari equivalent of a first party cookie. This results in accurate ad attribution with no room for ambiguity. Cookies are not device identifiers and cannot be shared with other apps. This method has the advantage of being the mobile equivalent of a commonly used and widely accepted web tracking solution, and does a good job of balancing the need for ad performance attribution with user privacy. Because it provides a direct link between clicks, installs and post-install events, it is well-suited for identifying ad sources that attract loyal users. Its major drawback is a redirect to a Safari page on the first launch of the app, which shows up as a short animated flash. It should also be noted that such an experience may be branded and integrated into the user experience. Cookie tracking is an effective solution for those focused on getting the best quality attribution for measuring ROI on media spend.
• Digital Fingerprinting: This technology matches attributes such as a user’s IP address, OS level and other data to “fingerprint” the user and statistically estimate conversions. For example, if a particular IP address clicks on an ad for an app, and then the same IP address creates an install of that app 60 seconds later, chances are good the user who clicked and the user who installed the app are one and the same. Where this gets tricky is that the data points used are not unique and can change, so there can be errors. Though this method works well for tracking simple conversions, it is not sufficiently reliable for tracking post-install events, which are critical to identifying ad sources that generate high quality, loyal users.
• MAC Address Tracking: A number of ad networks have viewed substituting the UDID with another unique identifier tied to the hardware device, the MAC Address. Some variants encrypt the address or use it as a key. The major benefit of this method is that it requires minimal change to existing infrastructure – MAC Addresses are handled in a similar manner to UDIDs. Many in the market believe that MAC Addresses carry similar privacy issues as the UDID and thus are not viewed as a long-term solution.
• OpenUDID and SecureUDID: These are technologies that offer open source implementations, a unique id, and the promise of an explicit opt-out for users. These implementations utilize the device copy/paste buffer as the location for storing this ID. Since the copy/paste buffer wasn’t intended for long-term storage, there is concern that this method may ultimately be frowned upon by Apple, but there appears to be support amongst some of the ad networks for these methods.  

What’s the Right Choice?

Each of the methods above has advantages and drawbacks. Some vendors have lined up behind particular technologies and are pushing them hard as the best choice. Ideally, a single solution supported by Apple would be the best solution.

Very recently rumors have been circulating that Apple will not fully deprecate UDIDs until the launch of iOS 6, and at that time advocate a first party cookie option. But this is unconfirmed. Even if accurate, developers still need alternate solutions between now and then.  

Ultimately it is the availability of traffic on the ad networks, and the corresponding technologies chosen by the networks that may drive decisions for developers.

How Are Ad Networks Voting?

Most app developers we speak to hope for one solution that will be widely adopted by the ad networks. 

Fiksu works with more than 35 networks covering 90 percent of available impressions and has been actively surveying the market.

Right now, the ad networks are extremely fragmented on the best way forward. Some are taking a “wait and see” approach. Some have already invested time and effort in support of the MAC option. A number have implemented or have committed to providing changes needed for cookie tracking, and there has also been some support expressed for OpenUDID. Finally, a few are even supporting multiple technologies.

Given this state of fragmentation, we expect to see continued evolution and change across the iOS ecosystem in the coming months. As a result, finding the right mix of tracking and attribution – while ensuring sufficient market reach – has become much more difficult for marketers.

So What’s an App Marketer to Do?

First, app marketers should contact the networks or vendors they partner with, and understand what SDK changes they need to implement in order to move beyond the UDID.   

For the short term, developers who want to maximize available traffic should continue to support the UDID. Despite the numerous technology and tracking announcements, the reality is that most traffic available on the market today utilizes UDID tracking – it is going to take the ad networks and the publisher sites time to settle on new solutions and to implement them.  

Developers should carefully review their disclosures and privacy policy and ensure that they contain appropriate user disclosure.

Developers should at the same time be reviewing their ad partnerships and determine the impact to their code.

Ultimately this will be a difficult transitional stage, but one which will leave the industry with stronger user protections. 

Fiksu’s Plans – Provide Full Coverage

To ensure we stay ahead of these market changes and to provide our clients with the widest range of traffic, Fiksu is rolling out a multi-prong solution, one that balances consumer privacy with the market need to attribute ad spend to identify the most profitable sources of downloads.

Rather than limit capabilities or reach by mandating use of one particular technology, we will provide a range of solutions including:

• HTML5 First Party Cookies;  
• Digital Fingerprinting; 
• MAC Address attribution;
• OpenUDID and SecureUDID initiatives.

Clients will have access to all of these methods, eliminating difficult decisions and tradeoffs. This will enable us to maximize reach, support the widest variety of ad networks and meet our clients’ specific needs. Stay tuned for more soon as our industry moves beyond the UDID.

As news of Steve Jobs’ death stopped the nation – and the world – in its tracks this Wednesday, the outpouring of poignant reflections, tributes and farewells was immediate. We dedicate this week’s Fiksu Feed to one of the greatest technology innovators of our time by sharing just a few of the hundreds of thousands of stories and comments that honor his life and legacy. Fiksu owes Steve Jobs a great deal; his vision spawned a vast ecosystem that created jobs, opportunity and creativity. For this and so much more, we are grateful.

“That Steve Jobs was a genius, a giant influence on multiple industries and billions of lives, has been written many times since he retired as Apple's chief executive in August. He was a historical figure on the scale of a Thomas Edison or Henry Ford, and set the mold for many other corporate leaders in many other industries,” writes Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg in The Steve Jobs I Knew.

While You Were Out: Apple’s Years With and Without Steve is a story told through audio commentary and pictures of Jobs’ time at Apple by Sam Grobart of the New York Times.

NYU Professor Joe Peyronnin penned a moving piece for the Huffington Post, titled Steve Jobs: The iRevolution. He writes, “Jobs inspired a whole generation of young entrepreneurs to take chances, to innovate and to pursue their dreams with relentless determination.” Peyronnin goes on to describe Jobs’ uncanny ability to create and market products so beautifully designed and powerfully functional that consumers had to own them.

In his tribute piece, Steve Jobs: The Beginning, 1955 – 1985, Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Jim Aley paints an endearing picture of Jobs’ early days as a “high school loner who figured out what the world wanted from technology,”

As news of Jobs’ untimely death spread like wildfire, people around the globe began sharing his most memorable quotes. ABC News has 20 of the best, including some of our favorites:

• "Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes ... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. ... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. ... They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."
• "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."
• "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

Jobs’ death became an instant trending topic across social media channels. AdWeek reports that Twitter received a record-breaking 10,000 tweets per second as a result of the news. In fact, the social networking site briefly crashed under the heavy volume, said CNNMoney. Fast Company’s Adam Penenberg shared a moving collection of tweets honoring and remembering him in this Mega, Meta Mashup in Tweets. Here are some of our favorites:

• “For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor” (@billgates)
• “Thank you for saving us from mediocrity” (@om)
• “Some of the fire in the universe dimmed tonight. Steve Jobs, thank you for reminding us all what ambition+imagination can do” (@DianeSawyer)
• “President Obama: Bold enough to believe he could change the world & talented enough to do it” (@whitehouse)
• “Turn your iPhone off for an hour, honor Steve Jobs. When you turn it back on, remember how different your life is because of his work” (@thatdrew)

Thank you for inspiring us, Steve. You will be missed.