PARIS – Apple Inc.'s move to make ad-blocking software available on the iPhone is a double-barreled effort to boost the health of the so-called app economy, while undermining archrival Google Inc., which dominates the $120 billion online advertising market.
The new version of the iPhone and iPad operating system, to be released Wednesday, will for the first time allow customers to download third-party software that strips out marketing messages such as banner and video ads when people surf the Web via the Safari browser.
A slew of ad-blocking apps for iPhones are expected to launch this week. But Apple's new approach will not affect advertising inside applications such as Facebook, casual games like those from Supercell or King, or even Apple's own apps.
Apple is in effect nudging big brands to shift spending to apps, rather than traditional online ads where Google leads.
Ad-blocking software has been growing rapidly on desktop computers, led by early adopters among tech-savvy young people, but until now was rare on mobiles.
Some 200 million people used ad blockers last year, up 40 percent from a year earlier, resulting in $22 billion in lost advertising revenue, according to a study by Adobe and PageFair, an anti-ad-blocking tech company.
Although only about 5 percent of Internet users globally use the tools, they are especially popular in Europe. In Germany and Poland, for instance, the figure is above 30 percent.
Broad adoption of ad-blocking would bring a new set of headaches for online publishers, many of whom are already struggling with plummeting ad prices.