Apple has revolutionized multiple industries with their much coveted devices and influential services - just consider the way the iPod transformed the music industry. The company is set to do the same with the online advertising world with their new iAd service. Designed for the applications that run on iPads and iPhones, the iAd system is a departure both in terms of the content displayed and how users interact with the ads.

The key element of this system is all the data that Apple collects about its users, a disturbingly deep pool of behaviour and consumer choices that will allow advertising partners to engage in new frontiers of personalized and targeted marketing. Apple might be going too far when it comes to monitoring what people do with their devices: how aware are Apple users that all of their activity is being tracked by their beloved company?

We're slowly beginning to see data collection based marketing emerge. It's my firm belief that these techniques harness the advertising potential of social networks and mobile phones best and most simply.