09/08/2008, 3:50pm, EDT
Monday, September 8th
Resellers forced to remove Apple keywords from ads
Australian Apple resellers are fearing that online sales leads are going to begin to vanish as Apple-related advertisements from Google's AdWords service have disappeared. According to reports, Apple is working to strengthen its own retail presence in Australia and in turn clamping down on other companies utilizing its trademarks.
David Macintosh of the Sydney based Apple reseller MacToFront, first become aware of the situation after noticing that sponsored links incorporating Apple terms no longer display any results on Google search pages, except for Apple's own sites. Later, Macintosh was informed by Google that three more of MacToFront's ads had been suspended "pending revision." The suspended ads are as follows:
Discount Macs
Lowest prices on Apple computers
Fast delivery, Australia wide!
store.mactofront.com.au
Sydney Apple Reseller
Lowest prices on Apple computers
Fast delivery, Australia wide!
store.mactofront.com.au
Online Mac Sales
Lowest prices on Apple computers
Fast delivery, Australia wide!
store.mactofront.com.au
An e-mail from Google requested that MacToFront remove the words "Apple" and "Mac" from its ads, leaving Macintosh confused as to how he is supposed advertise his products.
"How is an Apple Authorised Reseller to harness the power of the internet to allow people to find an alternative," he argues, "last time I looked, I was an Apple Authorised Reseller."
Macintosh hasn't been the only reseller who has noticed a change in Apple's relationship with Google. Another reseller, who asked not to be named, said that in the past few months he has begun to advertise through Google's AdWord service. Although, now he has noticed the price per AdWords clickthrough has risen from $0.80 per click to $13.50.
"We'd like to be able to put 'iPhone' in our ads as it's key to our business, but we can't. Paying $13.50 per click is just pathetic, especially when you don't even know if it's not just someone stuffing around," the reseller criticized.
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David Macintosh
...i feel for you :-(
here's M$, err, sorry, Apple playing dirty, again :-((
how low can they go???
Indeed...
Apple often plays dirty like this when they want to muscle in with their own ventures. I've had a lot of dealings with Apple over the years, and i've seen this kind of behaviour over and over again. I think its only a matter of time until Apple starts wrapping up the Apple Authorised Reseller scheme...