Apple comes to Madison Avenue

On April 7, Steve Jobs will take the stage once again to reveal Apple's "revolutionary", "next big thing". Insiders claim that the launch will rival that of iPad and iPhone.

Yet, it is not a device.

It is an Advertising platform that may offer "hypertargeting capability" through location-based advertising. This was coming since the day Apple brought Quattro Wireless in January 2010.

You'd think it's a big deal that digital world's leading lights, Apple and Google (who brought AdMob in November 2009) seem to be converging on a specific growth area in advertising. You'd think that WPP and Interpublic and Omnicom and Publicis would be in hot pursuit. You'd think there was something to learn from it all.

These two technology powerhouses are giant content factories as well. It is an obvious next step to monetise all this content with advertisements. But the difference is that, while the Advertising fraternity is sitting around debating 'media' and 'execution', Apple and Google also see two enormous 800lb gorillas, 'Context' and 'Relevance', waltzing around the room.

And those two smell like... money.