I’ve been reading a few articles, such as this one on Ars, discussing the Government’s interest in Apple over possible monopolistic practices with its new iAds product. Here’s what everybody is missing.

Google owns AdMob. AdMob collects user data on the ads it sells on iOS and it passes that data on to the Android team. The Android team has detailed analytics on how iOS users use their devices in addition to what types of ads they prefer. Google also has this insight into other mobile platforms.

Apple doesn’t have this same window into the usage patterns and ad preferences of Android users. This puts Apple at a competitive disadvantage for allowing this analytic data to fall into the hands of a major competitor.

Apple has two options. Block AdMob from collecting data or start selling ads into the Android ecosystem to compete head-on with Google. Blocking AdMob is the more Apple thing to do because Apple wants to control the entire ad experience and that includes the OS.

The mobile ecosystem is evolving.  Everybody is forging new ground and issues such as this will take time to figure out. Relax.