• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, June 10, 2010

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs last week indicated the iPhone would remain open to outside ad networks, it seemed to allay concerns the company might try to keep others from competing with its own iAd platform.

But in the latest version of its developer agreement, updated with the release of its iOS operating system this week, new language suggests that only "independent" ad-serving companies will be able to collect user data related to ads. In a post yesterday, All Things D's Peter Kafka pointed out the new provision would effectively keep Google-owned rival AdMob from serving ads on the iPhone and other Apple devices.

As part of a larger company that is "a developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other than Apple," AdMob would appear to be blocked from running ads on the iPhone.

Independently owned mobile ad networks like Millennial Media and Greystripe, meanwhile, would seem to be unaffected by the new terms. (Though, as Kafka points out, it could make them less attractive to a potential acquirer like Microsoft.)

Today AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui fired back at Apple in a blog post that the new developer rules, if enforced, "would prohibit app developers from using AdMob and Google's advertising solutions on the iPhone." He argues that banning AdMob from the iPhone would hurt developers both large and small by limiting the choices they have for making money.

"This change is not in the best interests of users or developers. In the history of technology and innovation, it's clear that competition delivers the best outcome. Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress," wrote Hamoui.

While his response focused on the impact on developers, the new restrictions would also obviously hurt AdMob, which generates most of its business from serving ads on devices running the iPhone operating system.

Hamoui added that he planned to take up the company's concerns directly with Apple. The iPhone-maker has reportedly already attracted the attention of the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission over a prior update to its developer agreement banning the use of unapproved third-party software tools.

At the All Things D D8 conference last week, Jobs also explained how mobile analytics provider Flurry angered Apple earlier this year by offering the world a sneak peek into internal testing of iPads via its analytics software running in apps on the Apple tablets. That episode led to Apple banning outside analytics firms from transmitting device-specific information on the iPhone.

Ironically, Google now looks like the aggrieved party following its five-month investigation by the Federal Trade Commission in connection with its acquisition of AdMob. It's now in the position of claiming potential harm caused by Apple through anticompetitive measures in its developer agreement. For a change, Google gets to play the victim.

The provision barring non-independent ad companies from the iPhone could put Apple under heightened scrutiny from the feds if they're already looking into new restrictions that would give it an unfair advantage over ad rivals.

It also shows the growing threat Apple feels from Google, whose Android platform is gaining on the iPhone. That puts Apple in the tricky position of trying to fend off Google and possible government action at the same time. Jobs may have to pick his poison.