Apple to Unveil 'iAd' Mobile Ad Platform on April 7th?

MediaPost claims that Apple is poised to announce its "next big thing" on April 7th. The new product is reportedly called "iAd" and represents a "personalized, mobile advertising system".

The iAd system is believed to have been built on top of Quattro, a mobile ad firm that Apple acquired in January for $275 million. Few details are known but given Apple's recent success, many will be interested to see their next move:

"Everyone will be following this very closely," says Josh Lovison, the mobile lead at Interpublic's Emerging Media Lab, adding: "Given the way that Apple is able to package things up, with very slick presentations, it will be interesting to see what they do with that advertising."

The move would put them squarely up against Google which was largely built on advertising revenue and has had their own plans to move into the mobile space. In fact, Google's acquisition of Admob has been described as a defensive move to keep the company out of Apple's hands.