Apple has been selling the device billed “4G”, even though the 4G chip inside will work only on 700MHz and 2100MHz spectra in the U.S. and Canada.

In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which regulates advertising, will on Wednesday publish an informal adjudication after receiving complaints from disgruntled customers, who said Apple’s claims wrongly suggested lightning-speed browsing.

But the authority could open a new investigation in to whether Apple is mis-leading customers.

“We received 40 complaints about claims for the iPad with Wi-Fi and 4G that appeared on Apple (UK) Ltd’s website,” the ASA tells GigaOM. “Complainants challenged whether the references to 4G were misleading, because they understood that 4G was not currently available in the UK.

“Some of the complainants also challenged the description of the iPad as 4G because they did not believe that the iPad would be compatible with 4G networks when they were introduced in the future.

“When we approached Apple with the concerns that had been raised, it stated it had removed references to 4G from the web page that was subject to the complaints. Apple also agreed to edit a video that contained references to 4G. On the basis that the issues that had been raised with us had been resolved, we closed the case informally.”

Apple’s two main iPad product pages in the UK still refer to “4G” features but direct readers to down-page small print stating: “4G LTE is supported only on AT&T and Verizon networks in the US, and on Bell, Rogers and Telus networks in Canada. See your carrier for details.”

The ASA tells GigaOM: “We have since been contacted by several complainants who have identified other potentially problematic claims about the iPad and 4G on Apple’s website.

“We are currently assessing these new complaints. If it appears that the problem claims we asked Apple to remove are still appearing, will investigate these new complaints.”

Australia and Sweden have seen similar advertising investigations over Apple’s use of language.

Widespread 4G roll-out in Europe is a on a go-slow. But the European Commission has now compelled countries to have firm plans in place by early 2013.

All of that may make the prospects of a worldwide 4G iPhone in June, as some observers expect, less likely than one later in the year.

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Ace Metrix scores ads based on perceived effectiveness by a selection of randomly selected viewers, which it says are “representative of the U.S. TV viewing audience.” Apple’s Siri ad, which you can see below, scored a 652 overall out of a total possible 950 points, which tallied from respondent scores on criteria such as relevance, persuasion, watchability, information, etc. Apple’s 652 was 8 percent higher than the average score for ads in the same tech-oriented category.

Other ads that did well include spots from Pillsbury, Coca-Cola, Nintendo and Duracell. Santa was featured in 35 new ads during the holiday 2011 season, including Apple’s, and each of those campaigns performed above their category average.

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Ads were also introduced by Skype in its most recent beta version of the Skype for Mac client. The ads in all cases are only seen by users who don’t have a Skype account with active Skype Credit, subscription calling or a Premium plan. Skype is clearly looking to monetize the activity of users from whom it isn’t directly collecting any revenue, and at least it isn’t introducing ads without adding any useful features that appeal to end users.

Skype for iPhone gains Bluetooth headset support for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch 4G, and Skype for iPad will now support Bluetooth headsets on the iPad 2. Skype for iPhone users will also finally be able to view incoming emoticons and send outgoing emoticons, as well. On the iPhone, video call quality will be improved via image stabilization, and there’s also a brand new interface that improves a bit over the original. That should help ease any nausea you may be experiencing from walk-and-talk video calls. There are also bug fixes in both versions, like one that probably plugs the recently discovered hole that allowed access to your Address Book contacts for potential theft.

So Skype is offering a spoonful of sugar to help the advertising medicine go down, but are users interested in this prescription? Let us know if you think the improvements make the ads worth stomaching, or if you’ll be sticking with an older version on your device.

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The first bit of news probably doesn’t come as a surprise to Apple, which has launched the iPhone on multiple carriers in multiple clients around the world, and no doubt knows that when network choice is an option, it can attract more customers. The Verizon iPhone likely contributed significantly to Apple’s 11-percent gain when it comes to ad impressions as measured by Millenial. iOS now accounts for 31 percent of measured ad impressions, compared to Android’s 48-percent piece of the pie. This is the first time iOS has made real upward progress against Android since Google’s OS started rising in the ranks late last year. Despite Android’s overall win in ad impressions, the iPhone is still the device that racks up the most hits, with 19.42 percent of total impressions. The next closest device is the BlackBerry Curve, with only 5.37 percent.

While the data probably doesn’t indicate iOS will ever rise to overtake Android again (despite possible iPhone availability to T-Mobile customers if the proposed AT&T acquisition of goes through), it is a good sign that predictions of a single dominant global smartphone platform are overstating things. Even discounting any possibility of cheaper devices or multi-network support, the iPhone is holding its own with a platform that, on paper, should have much better reach.

Apple also appears to remain the platform of choice for developers hoping to entice app buyers. iOS remained the top platform in terms of revenue, with 47 percent of the overall smartphone revenue generation picture. Android is the next closest platform with 36 percent of the total, and RIM comes in a distant third with only 7 percent. The disparity probably accounts for the continued lead enjoyed by Apple in terms of mobile app library and quality.

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The theme itself is actually kind of garish, as you might expect from something completely focused on selling you a single product. It’s all about the Scion brand, and I suppose it might appeal to a few new Scion owners, but I can’t imagine many others lining up to download the theme. But of course, the theme itself isn’t really what’s interesting here. It’s the fact that Toyota has decided to treat the jailbreak community as a legitimate entity worthy of some marketing spend.

In a blog post on the Toyota campaign, Modmyi.com addresses many of the reasons behind Toyota’s decision to embrace jailbreakers. According to the site, roughly 8 or 9 percent of all iDevices worldwide are jailbroken, which translates into around 10 to 15 million. That’s a very sizeable group of potential customers essentially being ignored by the corporate world. That reach, combined with the ability to do things you could never do with a vanilla iPhone, like completely reskin every aspect of the system’s user interface or even get around limitations such as the absence of Flash, makes a jailbroken iDevice more attractive to advertisers, in many ways, than one that isn’t hacked.

But it’s precisely because this strategy circumvents Apple entirely that Cupertino isn’t likely to take this new development in stride. It’s true that jailbreaking has become a little more legitimate recently, as the DMCA ruled that the process of jailbreaking isn’t illegal — even if it isn’t definitely “legal,” either. But Apple still doesn’t condone or approve of jailbreaking in any way, takes steps to prevent it from happening, and continues to warn that it may void your device’s warranty. And since major companies funneling advertising dollars into the jailbreak economy potentially prevents Apple from collecting some of those revenues itself, I’d be surprised if the company allowed this sort of thing to become commonplace without a challenge. Apple could also levy punishments against companies that take this route, maybe by barring Toyota from legitimate App Store access, for instance.

In fact, this partnership between Toyota and Cydia (there is a financial agreement between the two entities) could become a lightning rod for the jailbreak community. Apple has been content to play a relatively tame game of cat and mouse with jailbreakers until now (unlike Sony, which immediately went after jailbreaker Geohot for attempting to open the platform in court), but the more jailbreaking is able to circumvent its ability to generate revenue for iOS, the more likely it becomes that Apple will devote more resources to stopping the practice altogether.

Calls to Toyota and attempts to contact Apple regarding this issue haven’t yet produced a response. We’ll update if and when any official comment is forthcoming.

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So why the controversy? Apple prohibits publishers from offering more attractive (read: cheaper) subscription deals to customers outside the walls of the iOS App Store. Whatever publishers offer outside the App Store must be matched (or bettered) inside the App Store. Oh and just one more thing; Apple will not hand over to publishers the personal details of customers making in-app purchases/subscriptions without the permission of those customers. This last point is great news for consumer privacy, but another nail in the coffin for publishers accustomed to using said data in valuable advertising deals.

If you’ve ever subscribed to a magazine or newspaper you know how it works: A subscription card often asks for far more than just your name, address and credit card number. Those mini questionnaires publishers require of their subscribers supply them with a huge variety of valuable information they can use when selling space to advertisers. In fact, advertisers now demand it; after all, they want to be sure they’re placing their ads strategically — and therefore, spending their money wisely.

It matters not one jot if a publication acquires a few thousand subscribers through the App Store; without the typically-concomitant subscriber data, advertisers will be less inclined to buy space in any iOS publication.

How Did We Get Here?

Much publishing today is less concerned with quality than it is with quantity. The more copies there are of a magazine in circulation — or clicks on a web page — the more eyeballs see accompanying ads. In a world where, more than ever before, readers have more choice of content, but less time to engage with it, for many publishers, the key to generating appreciable revenue lies not in value, but in volume.

And I’m not talking small-time publishers here; in early February, Business Insider revealed AOL CEO Tim Armstrong’s guide to his network’s editors, titled “The AOL Way”, in which the editorial priorities of the company are laid-bare; on a page directing editors in how to decide what topics should be covered, “Editorial Integrity” (in other words, editorial quality) is ranked last, after “Traffic Potential,” “Revenue/Profit” and “Turnaround Time.”

Changing the Game

Online publishing’s focus on advertising, sponsorship and syndication is problematic, for viewers and for Apple as a company that wants to provide worthwhile content for users of its platforms. Great quality content, in this model, is of little use to publishers, despite the fact that it happens to be precisely the thing readers actually want.

Apple, I think, has noticed this problem, and is now taking positive steps to solve it. Apple wants to ensure that publishing on the iPad is never anything less than top quality, where the paramount priorities of publishers lie always in ensuring the quality of their content.

Hard Work for Big Returns

You see, with the rules as they stand today, the only way publishers can be successful in the App Store is by concentrating on producing the very best content. And that won’t happen because they place “Editorial Integrity” in first place on a PowerPoint slide. Publishers will have to commit themselves to produce nothing less than the very best content in the industry. It will take a lot of investment, a lot of insanely hard work and, for some publishers, a serious restructuring of their editorial staff and policies. None of that is easy or cheap, and, for publishers used to and dependent upon advertising revenue, it must seem a ludicrous proposition.

Apple has established a sales and distribution platform that emphasizes content sales and subscriptions over advertising, but if the company really wants to help publishers embrace the “content is king” philosophy, I think they need to do much more to assist in content creation and promotion. However, it begins with giving publishers with something that is still sorely-missing; top-flight iOS publishing tools made available — for free — to all publishers and authors everywhere. iOS is a publishing platform bursting with potential. Apple needs to give content creators an easy — and powerful — set of tools for leveraging it. Its iAd Producer application for the Mac might be a good place to start.

In the end, I believe most publishers genuinely respect their readers and care about the quality of their content; and I suspect they would happily unshackle themselves from their reliance on advertising revenue if only subscriptions and sales revenues could take its place. Apple has provided a tantalizing new path for publishers to tread, provided they don’t just throw their hands up and walk away citing Apple’s greed as a way to take the easy way out.

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The iPads start with video and music synced wirelessly on all devices, with each individual tablet displaying one part of the greater picture. Audience members are then invited to interact with the display. They can change the playback speed of both audio and video on each iPad, and also adjust screen brightness and choose what melody is being played. The experience essentially puts individual audience members in the role of DJ.

As people interact with the installation, video and audio get out of sync. The challenge is then to try to work together to get it back to its original state, just like how humans have to work together to try to negate some of our effect on the environment. Of course, the iPad itself uses some pretty toxic materials in its construction, isn’t user upgradeable, and can’t be recycled locally, and the project uses 25 of them, but who’s counting?

iProject25 was created by Taq, a composer who worked with Konami on the game BeatMania and his friend Simon Mayer, who heads a German design firm. Programmer Mui Iwase handled the iOS coding of the app used on the iPads. It’s a great example of the iPad being used for artistic purposes, but its creators believe it also demonstrates another way businesses might take advantage of Apple’s tablet for promotional efforts. What do you think? Wouldn’t you want to play with a giant wall of iPads if you ran into one in your local mall, for instance?

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Apple won Marketer of the Year only once in the past ten years, but it was also a contender for the top honor nearly every year this decade, according to AdAge. The marketing publication cites many reasons for its victory, among them the launch of iAd, and the continued success of its brick-and-mortar stores.

Maybe the most significant piece of marketing savvy shown by Apple during the past year was its management of the “Antennagate“ scandal that threatened to tarnish its highly polished quality control reputation. Jobs and Co. avoided disastrous and long-lasting effects by offering free cases to affected customers, while at the same time, not actually admitting that there was anything really wrong with the device through clever double-speak.

The Advertising Legacy

If you want to talk about the last decade as a whole, though, you have to look back to its earlier marketing moves that have become so iconic. Remember the iPod silhouette ads? They debuted in Oct. 2003, and became iconic enough to inspire countless spoofs. The ads also featured songs, often by relatively unknown artists. Being picked as the track for an iPod commercial could make your career. Apple’s marketing could incidentally make a musician successful.

And if it’s entertaining ad campaigns you’re after, it’s hard to do better than Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads, known by the “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” tagline used in each. Though Apple dropped this campaign last year, it began in 2006, and more than 70 ads appeared in the series. Justin Long and John Hodgman, who played Mac and PC respectively, became more widely recognized for these roles than for their parts in film and television shows. Timed as they were to take advantage of the disaster that was Windows Vista, they probably did more for the Mac’s growth than anything had before.

Last, but not least, is Apple’s ”There’s an app for that,” the company’s recently certified trademark, which became synonymous with Apple’s App Store, and by extension, with the iPhone. It’s also possibly the most parodied and reused tagline in history, at least measured in terms of blog and newspaper article headlines, and derivative marketing campaigns.

The Brand

Say what you will about Apple; it’s done amazing things to secure its brand identity. The phenomenon of the fanboy is a well-documented one, and has even prompted attention from filmmakers. The loyalty Apple users feel for their preferred electronics vendor is unmatched by any other group.

Why does Apple attract such adamant defenders? I’d argue that it’s their continued commitment to quality. Apple won’t release a product that it thinks feels or seems cheap, no matter what the revenue benefits would be. The company’s never even tried something like starting an offshoot budget brand, as HP has with its Compaq acquisition. And say what you will about the iPhone 4′s antenna problems, but it’s still far and away the best phone I’ve ever owned.

That commitment to quality is closely tied to Apple’s customer service. Both on the phone and in person at the Apple Store, the resources the company has dedicated to making all of its representative-customer interactions as pleasant as possible has really paid off. Of course, there are exceptions, and people will no doubt cite many examples of poor service from Apple reps. But on the whole, AppleCare provides far less reason to complain than do many similar services offered by its competitors.

Jobs Himself

As we saw yesterday, a large part of Apple’s marketing success can be attributed to its charismatic leader, Steve Jobs. He seems to be unable to censor himself in direct interactions, something reflected in the famous Steve Jobs personal email replies that may or may not actually come from Apple’s PR department. Whether or not they do is besides the point.

Steve Jobs is part celebrity and part CEO. Even while maintaining an air of mystery and insisting on absolute secrecy regarding future product releases, he seems also to be available to customers and without a filter on his personal feelings. It’s an odd combination that’s obviously a winner with consumers, and it garners Apple a lot of press (see the thousands of articles about yesterday’s quarterly conference call circulating the web if you needed any more proof).

Can it Carry On?

So that’s how Apple achieved its place of prominence as Marketer of the Decade. But can it continue to reign? That’ll depend on its ability to maintain a high level of success with its advertising, brand and yes, even its CEO.

The advertising has already taken a turn for the worse, in my opinion. Apple seems unwilling to go out on a ledge and poke at rivals (plus it’s becoming the big fish anyway, and it looks bad to knock the competition from on high) or even to celebrate what makes it different by using indie acts for background music. The sentimentality of the FaceTime ads seems to be missing the edge that got Apple to where it is now. Maybe Apple’s customer base, as it ages, will appreciate the new direction, but I’m afraid it could lead to even more vanilla offerings.

Where Apple is safest is its brand image. Products continue to come out that provide a very high level of user experience, with relatively few frustrations. The iPad is a great recent example, as is the iPhone 4 if you leave aside for a second any antenna issues.

As for continuing to have an enigmatic and charismatic corporate leader who also provides a great public face for the company, that’s completely up in the air. Steve Jobs is obviously one of a kind, but it’s possible the corporate culture he’s fostered at Apple will produce a worthy successor from within the ranks.

What do you think is the main reason for Apple’s marketing success? Any or all of the above, or something not listed here?

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To complete the study, Nielsen surveyed over 5,000 owners of portable devices, including the Kindle, smartphones, netbooks and more in addition to the iPad. Of those polled, 400 owned an iPad, and the majority of those 400 were young males: 65 percent were male, and 63 percent aged 35 or younger.

Surprisingly, they weren’t among the most wealthy respondents, despite having enough disposable income to drop on Apple’s fairly pricey tablet. That honor went to Kindle users, 44 percent of whom made $80,000 or more. Only 39 percent of iPad owners fell into that bracket, and 37 percent of iPhone owners.

Despite being slightly less well-off, iPad owners were more likely to interact with an ad. 39 percent of iPad users said the found ads on the device “new and interesting.” They’re also more likely to buy something based on advertising found on-device. That’s great news for newspaper and magazine publishers, who are hoping that iPad versions of their publications (and subscriptions for those) will revitalize their ailing industry.

Advertisers targeting the platform really couldn’t ask for a better audience than relatively wealthy, young men who are receptive to your message. With stats like these, the iPad could be the key to finally unlocking the massive potential of online advertising. Make no mistake, in terms of mobile advertising endeavors, iAd is the one to watch.

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