Apple is loosening its stringent iAd regulations in the hope of better taking on Google AdMob in mobile advertising, it’s reported, with lower promotional spend commitments and more flexibility in pricing structures. The tweaks have been made in response to persistent negative feedback from marketers, WSJ reports, critical of Apple’s stubborn approach to ads served up on iPhone and iPad. Currently, Apple holds roughly 20-percent of the US mobile ad market, IDC claims, with Google on top with 24-percent. In reaction, Apple is supposedly further lowering the cost of entry to iAd. The marketing spend commitment – originally $1m and then lowered to just half that – will be trimmed to $400m, insiders claim, with a cap on price-per-tap being applied as Google handles adverts. Previously, no caps were permitted, meaning that eager viewers could chew through an advertising budget in short order; Apple charges $10 per thousand ad views and $2 per tap. Meanwhile, Apple is also holding outreach training programs, in an attempt to convince potential advertisers that there’s value in the iAd service. That does seem to be at least partially true, at least in terms of engagement: Unilever, one of the first companies onboard with iAd, claims to be seeing positive responses from its campaigns. In fact, Unilever ad viewers spend on average 68 seconds viewing the adverts, something the company describes as “amazing.” iAds content is generally more interactive than traditional adverts, with a banner linking through to mini-games, video content and more. Last December, Apple released an iAd creator tool that simplified the creation of the advertisements, a process that could previously have demanded Flash skills.

If you are in the UK and have your eyes set on getting yourself a shiny new iPhone 4S, but you don’t want a long contract or a big upfront cost, O2 has a new deal for you. The company has announced new lease plans for the iPhone 4S that won’t cost you anything upfront. There are two plans that both include the iPhone 4S and a contract for a year.

The first plan will get you the iPhone 4S in 16GB guise with 750 minutes monthly for the life of your lease, unlimited text messaging, 500MB of monthly data, 20 UK picture messages, and unlimited access to O2 WiFi hotspots and insurance to protect the phone. That plan will cost users £55 monthly. You can upgrade to 1GB of data and 50 UK picture messages for another £4 monthly.

If that 16GB device isn’t enough storage space for you, the 32GB iPhone with the same monthly allowances will set you back £65 monthly. You can pay the same £4 upgrade fee to get yourself the 1GB of storage as the other plan along with the 50 picture messages. It’s worth noting that the 750 minute monthly plan for the life of the lease is a limited time offer, the normal allotment is 600 minutes.