What Did Apple Really Say About Location-based Ads?

[Commentary] A couple of weeks back Apple released a "tip" for developers on how to enhance its apps using its "Core Location" framework, which it touted as being able to imbue apps with location-based info on the weather, nearby restaurants and more. But while some said it signaled the death of the location-based ad industry on the iPhone, that seems more than a little premature.

It's worth noting that the Core Location API features (which I imagine are based on technology being developed by Placebase, which Apple bought last summer) touted in Apple's tip don't seem to have been released yet, and that the last material change to location features seem came back in May 2009, in conjunction with an iPhone OS update.

But what should we take the developer tip to mean?

1) Maybe Apple is merely trying to help users by stopping massive LBS ad spam and potential problems with location-based tracking issues.

2) Perhaps location-based advertising on the iPhone isn't dead, rather it's going to become a walled garden or a short-fenced one, with, presumably, Apple/Quattro taking a significant cut of the revenues.

3) Let's face it: Apple is about as likely to kill location-based advertising on the iPhone as Microsoft is to start giving Windows away for free.