Starting from early 2016, AdBlock Plus — a popular ad blocking extension for browsers — will be “baked-in” on all products from Asus and will even be activated by default.

The move is sure to cause flutters in the media and publishing industry. When Apple introduced content blockers with iOS 9, many publishers were worried their revenues will be greatly affected. That did turn out to be true to a certain extent with various ad blockers turning out to be extremely popular among consumers and rocketing to the top of the paid apps list in the iOS App Store within days of their launch.

“We’re extremely happy to team up with Asus, the first major hardware manufacturer to integrate ad blocking into their mobile devices. This is another call for innovation in the ad industry—a call getting louder by the day.” – said AdBlock Plus co-founder and CEO Till Fadia.

While Asus is not a major player in the smartphone industry, this move from the company is definitely worrisome as other smartphone OEMs may follow suit, which can eventually lead to huge losses for web publishers.

The popularity of ad blockers have led web publishers and media agencies to look at other ways of revenues like sponsored content and using native ads. However, both are not really a viable solution and cannot sustain a company in the long run.

Do you use an ad blocker on a regular basis?