“Apple is set to expand ads into new areas of your iPhone and iPad in search of its next big revenue driver,” reports Bloomberg.
The Verge writes that Apple “could eventually show ads in more apps preinstalled on your iPhone and other Apple devices, including maps, books and podcasts.”
According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has internally tested search ads in Maps that can show recommendations when you’re looking for restaurants, shops or other nearby businesses. Apple has already implemented a similar advertising model in the App Store, where developers can pay to promote their app on the search page for a specific query, such as “puzzles” or “photo editor.” As Gurman pointed out, Maps ads could work in a similar way, where businesses would pay to appear at the top of search results when users type in a specific search query.
Gurman believes that Apple could also introduce advertising in its own Podcasts and Books programs. [Gurman describes this as “likely”.] This could potentially allow publishers to place ads in each app or pay for their content to appear higher in search results. Just as Maps, Podcasts, and Books are currently ad-free… Gurman also mentions the potential for ads on Apple TV Plus, and says the company could create a cheaper, ad-supported tier, like Netflix and Disney Plus are planning to do before the end of this year.
Bloomberg notes that Apple already runs ads in its News app, with some of the money going back to news publishers. (“Apple also allows publishers to place ads in their stories and keep much of that money.”)
And while you can turn off ad personalization — which 78% of iOS users have done — Bloomberg notes that “another ironic detail is that the company’s ad system uses data from its other services and your Apple account to decide which ads to show . It doesn’t feel like privacy policy comes first.”
Bloomberg’s conclusion? “The only question now is whether customers of Apple — the champion of privacy and clean interfaces — are willing to live with a lot more ads.”
